Since my last post about my “Vision of the Future” project, I have made some progress, and discovered some new apps and websites in my research, that will be useful for my project.
I’ve since narrowed the audience for my project down to elementary school teachers, as I’m focusing on fostering a love of reading in elementary school students. I hope that my Prezi will be something I can share as a resource to other teachers, who might not know how to utilize technology to foster reading engagement/enjoyment. My ideas are simple and my suggestions are manageable; I feel that my project will speak to those teachers who might feel intimidated and unsure of where to start, when it comes to incorporating technology into their classrooms.
I am feeling a little unsure of the medium I used to present my project. I chose Prezi partly because I hadn’t used it before and wanted to gain some experience using an app that I see many students using. Although it will be perfect for sharing with other staff members, perhaps at a staff meeting or professional development day, it does have its limiting factors. For example, I’ve noticed that I can’t change the template within each slide. I do have a few options of templates to choose from -text, text and picture/video, but I cannot customize slides to suit my individual needs. As a result I’m finding I have to be selective with what I include in each slide and there isn’t a lot of room for elaboration. I’m thinking a paper format for this project would enable me to explain and share more, but I realise a Prezi format will be much more conducive for sharing beyond this course. To get past this obstacle I’ve created more slides with fewer/narrower topics rather than my rough draft (which was done on paper), with had a lot on each slide/broader topics (I hope that makes sense).
I’ve tried to challenge myself and use different apps within Prezi. So far I’ve made a mind map and also a wordle. I feel a bit worried that others might have much more technologically difficult projects, in comparison to my own, but I am reminding myself it has to be innovative for the individual.
In working on this vision project I have noticed that I have learned a lot about technology and even better, I am excited to keeping trying and learning to do more.
Below is a picture of my Prezi in the making…
Sorry for the late post!
Looks great so far! I’ve enjoyed using Prezi in the past as it is less linear and you can move things around to suit your purpose. But you’re right, there are some limitations as to background as it’s basically like one big white board. I think adding different visuals and maybe using different fonts or sizes could break it up a bit if that’s what you’re going for. I wouldn’t worry about it being “techy” enough; like you say, it should suit you and what you hope to achieve! I think it’s really cool that you’re using an online tool to promote technology as a way to foster excitement for reading… almost like the medium is the message. Good luck!