I have been using presentation software for a few years now, but have mainly stuck to PowerPoint. When my students make their own presentations they often use Prezi. I have found it a bit jarring to watch at times, with all the jarring movements and transitions, but I thought I should get to know it a bit better. It does have the advantage of being stored online and is easily ‘shareable’.
I wanted to tell the story of how I came to be a teacher, and how I gradually incorporated digital tools into my teaching. I also wanted to tell the story of how I pursued both an education and a philosophy of learning about both the Arts and Sciences. Many students feel that they must ‘choose’ one or the other, then dedicate their lives (academic and professional) to one or the other. I see this as a false choice; I see no reason why a person’s varied and complex life cannot have both. We need a creative brain to be successful in science, and I also think the technical skills you learn in science can be very useful in the Arts (particularly applied arts). So I wanted this to be part of my story as well.
I decided to use a map to tell my story, as travel has also been a very big part of my life (I spend from 1998-2011 abroad, teaching in 5 countries). Using this ‘template’ I decided to ‘hop’ from one city to the next, while telling all the components of the story that I mentioned. I tried to simplify it as much as possible, while also including imagery from my own photo library to show some of the school projects and class photos in my Prezi.