to use or not to use

Do you use Prezi? Still not?! It has 40 million users and you are telling me you are not one of them?! What is your excuse?!

OK, I'll save you from the rest of the marketing bullshit. 

As an avid Prezilian and a dedicated educator, I have been evangelizing Prezi as a great educational tool. I gave a number of talks, seminars, and workshops, to introduce the benefits of this fairly young online software. Thanks to my researcher spirit, it also meant that I started surveying what people think about Prezi (gee, am I becoming a UX researcher?). The general opinion I encountered is strangely ambivalent. While most people are fascinated to see prezis, for their dynamism and spacial virtuosity, very few of them are comfortable when it comes to making them. In other words, a great number of people reach the point of user registration, with the intention to master this genial tool, but quite many of them end up entering their account once or twice only. More often than not, they quit after a couple of attempts. Simply speaking, it is because many people still find it too difficult and time-consuming, as compared to PowerPoint. 

Bearing this in mind, I tried to find and propose solutions for an easier prezi production. This is how I bumped into templates, whose sole purpose is to make the software more user-friendly. I figured, their use must be very frequent, given that people generally struggle with all the freedom, as far as content and design are concerned. So, following this hypothesis of mine, I launched a research project and accepted to present it at a conference. This conference was just yesterday.

I must admit as a start, my hypothesis proved wrong. People don't seem to use templates; in fact, because of the arrangements of the page, most of the templates (let's say, 80 out of 90) remain hidden for most users (they would need to discover a button and make a click to find the majority of the templates). Also, the templates are restricted to certain themes (football, space travel, botanics, journey, etc.), or they are very schematic (imagine five circles and four arrows); this means that it is limited what topic they can be ideal for. Thirdly, people have a hard time customizing them. If, say, they only need four cicles for their four main topics, and the template contains five, they are stuck (no kidding).

To present this topic, of course, I also made a prezi, using one of the templates (called Uncharted Territory). Since most of the times I start my prezis from blank, having to use a template was a more or less uncharted territory for me. My impression about them is that, for a starter, they are useful (you can get inspiration and tips how to construct a prezi), but once you become more expert, they seem to be too limiting (both theme- and stucture-wise).

Below you can click through my prezi. Full screen recommended.

duolingo

True to the motto of this blog, let me present you another aspect of how every student (and individual) is unique in both how they function and what they need. Many people turn to me with questions regarding language learning techniques. Some emphasize that they need constant supervision and personal contact to keep themselves motivated. They are the ones that come to have classes with me. Some of these people point out that they prefer to have some coursebook and workbook, so they can keep track of their development. Others, however, are bored of language books; for them I prepare individual materials. There are those who demand home work and those who oppose to it. Another, all the more significant, group is looking to find e-learning tools, which can either function as a complement to guided learning (like group or individual classes) or it can even be the way: something they can apply for their own needs, in their own tempo, with their own supervision.

Let us see one such tool in more detail. Duolingo is gaining more and more popularity in Hungary. It is free, it offers extensive English exercises in Hungarian, and if you already speak English, you can learn German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Danish, and Swedish, among others. Naturally, the fact that it was advertised in a free, daily newspaper of ours also contributed to its success. But how does it work?

After an easy and user-friendly registration, you will find yourself on a pleasantly designed and well structured site. Once you pick the language you wish to master, the course begins with a welcome test. The practice is split up into different levels and you can advance only if you manage to solve the exercises with less than 3 mistakes. Your development (as far as levels are concerned) is illustrated on a vertical scale, while your daily performance (measured in Lingot points) is visualized on a graph.

If, say, you want to practice prepositions, the system divides them into smaller chapters focusing on 4-5 items at one time. The tasks include translations, first from English to Hungarian, so the learner gets familar with the meanings. Then the Hungarian sentences need to be turned into English, so the learner becomes able to produce the meanings as well. Then, the same sentences and phrases, with occasional mild alterations, are brought to oral comprehension: the uttered sentences need to be written by the learner. This way pronunciation and spelling are coupled.

The system always gives feedback about the learner's production. If the solution was incorrect, the correct one is provided. At this point I must point out some obvious shortcomings. Even on the elementary level, with simple sentences, I bumped into problematic cases of what is correct and what is not. Occasionally, the system is very (even unnecessarily) strict, while other times it is inconsistent. Why this is frustrating is because once you collect 3 failures, you need to return and start over.

To compensate the rigidity of the system, Duolingo built in a message board, which makes it possible for the language learning community to comment on every task. The above sentence was, for example, widely discussed. Even if it seems a pain in the ass to go back and start the exercise again, it can give you some comfort if you see others found it problematic or unfair as well.

As we see, Duolingo's e-learning system offers a lot, but to stay realistic, it's not flawless. Why I do find it worth trying is because it applies many characteristics of community learning. Not only does it try to give you feedback on your progress -- like a teacher -- but it also creates the feeling of being part of a community -- like a language group. In short, it endeavors to combine the advantages of individual learning (doing it when you want, as frequently as you want, where you want) and the benefits of community learning (doing it with supervisors and peers, in short, with people). To see how it fits your specific needs, give it a (Lin)go.

prezi vs ppt

I already brought up Prezi a couple of times before, but since I feel many people are not familiar with it, at least as compared to, say, PowerPoint, I wanted to dedicate some posts to this topic. It is especially high time, because, you may have heard, Prezi made a deal with the US government, pushing the cloud based software to American schools. As the first post of this series, let me compare and contrast it with the rival presentation tool, PowerPoint.

Prezi is a tool for presentations, just like the above mentioned MS software, but it is quite different. Contrary to PPT, it is dynamic and spatial, not static and linear. Prezi has less limitations and restrictions, offering an unlimited canvas as a starting point, with which you do (almost) whatever you want to. PowerPoint, however, operates with slides, samples, and fixed constructions. Both have disadvantages, of course. If you don't have ideas, because you are a beginner or lack time, you will be lost in the infinite space of Prezi. Nevertheless, if you want to present visual structures and complex relationships, you will feel the world of PowerPoint like a cage. Lately, I find Prezi more and more inevitable for my work, may that be creative, academic, or educational.  

At the same time, we can witness a growing trend that using Prezi is cool. It is rare, however, that presenters use it in an effective way. If it is not the zooming function that is misused, then it is its very essence that is misunderstood. Now let me point out one way of mistreating this wonderful but not easy tool.

Many people get scared when they realize how much more time it takes to put together a good Prezi than making nice PPT slides (in fact, good visuals take a lot of time, whatever you make them with). So, what they do is that they just copy their PowerPoint slides into Prezi (as there is such an option in Prezi). Or, if not that, they use Prezi completely as if it was PowerPoint. In the end, you have 10-15 slides on the infinite canvas. Presentational suicide.

Here is a prezi I made when I wanted to show a group how not to use it. The original presentation was a relatively nice PPT. The prezi just sucks.

After the don't-s, next time we'll take a look at the do-s of making a prezi.

see me

I've been teaching and analyzing presentations for years. Part of my routine is that I watch (and make my students watch) TED talks. Of course I have my favorites but I also test them with my students. A lot of people found Sir Ken Robinson hilarious and inspirational. Some, however, felt it was too much of a stand-up comedy. Also a large number of people gave positive feedback about Steve Jobs's Stanford Commencement Speech, or in more popular terms, on his How to Live Before You Die talk. Nevertheless, some critiqued that he was not being authentic and seems just like selling something. Simon Sinek's talk on the Golden Circle also received applause, but to the European ear his style seemed too manipulative in a number of cases. 

There was one speech only -- which by chance has been my favorite from the start -- that gained appreciation from everyone. And that was a presentation from a (for me) unknown Indian guy who charmed his audience not only with his simple, clear, and adorable message but also with his personality which he allowed to shine through every second of the talk (or rather, story-telling).

 

"Within infinite myths lie the truth. Who sees it all? Varuna has but a 1,000 eyes. Indra a 100. 

You and I only 2."

from each other

In December, we started to focus on educational sites, after curating sites, as possible tools to support our teaching, and discovered Edudemic. I suggested that we take a peek at the article listing the winners of the EduBlog Award. Did you? Well, I did. And not only did I read that not too long piece but I also checked out the awarded sites, and I must say, it was an inspiration.

The winner, in the category of Teacher Blog, was EduTech for Teachers, created and maintained by Jamie Forshey, from Pennsylvania, United States. I was fascinated by the design of the site and, to be straight, by the steady frequency of the posts. 

To reflect on the first one, looks determine first impressions, thus, the design of a site matters a great deal (especially in a world full of visual stimuli). Her blog seems to be well thought through and fitting the content. As for the second aspect, regular posts make it more probable that readers will return and that you can keep up their interest. Of course, if quantity damages quality, it has an opposite effect. I must say, this latter consideration is what limits me to two posts per week: I simply don't have more time.

Other teacher's blogs can be sources of inspiration not only to gather ideas for your blog but also to learn teaching tips and observe the reflections of others. I got to read another (runner-up) blog about a teacher who is currently going through a burn-out: He confesses his failures and struggles without pretence, and by doing this he helps not only himself but the reader too. As I wrote before, we are not alone with our failures, our successes, and our closets.

edudemic, the december epidemic

Like before, let us begin the month with the introduction of an educational tool. In the previous months, I covered curating tools like Pinterest, Scoop.it, and LessonPaths, which help you collect and organize (not just) educational material. With the coming holidays, they can be emphatically useful: you can find and gather recipes, decorations, and games among others, so you have an enjoyable and full experience of the end of the year, inside and outside of the classroom.

This time, however, I decided to turn the directions a bit, to educational sites. The first to mention is Edudemic. You can read, without having to register, informative articles about trends, tools, social media, and communities, which are all labeled, so your search can be quick and precise. 

For our interest is the article listing the most influential educational blogs of the year. Let us make TEA a strong candidate for 2014! :-)

from mentor mob to lesson paths

As the third useful site, let's see what LessonPaths (ex-MentorMob, http://www.lessonpaths.com/) can do for us. Like Pinterest and Scoop.it!, LessonPaths helps you gather and share online content into themed folders. What is more here, you can edit them into a playlist. After each step, let's say, track, you can pose a test question, to check if your students got the point, or simply to poke and entertain them before the next assignment. 

I put together a selection of talks for an academic course on presentation skills, but business learners were also interested in going through a public speech development. Even if you are neither, I bet you'll profit from giving it a go. Let educator Ken Robinson, entrepreneur Steve Jobs, and "magic pixie" Brene Brown take you on a journey of inspiration!

scoop.it: a scoop of chocolate for me, please

To continue with online curation tools, let us now turn to Scoop.it! (www.scoop.it). Similar to Pinterest, Scoop.it! offers free registration. Once you added it to your browser, you can categorize, curate, and comment online materials, including text. Based on your key words of interest, it sends you a daily selection of various online content, scooped by others. 

I like Scoop.it! too, using it parallel to Pinterest. The tagging here is an advantage; though it doesn't always work as you would expect. Well, naming is quite subjective, isn't it?

Take a peek at my Visual Resumes folder. I just love visual resumes; they are imaginative, to-the-point, and convincing. Wouldn't it be useful for us, educators, to consider making a visual resume, instead of the boring CVs? Aren't we supposed to be creative? And so we are!

we all need a champion

Here's some inspiration for us all. Even on a rainy day she makes me believe that it is worth to go out and fight that battle. And we have quite a few rainy days, and not just now in the autumn. Teachers face a great amount of difficulties these days (probably just like before). It takes a lot of energy to be with people, may they be children or adults; beginners or professionals; you need to be present all the time and give the best of you, so they can find the best of themselves. At the same time, educators are far from being respected and/or compensated. Our job is not a constant success story. It is not a rapid victory. It is the hard work and close interaction of months and years, filled with moments of failure and success, ups and downs. But we need to be persistent and believe that at the end of the day it will be -- it is -- worth the investment, for them and for ourselves.

Rita Pierson is an inspiring teacher and speaker. She makes the battles of teaching so tangible that your heart starts to beat faster, uncovers the complexities of the profession so vividly that you almost feel like being there in the classroom, and convinces us all that education is still the best thing. Because it is.

We can do it. We are born to make a difference. We are educators.

authentic experience

These days English has a special significance and a privileged position. It is indispensable to be able to use it if you want to go see the world beyond your village. Most of the learners are aware of this, but every once in a while it is worth reminding them of the benefits these efforts will bring them.

A couple of months ago I spent a short week in Dublin, Ireland, and I was amazed by the experience. I had never really looked forward to seeing Ireland, because of the weather, the cold attitude that I associated with the British and their neighbors, and the lack of any knowledge about the country except for Michael Flatley (whom I didn't fancy). In short, Ireland was somehow out of my sight. And it's a shame. Wonderful country, wonderful people! And I must add, wonderful accent!

Driven by my excitement, I put together a prezi to share the experience with my students -- and people around me -- and spread the word: not only Paris but also Dublin "is worth a mass." The viewers agreed and went to pray (for cheap air tickets).

pinterest: pin your interests

As a teacher, one needs to be handy with online tools, because it is impossible to be always creating; you need to get comfortable with curating as well. One great tool is Pinterest (www.pinterest.com). It is simple, practical, and social. Once you registered and added the red icon of the pin to your browser (as a Chrome application for example), all for free, you can start creating boards, let's say, folders, of your interest, and then, you can start collecting your pins, let's say, visual files, from the internet. They can be images, animations, talks, films, etc. (though not documents). By doing so, you can sort your materials and keep them in one place; and what's more, you can check other people's collections and pin them, that is, add to your own.

Check out my boards. You may find stuff you like.

Teaser: I have a nice collection of some inspirational TED talks on education. Well yeah, who doesn't know Ken Robinson's hilarious talk? But do you know Rita Pierson or Tyler DeWitt? You'll love 'em!

prezume

The first couple of classes are about getting to know each other. Whether it is a one-on-one class or a group session, it is my duty to take the lead. In most cases I start with this prezi.



 
(You liked my cat, didn't you?)

Why do I use a prezi?

Firstly, some of my students are not necessarily strong at oral comprehension. If they have visuals to support what I say, that makes a big difference. 

Secondly, it breaks the ice if you introduce something funny and visually compelling, which also shows you take your job and them seriously. I frequently get compliments, not necessarily because it was the most beautifully designed prezi, but mainly because people rarely make efforts where I did.

Thirdly, I love giving trainings on presentation skills, because I believe whoever interacts with people, which is the majority of us, needs these skills and we are rarely confident in them. I do end up teaching presentation skills to many of my students at some point of the course, and I bet this intro has something to do with it.