1. What were some of the best things you saw during the presentations? Why did you like them? What were the most effective teaching strategies you witnessed?
One of my favorite aspects of the presentations was how much information and story-telling presenters were able to include in the 12-or-less minutes allotted to them. It is difficult to make a topic interesting when provided so little time. I thought people did a very good job with this difficult aspect of the presentations. In, particular, I thought Cassie did a great job with engaging students. She asked a series of questions and called on various people in the class, which forced class participation and engagement. I felt like I learned quite a bit from Cassie's presentation, as I was not previously familiar with "static" and "growth" mindsets. I also felt her videos were interesting, entertaining, and achieved demonstrating the points of the lesson.
I thought people also did a great job of circumnavigating technical issues (namely with videos- I was glad to see I was not alone). In particular, Sarah used the forward/back method to get her videos to load. I barely noticed the video hiccup, and her presentation ran smoothly as a result of her quick thinking.
2. What were the least engaging/helpful things you say during the presentations? Why were they not effective? What could the student do to improve? [Please be honest here without being mean. This is for critical feedback to help others improve.]
I feel like Prezi, which is new to most of us, should be carefully reviewed and practiced prior to being publicly used as a presentation tool. This will increase the smoothness of program usage, clarity of the lesson, and generally make for a deeper, more thoughtful presentation (as the presenter is not distracted by technical difficulties or learning how to successfully navigate Prezi in front of the class). This commentary most accurately applies to Jerry's presentation. He clearly was knowledgeable about Roberto Clemente, but I think his presentation would have been smoother and more substantial had he felt more comfortable with Prezi.
I felt bad for Ryan. He experienced a lot of technical difficulties in his presentation. He did a great job of acting naturally and the topic he chose was interesting. I felt like he should have moved on a little quicker than he did when he noticed that there were loading issues with his videos. Some of what he was saying became a little lost on me as a result of the interruptions from the technical difficulties. Again, I felt bad for him because it wasn't his fault the videos weren't loading, and he picked a universally interesting subject. I would have given each video around 10 to 15 seconds to load instead of a minute.
3. After viewing everyone else's presentations, how would you improve your own (both how you presented and the project you made) the next time you were to give this presentation?
My biggest criticism was that my subject was far too broad to be made even remotely interesting in a ten minute period. I think my best feedback was the fact that people in the class were nodding off when I was presenting. Also, as a person who genuinely loves the etymology of the English language, my presentation felt a little like a slap in the face to the subject since I couldn't give the subject the true respect that it deserved. It's imperative to address "why" when discussing etymology of any language. I was really only able to address "what."
It would have been helpful for me to engage the class more with participation. Perhaps I could have asked them some questions instead of rattling off facts.
Oddly, the feedback I got immediately afterward was that people hated listening to the guy reading Old English. Maybe I could find a different video, but the purpose of the video was to demonstrate what Old English sounds like, and the language itself seemed to be what bothered people the most. This may be an issue with the broadness of the subject matter. Perhaps people would appreciate Old English more if they cared more about it, and they will only care about something if they know about it.
Additionally, the final edits I made on Prezi didn't take, for whatever reason. I think I should have closed Prezi out on my computer and re-opened it to be sure all of the edits were applied instead of leaving myself logged on.
4. Do you like using PowerPoint/Prezi/SmartBoard as a lesson presenter? What are the pros/cons of using it? How might you use it with students?
I did like the Prezi as a lesson presenter because it adds a visual to guide lessons, which appeals to visual learners. For short lessons in which visual aids would be beneficial, Prezi (or any other visual presenter) would be perfect. Though, Andy mentioned he wasn't able to properly write math formulas in Prezi, which leads me to believe that Prezi may not be ideal for math.
There are some limitations to Prezi, which should be considered when determining whether or not Prezi would best serve the needs of the lesson. For example, videos do not necessarily load and play quickly. Any teacher who has serious time constraints might not want to include videos in a Prezi presentation. If the teacher chooses to use videos, he or she may want to come up with a back up plan just in case the video doesn't load.
On that note, Prezi does rely on the internet to work, so if the network is slow, Prezi may end up being more trouble than it's worth, which may be an argument for Powerpoint or Smartboard.
Additionally, I felt a little limited in what I could include in my Prezi presentation. I was able to include photographs and videos, but I couldn't imbed a sound bite (or at least wasn't able to include an MP3). Also, I felt it was a little redundant for Prezi to include an "insert" for files and pictures, when the files you are allowed to insert are photograph-oriented (jpg, pdf, etc.).
If I were to use Prezi in the classroom, I would use it as a visual aid for a lesson that contained a lot of explanation on my part. I liked using it to present the etymology of the English language. I think Prezi works very well for presenting timelines. In my case, I used a tree because I felt that best demonstrated the various language-changing branches that channeled into modern English. Also, Prezi is very user friendly. At least, I felt it was intuitive when I created my presentation.
5. After this project, what do you believe is the best way to deliver lecture material? How often do you think you will utilize an electronic presentation method to deliver your content and what might you use instead/in addition to? Why do you think you will present material that way?
Lectures can quickly become boring without a visual aid, so I do like the idea of using Powerpoint, Prezi, or Smartboard to give a lecture character and move it forward. If I were able to utilize anything I wanted in my presentation, I would have also used the dry erase board to write out special characters used in the Celtic alphabet (so I could physically demonstrate that there were no curves in their alphabet as to facilitate carving letters into rune stones and wood), or just quick notes, like the "þ" and "ð" as the "th" sound.
I feel like lectures are better when they include visual presentations, dry-erase boards, and physical items to be passed around. I am not a huge fan of direct teaching, though I find it necessary at times. My biggest complaint about direct teaching is that it's hard for non-auditory learners to retain the information (only about 8 or 9% of us are auditory learners). Prezi, Smartboard, or Powerpoint (as long as they are bullet point presentations) can be useful tools in avoiding the issues of boredom and lack of retention.
I think visual presentations can be used with direct and indirect teaching. For indirect teaching, it could be fun to use a visual projection of a puzzle the students need to solve. This could work in small groups or as a class discussion. The final slide could be the solution to the puzzle. I could also see a test being administered using Prezi, Powerpoint, or Smartboard. I think I might shy from using Prezi for a test just because of potential difficulties with the internet- especially if the test includes video clips.
My Prezi link: http://prezi.com/yak2fyg_duow/edit/#9_3901103
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