Using Prezi: the 'Big' picture

These are some notes I will be using for the LivTeachMeeting at the University of Liverpool on 26 May 2011.  I am posting them here in case they are useful for anyone else.

Website
http://prezi.com.  The public license version is free.  The minor downside is that you cannot 'lock' your prezis so they are private.  However, you can stop people copying them.

How to create a great Prezi by Adam Somlai-Fischer (one of the original developers)
Excellent prezi which summarises the main features and how to use it successfully
http://prezi.com/vbl7rvw_t7rc/copy-of-how-to-create-a-great-prezi/

Good points

Overviews & connections

Speed to put together

The 'wow' factor

Non-linear
Easy to include images, videos etc
Good on big screens
Cloud storage (no memory stick!)
Sharing with colleagues & clients (Twitter, embedding etc)

Bad points
Motion sickness (if overdone or small screen)
Can look a bit slapdash (eg pixellated images when you)
Site has basic search & no tagging
Needs good browser (updated & Flash)
Not suitable for step-by-step, detailed instruction
Might lose novelty value in future
No automatic handout 

How we use it
All in all it is excellent for 'Welcome' talks during Induction week, outside of the library.  (Vast lecture room; hours of powerpoint presentations; team teaching; quick overview).  Courses include Education, Social Work, PE and Sport. 

I plan to create quick teaser adverts for a resource (like RefWorks or ejournals bundle) to run on auto before and after lectures.
Notetaking - I saw an audience member use this at a Business Link course recently.  They said (1) they were going to cascade to colleagues later and (2) it is really popular with people who don't like text.

 
Some resources
The Learn section of the Prezi website is excellent.  There are cheatsheets and videos.  When they say you can learn it in 10 minutes, they're not kidding!  But these are some of the other resources my team looked at too:-

• Zuilab's Channel on YouTube is also a good source::  http://www.youtube.com/user/zuilabs.
• Prezi for Dummies Cheat Sheet by Stephanie Diamond: dummies.com/how-to/content/prezi-for-dummies-cheat-sheet
• Two page overview.  A Quickstart Guide by RJ Tarr: activehistory.co.uk/Miscellaneous/free_stuff/worksheets/Prezi.pdf