Presenting Prezi

The American Association of School Librarians, a branch of the American Librarian Association, in the Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning 2010 selected under Media Sharing, Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, the web 2.0 application, Prezi.

Per the website, Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides.  The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them.  The result:  visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery.


For educators there is a free account, Edu Enjoy, that offers 500MB of presentation storage space. This account allows users to:  create, show and share Prezis, download finished Prezis so you can present offline, choose if a Prezi is private, published, or shared with selected individuals and instead of the Prezi logo one of your choosing may be used.  To sign up enter in your school email address, school name, city, country and website address.  When you receive a confirmation email you are required to give your first and last name and create a password.

To begin designing your Prezi enter in a title and description.  Then click on the box in the lower left hand corner---New Prezi.

Because I am registered as an educator a series of six templates appeared on the next screen.  Being a new user I was tempted to choose one other than the blank template but I was in an adventuresome mood so I clicked on the blank template.  (You need to double click for a template to be selected.)

A short tutorial is offered on top of the working dashboard as you begin your first Prezi.  To begin click anywhere on the work space.  A text box is shown.

The text can be justified, bulleted and a color can be chosen.  The text can be as bold as a title, in italics as a title or as if it is within the body of a narration.  For additional options click on the completed text.  The Prezi wheel pops up.  This allows for font increase or decrease, word rotation, the reappearance of the text choices or deletion.  At any time the text can be moved by clicking and dragging.

In the upper left hand corner is another Prezi wheel. 
There are thirteen templates of font styles and color themes from which to chose.  A theme wizard is also included. Shapes, images from your computer or selected from a Google search, a YouTube video, 12 drawing templates and files can be inserted.  Four different frames can become part of your Prezi.

 When all is in position on your page add the paths.  Paths selected are shown at the bottom of the work space.  They can be deleted and by dragging the mouse around any portion of your Prezi can become a screen capture and an extra path.

On the far right hand of the screen are icons which allow you to navigate within the Prezi zooming in and out or going home.  At the top of the screen by clicking on meeting an online presentation can be started or invitations for editing can be sent.  To print save a Prezi in PDF format. 

At any time by pressing the play button in the lower right hand corner you can preview your work.  You can go forward, backward, to full screen or end. 

When you exit your work is saved and automatically goes to Private.  You can change it to be Public, publish on Prezi.com/explore so others can find it by searching or Public and allow copy, publish on Prezi.com so others can find it by searching and save a copy of it.

A saved Prezi can be edited, edited together, viewed together, downloaded, saved or deleted.  This is very simple to use but the results are fantastic.  It is understandable why this is a hit in the educational community.

A Prezi can be shared via a URL link or embedded using HTML code.