Week 5 Engagement Activity 4

This engagement activity required making a Prezi.  I found this very enjoyable, fun and interactive.  I feel this could definitely be utilised in a primary classroom as a form of art and expression or through learning concepts and generalisations in an interesting and interactive way (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  It was easy to make and had lots of interesting options (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  This tool relates to Connectivism learning theory as it relates to working on the internet and computers (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  Prezis can facilitate Cognitive learning theory by grouping like information together, deepening an understanding and storing the information in the long term memory (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  I have included a PMI to analyse the positives, negatives and implications of a Prezi.

Plus (positives)	Minus (negatives)	Implications (potential outcomes whether negative or positive)
It promotes academic engagement.	It may not be suitable for students who get motion sickness.	It sustains engagement.
It supports Cognitive learning theory by linking like topics together to deepen an understanding of a topic.	It requires good internet access.	Students can learn from one another’s Prezis by sending, emailing, or adding it to facebook.
It promotes creativity through students creating their own Prezi.	The Prezi site does not always work.	It meets the needs of many learning styles.
Higher order thinking can be facilitated with the use of an effective scaffold.	There is the potential for an information overload if the teacher or students are not aware of keeping it simple.	It facilitates multimodal learning as it can utilise images, videos, text and links.
Minute details can be added, that can be zoomed in on later.	It can be of little value without an effective scaffold.	It can be used by teachers to facilitate a deep understanding of a topic, for example, learning about the brain – what it looks like – and it can zoom in and out of names of the anatomy.
It can zoom in and out to focus on different aspects.		It has the potential to utilise self regulation and student direction by adhering to safe, ethical and legal guidelines.
It can be used to deepen an understanding of a topic through the following subjects and examples: -History – Timelines -Science – Anataomy and physiology -Chemistry – elements and chemical compositions.

It is important for the teacher to model and teach ethical, safe and legal guidelines to be adhered to when creating a Prezi (Queensland College of Teachers, 2011).  Teachers should reinforce the importance of crediting all sources and obtaining parental permission to add any images or videos of students to the Prezi (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  A teacher can improve learning outcomes when using Prezis by utilising the TPACK framework including a sound knowledge of the affordances of a Prezi in learning and an effective scaffold (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).

This is the link to my Prezi.

http://prezi.com/kuybuoxjmgtq/untitled-prezi/

I was also able to embed my Prezi below.

 


References:

CQUniversity Australia. (2012). EDED20491- ICTs for learning design: online study guide.
            Retrieved from
            http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115238

Queensland College of Teachers. (2011). Australian professional standards for
           teachers. Retrieved from
           http://www.qct.edu.au/PDF/PSU/QCT_AustProfStandards.pdf