In which it’s the end of the slide as we know it…
Posted By Kevin Gaugler on March 31, 2009
From the filmstrip, "Look at Your Future," by the American Institute of Men & Boys Wear.
Uploaded to Flickr on October 30, 2006 by Editor B
In a previous post, I talked about my deep issues with PowerPoint, since it encourages “talking head” lectures from the podium. I also revealed my hope for a future that promises more creative ways of narrating one’s story and that allows for more interaction between presenter and audience, a future free from the tyranny of the slide. Services such as SlideShare, Google Docs, and 280Slides have given us a glimpse into a more engaging tomorrow, in which we can go online and click through slide presentations ourselves. Although such services have released the presentation from the chains of real-time, face-to-face one-way interaction, the slide still corrals one’s thoughts into an unimaginative uni-directional stack of cards. The slide’s repressive days might be numbered, however, with the introduction of a new online service called Prezi.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about Prezi, especially since it will come out of private beta on Monday, allowing anyone to sign-up for an account. Prezi destroys the notion that information must be presented to an audience in a series of slides. Frankly, I’m relieved that the days of the slide as the building blocks for ideas might come to an end. Before PowerPoint, did anyone think that slide presentations were the most effective way to support learning? Do you remember filmstrips? Were film strips commonly used in schools because we believed it was an effective learning tool or because a district couldn’t afford enough film projectors? Since the mid-1990’s few have dared to stand before an audience without a series of slides.
Rather than a series of slides, Prezi organizes ideas, images, documents and photos similarly to the way Google Earth presents our planet. With Google Earth you can choose to study a continent or country from afar or on a street-by-street level. Similarly with Prezi, one can view a topic globally or on a word-by-word level. The result is a non-linear representation of an idea. If you still like to present information in a particular order, a path can be traced through your mind-map. One can then click through the presentation so that each item is isolated before the user, resulting in a slide-like effect. What’s more, videos, hyperlinks and pdfs can all be part of the presentation.
Since I’m currently on sabbatical, I have had a few days to play with Prezi, but have yet to use it in a real class. My initial impression is that this tool will revolutionize presentations. All those who have sat through stacks of slides at conferences, in classrooms and in meetings can rejoice. Sadly, I’m sure there will come the day when Prezi becomes grossly misused and overused, too. I plan to give my first talk with Prezi in a few weeks at the NECTFL conference in New York City. I’ll be sure to let you know how long it takes for the audience to notice.
If you have yet to play with Prezi, check out this short video that introduces the tool. I don’t think it will take long before you’re hooked. If you’ve already used Prezi or if you simply want to complain about slide presentations, feel free to do so by commenting on this post.
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