Presentation + flashy = Prezi

In the past month I’ve had students ask if they could use Prezi for their in-class presentations and I’ve seen a presentation on teaching with technology that used Prezi. If you’re unfamiliar with Prezi, as I was until a few weeks ago, it is essentially a free, online presentation tool. Its biggest draw among students seems to be that rather than moving from one slide to the next as PowerPoint and Keynote do, it puts off of the information in the presentation on a single plane and then zooms, rotates, and pans from one piece of information to the next (for examples, click through some of the “Prezis We Like” on the Prezi home page). I will admit that there are some aspects of Prezi that I appreciate, such as the fact that it is free to use and can be viewed in any web browser. Still, I wonder how those who argue against PowerPoint will think about this. Maybe if I switch to Prezi in the classroom my students will stop thinking that class is boring!