Wednesday, September 19, 2012
PowerPoint and Prezi
PowerPoint and Prezi are two very useful presentation tools. It is hard to say one is better than the other. They are both relatively easy to use, offer attractive graphics for a presentation, and allow you to insert a variety of different media. That is not to say they are exactly the same by any means. PowerPoint is the better known of the two, so the presentation style appears more familiar. This seems like an advantage because the audience viewing the presentation will probably be familiar with how the information will be presented. With such familiarity comes a certain inflexibility. While there is a great deal of variety within each slide - images, video, different graphics - the presentation is linear, slide after slide after slide. Prezi, on the other hand, offers a greater flexibility in presentation style. The movement from frame to frame is less linear, the frames themselves can be different shapes and sizes, text can be entered in a variety of places and at different angles. This can make for a more visually interesting presentation. Also, the aesthetics of Prezi are much more appealing. On the one hand, because of this flexibility Prezi has a steeper learning curve than PowerPoint. On the other hand, Prezi's tools make inserting graphics, images and videos much easier. For example, on Prezi there is a simple YouTube button that allows the user to insert videos from YouTube. For my PowerPoint presentation, I created a Flip Video, which apparently PowerPoint is not equipped to host. Therefore, I had to convert the file into another format. In the end I think Prezi and PowerPoint could appeal to different audiences. I will definitely use both tools again, and I am very interested in exploring more about Prezi, which I had not heard of before this assignment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I will say I agree with you that the learning curve for Prezi was a bit steeper than that for PowerPoint. Of course, this may be due to the fact this was my first interaction with Prezi, yet I have been using PowerPoint for years. Perhaps this was just me, but with the slicker layout of Prezi I felt the style of the presentation was more important than I did with PowerPoint. With PowerPoint I was focused on placing the information first then working on style, Prezi was a bit of the opposite. Given what one can do with Prezi and the fact that it is free, it is definitely a valuable tool to have. Interesting observations about the videos though! Personally, I never even would have thought to insert a video into a PowerPoint, but it makes good sense. It was quite easy to do so with Prezi, will have to check out the process for doing so in PP. However, given the option I’d probably stick with PowerPoint despite its limitations. I just found it much easier to work with.
ReplyDeleteI somewhat agree that PowerPoint has less of an initial learning curve than Prezi but this last only as long as you are doing simple things. As soon as you start trying to insert audio or certain video files PowerPoint turns ugly! I had to read two different blogs to learn how to imbed audio files and then convert the file to a wav. format and I am still not sure the file will work correctly on older versions of PowerPoint if I actually had to give the presentation from another computer. I despise the linear format of PowerPoint and I feel like it is partly to blame for the boring nature of your typical presentation. Slide after slide after slide and I find myself looking over to see if I can see how many slides there are in total. Repetition did not seem to be a problem with Prezi. I have been using PowerPoint off and on for some 8 years and it still kicked my butt. I sat down with Prezi for 8 minutes and I was flying all over the place, I felt like I was on a magic carpet ride that was bot fun and informative.
ReplyDeleteIt was somewhat a challenge with Prezi but it was a fun experience. You did a good job explaining the difference between the two and I agree that both platforms are important. I still like using PowerPoint because I am familiar with its applications but is good to learn how to use other presentation platforms. I have now more than one option for a great and fun presentation. I think that with Prezi I will have the opportunity of using more of my imagination and creativity when creating a presentation.
ReplyDeleteCurious as to why you think this is important: "This seems like an advantage because the audience viewing the presentation will probably be familiar with how the information will be presented."
ReplyDelete