It is
hard for me to not be overly-critical of PowerPoint. Prezi…where have you been all of my
life? PowerPoint is a dinosaur and I
find many of the features on it difficult to use, impossible to use, or just plain
hard to find. One major advantage the
Prezi has over PowerPoint is in the world of government libraries; not all
computers would be given Microsoft Office, but would most likely have internet
access. I can’t use PowerPoint in my
library because none of the six computers have Microsoft PowerPoint and if they
did, it would likely be an out-of-date version anyway! Prezi is something that I could use in my
library starting Monday morning to help teach lawyers how to use Westlaw Next
and that is something of great value to me. PowerPoint often feels linear and forced
similar to “It’s a Small World” while Prezi feels more like the “Harry Potter”
ride. One can get “Prezidiculous” (a
term I am coining) and leave the reader confused and over-stimulated. If anything, Prezi is new and like any child
who just switched schools can attest, sometimes that is all it takes to be
popular. If these two presentation
methods were people:
PowerPoint would say “Are you still with me?”
Prezi would scream “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!!”
Another
big problem with PowerPoint is that it always seems to have trouble with
audio. I sent my PowerPoint to two
friends to review to make sure everything played correctly. One of them had
audio, one of them didn’t. I sent my Prezi link to numerous people and they
have reported no problems, aside from containing their laughter. I was not sure if there was a way to do audio
files in Prezi and that is something that I want to learn more about. Either
way, Prezi is the wave of the future that I hope will wash away the trash heap
known as PowerPoint.
Whew! So glad to know I'm not the only one that thinks PowerPoint needs to be made extinct. (Those images are PERFECT for captivating the programs.)
ReplyDeleteI think you bring up a very good point -- many computers (especially work computers) don't have MS PowerPoint. If you don't have the program, how are you supposed to teach people how to use it? But Prezi is FREE online and anyone can sign up to use it....and have access to it as long as they have access to the interwebs.
You did bring up a great point about Powerpoint not always being able to work on computers that do not have the software. However, what happens when the Prezi website is down and you have a big presentation to give? Uh oh!
ReplyDeleteYou can download your Prezi as a video clip or burn it to a CD/DVD...they have a few options for presenting it without the website! :)
DeleteI have to attest to the fact that you are absolutely right sometimes with PowerPoint there are bugs with the audio. Just earlier while I was downloading into the discussion board. With my PP, I had to first compress the file because it was too large and it would not let me download. When I finally was able to I went to check how ther presentation uploaded to the discussion board and that is when I noticed that the first slide had my recording. I am still new at all of this so for me both platforms are fun to have and to use.
ReplyDeleteYou make a really good point about some of the allure of Prezi being the fact that it's something different. That's what I found to be the case, but my opinion was the opposite of yours...all I could think was, "I can't stand Prezi!!!" Being able to access it on any computer with internet is an advantage I hadn't thought of before. Just that will make me take another serious look at getting better at it.
ReplyDelete