Children’s Ministry Insights

Revolutionary Presentations Using Prezi

Several weeks back I came across Prezi beta that claims to allow,

…anyone who can sketch an idea on a napkin to create and perform stunning non-linear presentations with relations, zooming into details, and adjusting to the time left without the need to skip slides.

I was skeptical at first, but after seeing several sample presentations and receiving my beta invite, I had a chance to put together my first presentation using Prezi in about 30 minutes. I must admit that I am very impressed with this radically different approach to presentations. Prezi lives up to its claims and provides a simple and yet elegant workspace for creating as well as delivering presentations in real-time or sharing online for on-demand viewing.

I’d encourage anyone who gives presentations regularly to sign-up for a beta invite to Prezi and once you receive your invite, give Prezi a try.

While waiting for your beta invite, check-out the intro training video clips.

Mark my words…Prezi will completely transform the way presentations are given in the future. Prezi is that revolutionary!

Andrew Bracht took the challenge of trying Prezi for himself and put together this fabulous example of using Prezi for a children’s ministry presentation for his volunteers.

If you do give Prezi a try….post a comment her with the link to your presentation to share with others.

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Teaching, Learning, and Storytelling: Lessons from Pixar’s Creative Team

Educational achievement is not to make the strange seem familiar, but to make the familiar seem strange. It is seeing the wonderful that lies hidden in what we take for granted that matters (Egan, 1992).

I came across this blog post by Christopher Sessums in which he discusses the value of storytelling in the teaching and learning transaction. Storytelling certainly can be one very effective illustrative method and I found Sessums’ blog post on the topic from a more secular and non-ministry perspective quite interesting.

Reference:

Egan, K. (1992). Imagination in teaching and learning. Chicago: University of Chicago.

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