Thing 17: I’ve actually done a Prezi!

This was one of the Things I skipped over earlier on, primarily because I wanted to create a Prezi for a real purpose and not just waste some time playing with it.  So I saved it up until I knew I had to do a presentation, and then I had to go for it.  This week Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation (CLIC) held an event on Social media. I’m the chair of the CLIC staff development group and saw this as the perfect opportunity for me to do a talk on my experiences of cpd23, so added myself to the programme.  Last week I finally got round to preparing for my talk, and suddenly the reality of using Prezi sunk in.  I wrote a basic script for my talk, went along to Prezi.com and signed up for an account.  Then I got scared.  I had a brief look at some of the tutorials, but I can’t listen to things on my pc at work, so was a bit stumped with some of those.  And I looked at the guides recommended.  Blind panic set in, and I spent the rest of the day creating a Powerpoint (figuring that if nothing else I would at least have it to fall back on). 

But I felt the shame of the FAIL.

So, half an hour before I went home I threw myself into Prezi, made myself do a couple of ‘slides’, I figured I could always delete it if it went horribly wrong.

The next day, having already started the previous day, it didn’t feel so bad, I was OK, I could do it.  And so I did.  The more I did, the more comfortable I felt, I added text, I imported photos and images, I made things big, I made things small, I even turned a few on their sides.  I did feel however that I was missing something, that I hadn’t quite grasped how to create an overall concept, essentially I felt I was just creating a slightly more whizzy version of my Powerpoint.  I tried having a look at some examples.  The first one I looked at I really liked (and have not been able to find again since!), it was by a physicist, and was about MRI scans and how the brain worked, and I really liked how he tied it all together, it was a good example.  A few others I looked at afterwards weren’t so good, and did highlight a few things that I wouldn’t do!

I think my Prezi is ok, its not amazing, I still think I am missing that overall concept, but I guess that might come with time and practice – and subject matter.  I think my actual presentation would probably have worked as well with a Powerpoint, as in some ways it was a fairly linear talk.  I think Prezi can probably be exploited in ways I haven’t thought of yet, but perhaps I will if I keep using it.  Once I got the hang of it I did like it!  And I hope I didn’t make people seasick!  I’m also grateful for cpd23 giving me the opportunity/excuse/push into trying it out.

Anyway, if you want to take a look, here it is: cpd23: a voyage of discovery

I looked at my experiences of cpd23 as being on a voyage of discovery, and compared it in some places to Odysseus’ voyage home from Troy.

Really need to get on with this

One of the cpd23 Things I have yet to achieve is Thing 17 Prezi.  I decided it was best to leave it until I actually had a presentation to do rather than just constructing one for the hell of it (though I have to say that Library Wanderer’s Prince of Bel Air Prezi is just hilarious).  In a few weeks time as part of Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation’s (CLIC) training event on social media I have volunteered to talk about my experience with cpd23.  It seemed a fantastic idea three months ago; however now it is only two weeks away and I’m beginning to feel the pressure.  I am aiming to do a Prezi, as this will give my a great opportunity to try out the software – as a cataloguer I don’t necessarily get a lot of chances of doing presentations (though I have pushed myself into the odd conference), I don’t do student teaching for instance, so I really should go for it.  But I’m a bit scared!  Is it a stupid idea to construct the presentation in powerpoint first off, then ‘convert’ to a Prezi (and if it all fails I at least have a pp version?), or do I just jump in?  I think I need to put a day aside to do it, rather than leaving it til a Friday afternoon when I am in the post-lunch slump! 

My voyage of discovery awaits…