Prezi – A Power Point Alternative

Prezi is a free presentation creator which has a very different approach than Power Point.  The user creates a large macro-design, which I like to think of  as a big poster, but it is also similar to a mind map.  Then, you can pan to various parts of the poster and zoom in and out.  It is great for showing the relationships between items and  providing a broad context.  On the downside, the zooming in and out can be a little dizzying.

It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but I created my first Prezi on the topic of  Library Services for Law Students.  I able to put a live link to our library web site in the presentation.  Click on the forward arrow to move through the presentation, and click on the wheel symbol to zoom out and see the whole presentation at once.

As you can see, my first Prezi still looks a little Power-Pointy at times.  For a great example of a short Prezi presentation, see Why You Should Move Beyond Slides.

Another cool feature is the ability to invite others to collaboratively work on the presentation.