Lauren Collister loves Prezi…because her students love Prezi.

During this academic year, Teaching Times features the winners of the 2011-2012 Elizabeth Baranger Awards for graduate teaching in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. In this issue we highlight Lauren Collister (Linguistics), who integrates a new presentation technology in her courses to better engage her students.

Lauren Collister loves Prezi…because her students love Prezi. When the fourth-year graduate student first encountered the technology—a flash-based, zooming and panning presentation tool—at an academic conference, she was amazed, but she stresses that it wasn’t the technology, itself, which wowed her. “What I found interesting was the way that the Prezi added to what [the presenter] was talking about.” Collister, who had traditionally employed PowerPoint in her teaching, immediately began using Prezi in her own “Introduction to Linguistics” course the next week.  The switch represented an adjustment for both her and her students. “I don’t want to say [my students] were shell shocked,” explains Collister, “but they were a little bit astounded by the differences in the presentation style.” She found that they really enjoyed the new presentation format, and she noticed “an instant change in their interest in the class material.” Because the flexibility of Prezi allows students to choose their own path through presentations, Collister could respond more flexibly in real-time to student interests and questions. “They were participating more in class, right there. They were speaking up, saying, ‘Can we go back?’ or ‘Can you zoom out and let me see the whole picture?’” Additionally, Collister’s students could explore the material and review it on their own time, even discovering additional surprises in the presentations. Students came back to class commenting how “cool” the Prezis were, or that they had shown the presentations to roommates. A survey which Collister administered confirmed her students’ approval of the technology, with many indicating that they wished all their instructors would use it.

Despite its capabilities, Collister cautions that “It’s really easy to misuse Prezi.” Her training in pedagogical best practices has helped her to avoid common pitfalls, such as simply importing and “animating” PowerPoint slides, or even giving audiences motion-sickness through poor design. Rather than letting the technology drive her teaching, she lets her objectives for student learning determine her use of presentation technologies. “I try really hard to incorporate Prezi in meaningful, helpful ways.” She has also found that using the technology has made her more organized as a lecturer because designing the presentations requires thinking seriously through the many ways in which various parts of a presentation relate to each other in sequence and with respect to the big picture. And, as she is fond of saying, “I have a lot of fun making my Prezis!”

Collister has also become something of an apostle for Prezi among her colleagues in the Department of Linguistics and throughout the broader University of Pittsburgh academic community in response to her graduate peers and faculty approaching her to learn more about the technology. Collister remarks that she has enjoyed getting new ideas for Prezi’s applications from different colleagues across the university.  Even for instructors who just want to try it out for a single class or a part of a class, she encourages them to set up an account and check out the online tutorials. Says Collister, “If you’re looking to add a little bit of spice into your classrooms, Prezi’s a great way to do it!”

Click this link to see an example of how Lauren uses Prezi in the classroom: Cross-Cultural Communication course Prezi.