Prezi and Mobile learning as a teaching strategy in healthcare education

For my last class on Teaching Strategies in Healthcare Education, I made a presentation on Mobile Learning as a Teaching Strategy in Healthcare Education using Prezi (see below – sorry content doesn’t display on iPhone). I had tried out Prezi almost exactly a year ago, and found the authoring interface frustrating. I must say, the authoring interface is certainly better now than it was, but I still don’t like that it won’t let me specify (using numbers) the size of text and objects. As a result, I end up with text and objects that are close in size but not exactly the same.

As a presenter, the experience was fun, and my classmates enjoyed it too. My key learning about building Prezi presentations was to make the primary path (the path I thought I was going to present), as a circular pattern on the screen. Specifically, avoid transitions that require scrolls across the entire “page” of the presentation, as these animations move too quickly making the audience dizzy.

I was also very glad to use the iPad as a presentation tool. When I decided to change the order of my presentation mid-talk, it was really easy to just squeeze in the page, and redirect to a new section. The touch interface made my navigation go so much smoother than I could do with a mouse. The thing I don’t like about the Prezi iPad application is that it doesn’t let me edit the presentation. So, when I discovered a typo, I was stuck. I couldn’t even edit it from the Safari browser on the device – when I tried, it said that editing was disabled on my device :(.

If you are interested in the paper or a short post on the paper about Mobile Learning as a Teaching Strategy for Healthcare Education, let me know (leave a comment or send an email) and I’ll put a post together.

5 responses

  1. […] For my last class on Teaching Strategies in Healthcare Education, I made a presentation on Mobile Learning as a Teaching Strategy in Healthcare Education using Prezi (see below – sorry content does…  […]

  2. Andrew Dunn Avatar

    Hi Rebecca
    I'm looking at incorporating mLearning into what we offer to our healthcare providers and to patients and families here at BC Children's & Womens. I'd love to see a copy of your paper!

    Andy Dunn, eLearning Manager for BCCH/BCW

  3. Vanessa Avatar

    Although neither mobile nor in healthcare, I'm following your use of mobile format for professional development / career or job related training ~ strikes me as an ideal supplement to on the job and workplace related training, no doubt replacing classes in the workplace. I find myself thinking about how it might be applied in community learning programs (adult education, family literacy programs, life and job skills etc), especially here where public computer access is limited and not likely to improve in the near future.
    ESL is obvious. I have a blog based ESL study group ~ not mobile but with blogger option set to display appropriately in mobile devices ~ that I now direct regularly to ESL resources for mobile learning.
    Is there a mobile learning directory yet?

  4. Rebecca Avatar
    Rebecca

    Hi Dubi,

    Thanks for the comment. I think you make some good points – bad design is bad design – change the paradigm doesn’t make it any better.

    The one advantage I saw was that with the iPad, it allowed me to easily change my navigation stream on the fly. I could decide midway through my presentation the the order wasn’t working for me, and I could easily insert a “slide” earlier – that option would have been more difficult had I been using powerpoint.

    I would add, not only are the transition “flashy” they are are difficult if not impossible to control and they behave inconsistently. So no, I don’t think the tool is really ready for prime-time, unless you area a design guru and find the linear nature of powerpoint oppressive – then it at least provides a reasonable alternative.

  5. Dubi Avatar

    I’m still undecided about Prezi – it seems to have potential, but it feels like when all is said and done, it suffers the same pitfalls of powerpoint: if you’re not good at design, it’s going to be ugly and boring. In fact, I think in Prezi it’s even worse – the gap between the beautiful products of skilled designers, who upload complex assets to build their presentation around, and the really terrible prezi’s I’ve managed to produce is even more jarring than on powerpoint.

    But looking at your presentation, I have to wonder – what’s the point? How is this different from a basic powerpoint presentation with some flashy transitions? I mean, basically, that’s all it is, isn’t it? So where are the benefits?

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