Role-playing with Prezi

Fallout Shelter

Although perhaps suspiciously similar in theme to the Fallout series of games (in fact I’d used a screenshot from Fallout 3 for the wasteland graphic), there’s little in common aside from the nuclear holocaust theme. Still, I figured it’ll be a fun activity to get the whole class actively thinking and speaking (arguing, objecting and defending).

I used this activity for my recent lesson observation and although refinements could have been made to link it more tightly to the learning objectives, it was generally well-received from both the observers as well as the students. I was inspired mainly by the concept of using games in lessons – since I don’t have the resources to produce a full educational game right now (and that would probably not have allowed for as much talking), I figured that I could instead augment existing role-play methodology with an ‘introduction sequence’ that might seem like one from a (very low budget) computer game.

A PowerPoint presentation, however, would probably have been able to do this as well. How then did Prezi achieve this better? Here are some reasons that led to my final choice of Prezi.

1. Cool transitions. That’s essentially a cheap visual gimmick, but as Godwin once said, “Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.”
2. Infinite canvas. I appreciated being able to lay out the videos and pictures in a space, ideally I would have placed a picture of an underground bunker within the picture of a vast wasteland, and zoomed in on it, but due to time constraints was unable to do so. Still, it is good to be able to position (in two-dimensional space) where the various elements go, hopefully to contribute to the mood of the scenario.
3. Web-based. Similar to slide-based presentation alternatives such as Google Docs and Zoho, presentations created on Prezi can be viewed online and even embedded into websites, which I’ve found to be an excellent way of allowing students to revisit the scenario outside of class hours.

As mentioned earlier, the students did take to it rather well, so I’ll say it was probably a success. Hopefully I’ll be able to come up with something similar next term!

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