Death by....Prezi?

I have a pet hate for death by powerpoint. I have sat through many an agonising lecture, wishing only to fine a new and original way to combine the lecturer with the intricate and highly electrical components. Lecturing is a difficult thing to master, and I have seen those whose presentations have ranged from excellent to appalling. My pet hate is to be read to, from overwordy slides. I had one truly awful experience. An hour and a half of a very technical presentation on Data Protection Act 1998. The projected image was tiny, and the lecturer had decided that the best colours were black background and purple writing. Small writing.

I did not learn a great deal, and my teeth are noticeably less efficient.



Faced then with the unenviable task of creating a detailed presentation on the content of my dissertation research, I racked my brains as to how to create something that did not befall many of the traps. Without wishing to blow my own trumpet, I have always had some skill at creating presentations that are not too onerous, and the laid back conversational style in which present has been commented on positively by several lecturers. However, the complex nature and depth of my dissertation topic is far beyond anything I have had to create before.

I am a fan of Pecha Kucha as an idea. I think the skill in which these presentations are delivered is admirable, and teaches some of the best qualities when designing presentations. Having been forced to create a plethora of presentations, I have tried to adhere to this format as closely as I can. I would actually relish if this kind of skill were taught as part of undergraduate basic skills, as an ability to present is important in all walks of life. It teaches the ability to condense information orally, which is often sorely lacking from undergraduate seminars - but more on that another time. Unfortunately, the presentation I must give is for a much greater period of time and need be in much more depth than would allow me to use this format.

How then am I to present a complex piece of research?

As a fan of all things techy, I accidentally stumbled across Prezi some while ago.This website is a free zooming presentation creator and viewer, and even allows the option of downloading the website as a flash file. Rather than the one-slide-at-a-time principle with which many will be familiar, Prezi allows much greater freedom. Imagine if you will, a format more akin to a mind map which you can zoom in and out at will, create a non-linear path of focal points and embed video, images and various other files. Having played for just a few minutes it became clear that this was the answer to my problem. The presentation I have created is by far the best I have ever buckled together. It does take more time than sticking a few bullets on a powerpoint, and is sometimes fiddly to get right. There are many tools frustratingly lacking that would enhance the creator more, and some presentations are perhaps not so suited to the format.

However, for something free it is fantastic. Even the wordy series of interrelated topics I have to cover can be given some sense of overall structure in this format. The non-linear zoomable structure is brilliant. So simple, yet so appealing. Of course, if one were to think of Prezi as just powerpoint in flash, then Death by Prezi would certainly be possible. It requires that people do that most difficult of things; think outside the box and years of using powerpoint.

Prezi has another convert. If anyone has checked out the excellent post over on Law Actually titled The Open Source Lawyer and is looking for more weapons in the open source armoury, then I would recommend this one highly.

Death by powerpoint may have met it's end.

Technology Reliance: A graduates' panacea or problem?

I have been largely absent from the blawgosphere for some little while now; I have vaguely kept an eye on the happenings, but have been largely pre-occupied with essays, dissertation disasters and the drawn out process of waiting on HellGate to reveal my future. However, determined not to be one of the many bloggers who starts off keen but quickly lapses into obscurity, I have been mulling over my next post for some time and waiting to have enough freedom to write once again!

I want to explore a topic close to my heart – the use of technology it learning and beyond. I apologise in advance therefore for the likely length of the post, and humbly hope a few of those kind enough to grace this page make it to the end!

I am, I must profess, somewhat of an IT lover. I need a small nuclear reactor charge and power the myriad items I carry round with me at any one time, but feel that I am largely mobile as a consequence. I try to largely keep abreast of changes in technology that I feel can benefit my ability to work and communicate. Having been born into a family where one parent was in the IT industry, and been fortunate enough to have the benefit learning environments in which IT featured heavily, I have a certain knack with gadgets and gizmos – as well as a slightly geeky love of all things tangibly shiny.

I have however found both positive and negative aspects to this affinity for modern wonders however.

The positive:

My affinity with technology does, as I have alluded, give me great benefits in terms of mobility and communications. The use of a netbook has proved invaluable in the last few weeks given my need to travel for work experience and finalising accommodation for the upcoming academic year, and will likely prove more so as the dissertation beast battles with my social and professional requirements over the coming months. An online calendar synchronised with my phone has allowed me to keep on top of the millions of obligations dropped into my path on an almost daily basis. Truly, I am a child of the 21st Century! As I write, I am scratching away on my Quill, without which I would be incommunicado.

I have also found it invaluable when undertaking academic work. I have previously winged about the lack of resources and tough competition for that which is available. However, the internet and my knack for finding free copies of texts has saved the day on many an occasion. My work experience has too been eased by utilising the many resources of the web. Given 2 foot stack of tasks on one placement, I was able to quickly despatch them and provide typed summaries of my research, complete with links to the original sources in relatively little time. The Head Solicitor seemed amazed that this was possible, and even asked how I had done it and if I could provide whatever notes my university had provided me with! I wasn't sure exactly how to tell the candid truth: “well, I just googled most of it” seemed inadequate. In terms of legal resources, I rely heavily on WestLaw and similar legal databases for my research,

My work on (the previously grumbled about) Project X has largely centred around a piece of extremely shiny legal software which I have personally found useful and can see great value in. Whilst time consuming to use, it is nonetheless fantastic. I have also worked on a local pro bono project (I shall name Project Public), and felt that the efficiency could be massively improved by simple steps such as online collaborative workspaces. The increasing prominence of online technologies such as Cloud storage facilities, googledocs or even Office 2007's built in version would work well in this situation and save considerable wasted time and overlapping research if only I could convince The Powers That Be to give me 5 minutes to explain!

The negative:

Not all however is bathed in the neon glow of wonder that surrounds technology. I have, on occasion found my own over-reliance on it a hindrance.

Firstly, my ability with online resources has meant that my skills have developed to the detriment of being able to used paper based resources. I doubt in all honest that I could really research thoroughly without the internet any more, and have no idea how I would tackle a new area of law without legal databases and search functions. Can I function in a set without access to this? Have I shot myself in the foot by using so heavily what is in reality a luxury? Really, rather than mild interest, this point is in fact of great concern to me. I truly worry about how I much time it ill take me to adapt sufficiently to work well if I am in a set without access to this kind of resource.

Secondly, I know that my ability with technology is above average. This is not said out of any sense of arrogance, but merely because I know that I use it much more than many of my contemporaries and have many useful little tricks I have picked up over the years (who have said as much) and sometimes ask me for help (which I happy to give if I can). I have therefore occasionally found it frustrating to operate in a situation where I feel that a little technological application could go a long way to improving efficiency (such as Project Public). Worse, sometimes the use of software has actually hampered group progress where it proves unusable by many; this was particularly true of Project X, and without it perhaps more could have been achieved.

Panacea of Problem?

Really, the heart of this post is my own internal tug-of-war. On the one hand, I find resources such as the internet and the ability to search invaluable. I am more mobile, more efficient and work much better with technology at my fingers. On the other, I worry about those situations where I do have the level of access I am used to. I also struggle to appreciate on occasion that not everyone works best under the same conditions as myself, and that sometimes I need to sacrifice the shiny for the traditional for the sake of group efficiency.

Finally, I worry whether I have given myself a heavy over reliance on something that I cannot guarantee I will continue to have access to.

As a graduate heavily reliant upon technology, will I find that it is a panacea in the working world much as it has been in my academic one, or really a problem that leaves me blundering in the dark?