Prezi

Have you heard of Prezi?

Prezi is a free, online presentation tool that I've heard referred to as powerpoint on steroids! It's a wonderful tool that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of. A 7th grade teacher from my district did a guest post on Free Technology for Teachers which explains Prezi much better than I can. Check it out here. He has linked several of his examples for you to see as well. I'm sure much better than my beginning attempts but as I said, I'm just starting to scratch the surface... let's just say, I'm adding another item to my summer to do list... I think I may need an extended summer to complete everything on my list already and I have another month to think of more. Uuuggh! 

I'm currently using Prezi as a more interactive and engaging way of introducing my weekly vocabulary words. The kids really seem to be enjoying it, especially the embeded video clips which bring concepts to life. Here's an example- keep in mind it's only my 2nd one- I still have a lot to learn, but that's life, one big learning curve!

Has anyone else used Prezi? If so, how have you brought it into your teaching/curriculum? Always looking for more ideas!!!

Want to imbed Youtube videos into your Notebook software???

~* UPDATE *~

I'm even MORE excited than yesterday thanks to Sarah's comment below so I'm updating my original post to reflect the MUCH easier and simpler way to download and imbed Youtube videos into Notebook10 documents....

Once you find the Youtube video that you want to download, type kick in front of the youtube address like this:

http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch?v=S5eaBjKI8xQ

and then hit enter. This will take you to another screen where you will be able to download.

1. If it's your first-time, a warning box may pop-up - just select "Run" to continue. This is perfectly safe and will not install software.
2. A list of download links will appear. Click on the format you want (I was told to choose FLV for SMARTboards- I choose High quality) and select "Save As..."

To embed it into your Notebook software, click on Insert, drop down and click on Flash Vido File (FLV).

When the insert window opens, follow the path to where your files download, choose the file you want to insert and...

 VIOLA!!!

I'm sure many of you already knew how to do this, but for those of you that didn't I hope this helps you to jump for joy too!!!

Thanks again Sarah, for the tip on how to do it in a few less steps!!!