Central learning outcomes for the course:
The presentation tool Prezi can be used for more than presentations. I use it to promote collaborative learning in class. It's a good tool to activate all students in working with a topic without the lecturer having to spend a lot of time on preparations.
The students have read texts for preparation like a normal lecture. Depending on how much they must be lead in their independent work I might give them other resources, e.g. YouTube videos or the like, that can help them understand the subejct.
Before class I prepare a shared Prezi for the whole class with the subject at the center. I then choose or let the class choose a series of topics so that each group get their own topic to work with in the shared Prezi.
Whether I or the group choose the topics depends on the level of difficulty of the subject and what goal I have with the activity.
I can steer the work in a certain direction by giving the students specific topics. But I can also challenge them by asking what they think is relevant: Fill out this Prezi. What do you think is important?
The students are divided into groups and spend the entire lecture building up a resource in the shared Prezi consisting of text, videos, pictures etc.; everything they can find with relation to the subject. All resources that say something about the subject can be used.
Prezi allows 12 people to work in the presentation at the same time which means that all groups can work simultaneously in the Prezi.
I am present during the lecture and walk around the room, talking with the groups and answering questions. Once every hour I stop the group work and ask each group to tell the class in no more than three minutes how they are doing and what they are working on and we discuss that together.
If something about one subject is still very open and unclear in a group when the lecture is over I'll ask them to finish it together in a way that makes the topic understandable to others. But if the groups' topics are already completed and rounded I'll leave it at that.
25 people gathered together in one room can do more than just one person.
When so many are assembled to work on a subject it easily happens that the students come up with things that I didn't know beforehand. Or they find a new perspective on something by taking a different approach to the work than I would have.
The Prezi becomes a resource for the students that they can return to. It is a raw collection of material that they can use for the remainder of the course and in connection with their exam.
For the lecturer this activity is an easy way to turn the teaching upside down. The students are active during the entire lecture and we spend our time in a meaningful way by working together.
