that's what she said: a response to professor's prezi

I enjoyed viewing the electronic space of a prezi and am looking forward to creating one of my own. The program appears to be similar to PowerPoint, but more elaborate. Instead of being separate, distinct slides, as in PowerPoint, appearing to the viewer individually in a strict linear sequence, the Prezi is designed on a single, flat design board. The user can apply various colors and types of text, pictures, and videos as in PowerPoint, but the main difference is the motion the prezi possesses. It doesn’t simply change from one slide to the next, but glides across the plane, smoothly from one point to the next. This transition technique more closely mocks our own natural thought process: more scattered and uncertain, than linear. With PowerPoint the viewer knows where we are going next; to the next slide, but with a prezi you never quite know where the focus is going to stop. This presentation technique can make the thought process of those presenting visible to the audience. It better constitutes the lines of communication because of its more natural conversational flow, as opposed to a planned out, ordered feel of a PowerPoint. You literally flow along with the speaker, following from one thought to the next, and flying by small side statements to later return to.  It can show how points are related via their proximity and position in relation to each other. It can also show the paths between thoughts and how they twist and intermingle to ultimately form one solid argument.