Affordances+of+Prezi

I've been trying to think of tools for keeping lists/timelines/charts/etc to organize my thinking, and, after playing around with lots of different brainstorming/mindmapping apps, got really frustrated with how structured they were - requiring linearity and not facilitating movement. So then I started thinking about Prezi and what that could afford as a form of narrative. In Prezi, writing happens in structures - you have text boxes for each element that you write, and to an extent, you must determine where the demarcation lines are to start a new textbox. But each of these structures is moveable. You can try placing one structure next to this one or next to that one - above it or below it - the kaleidoscope that Kim talks about. Nothing is locked into place. But what's additionally useful is the ability to zoom. You can put this textbox inside of that one or wrap this textbox around that one.

In a sense, this achieves the goals of the drawer structure, coupled with the ability to make collections, in the Asthma Files. You have folders and then you zoom into the artifacts that they contain, and then you zoom into their annotations, and then you zoom into the responses to the questions in the annotations, and at any point you can zoom out by making a collection. You can open the drawers and pull out some stuff and hang it on a wall by using the File structure.

But there is a mobility and flexibility to Prezi as a light structure that doesn't exist in the Asthma Files. A drawer fits into the dresser that was built for it. It requires a certain shape. Responses to questions fit into annotations, but a response cannot be magnified into an artifact without plying the wood apart and rebuilding it to fit into the larger dresser. Prezi doesn't have this constraint. With Prezi, you can experiment with the sizes of the drawers - you can see what it looks like for the drawer to contain the dresser. You can have the drawer on the floor next to the dresser or hanging from the ceiling if you so choose, and if you don't like how that looks, you can put it back where it was. You can get right up next to the drawer to scrutinize its contents, or you can step back and see how the dresser looks in its surrounding environment.

In terms of the capacity to form some sort of a narrative, a better metaphor for Prezi is a camera with extra powerful zoom. You can look at something from any angle you choose. You can adjust the zoom to look at it closer or farther away. But most importantly, if you don't like the way things on the opposite side of the lens look through the camera, you can move them around. You can move them closer, or you can move them farther away. You have the constant ability to adjust both the frame and its contents. As an educational tool, this is a powerful space for thought exploration.