Prezi homepage
What's this?
This is a web-based presentation tool that differs a lot from the traditional powerpoint. Instead of a series of slides a single canvas that can include text, video, charts or whatever a presentation usually includes. The unique feature of zooming in and creating a path of storytelling make boring presentations to be unpredictible and fun!
Presentations?
Presentation is an essential part of lesson planning. In language teaching presentation of grammar requires use of charts and presenting examples on the board, or in teaching writing presenting a topic. Therefore, a tool like that would be extremely useful for a teacher who uses e-presentations.
Why Prezi?
Prezi presentations are fun because everything is there. The teacher just zooms in and out showing the learners the big picture or particular elements of the presented theme. This spatial diversity in presentation helps the learner to classify the newly acquired information.
How can be used in language classroom?
You can try create your own lesson... Include pictures or videos, zoom in and out... It is as fun as playing a game both for the teacher and the learner. It is motivating, learners would be interested to create their own presentations. Use it in an activity or a project. For example, a vocabulary activity would be to write on the canvas a group of words and then let learners zoom in and out, add some synonyms or their definitions. Create a path and boom! Everything is right there on a single surface everything is on the same page not in a series of slides. The interface is so user- friendly that you will enjoy making changes in your draft all the time. There is a bunch of tutorials on the site useful both for technophobics and technofreaks.
Limitations
An interactive whiteboard or a projector is necessary. A decent internet speed is also important but not necessary because you can still perfom your presentations in the offline mode of your browser. The most serious drawback would be to create a bad presentation and bad means a presentation that would make learners dizzy because it's too complicated. I wouldn't suggest to let your students create their presentations in classroom because they might get distracted with the unlimited creative potential.
How much is it gonna cost me?
The basic version is FREE,you have to pay for the professional version. The Enjoy version which I use at the moment is FREE for people who have a professional e-mail provided by educational institution. I am completely satisfied with the Enjoy version. See here for more details.
Have fun!
