My Experience with Prezi

My First Prezi

Today I learned that Prezi is a technological tool that I absolutely want to use in my classroom. For some reason, when we were going over it in class, I was skeptical. But I have been converted, and I really look forward to implementing it in instruction, as will be discussed later. I learned that Prezi is easy to navigate, easy to embed, and easy to make awesome. I didn't spend a ton of time making my project, but if I were to spruce it up a bit, I can see it becoming something that really gets students excited about learning. I learned that it's free (not just a free trial or anything like that), and it's pretty fun to use.

Students who are visual learners and struggle to see connections between ideas could really benefit from this technology. In my project I didn't really show relationships among ideas based on size or layout or anything, but it would be super easy to do. While this would be especially beneficial for struggling students, the entire class would benefit from seeing ideas mapped out visually. A prezi could also help as an attention grabber for students who tend to lose focus quickly. Because the a prezi is much faster-paced and visually stimulating than a classic powerpoint, students would be more inclined to pay attention. This would also be a fantastic method of getting artistic/technologically savvy students interested in English projects.

Activities:

1) Just like the one I created, I could create a prezi as an introduction to a novel or other work of literature. I could specifically go into aspects on an author's life or the historical/literary background of the work.
2) Have students get in groups of several students at the beginning of the year and create their own prezis that draw connections among the lives/backgrounds/interests of the members of the group. This would build a ton of class unity, and it would really be a great way to introduce the technology while building a positive atmosphere.  (Standard 3: Students will understand the process of seeking and giving information in conversations, group discussions, written reports, and oral presentations).
3) Students can create prezis to help them organize the ideas that they'll put into a written essay. (Standard 2: Students will write informational and literary text to reflect on and recreate experiences, report observations, and persuade others).