CONFERENCE+REFLECTION+2-+HASAN+ACAR-

The conference that I want to write about is a conference from I “ATEFL 2012 GLASGOW”. The topic is “Zooming into the Reading Class: Prezi” and the presenter is Hakan ŞENTÜRK. I chose this conference because I am informed about Prezi and I used it before to prepare some presentations and I wanted to have an idea how I could use it also in a reading class. The presenter explains what Prezi is, why it is better than other web tools, how the sign up process is, an overview of Prezi tools and an example of a reading lesson which is prepared by using Prezi. The presenter starts with the comparison of Prezi with other Web 2.0 tools and he describes Prezi. He talks about its advantages and why we should use Prezi. He says that Prezi is simple, easy to create, online, free, and awesome. I totally agree with him. Prezi is really enjoyable, useful and great. It has lots of tools that enable someone’s to use his/her creativity. It is really fun to prepare a presentation by using Prezi. You have a lot of optinions. You can change colours, zoom in and zoom out, add photos and videos etc. After giving information about Prezi, the presenter shows a sample of a reading lesson which is about the Vikings. In the pre-reading part, there are some pictures about Vikings’ ships and learners are expected to guess what these pictures are. Then he explains the topic and he continues showing some Vikings’ picture and he asks the learners whether the Vikings are bad or good people. In the while-reading part, he first gives the first pararaph of the reading text and he reads it with students. In the first pararaph, he highlights some words that can be problematic for learners by using different kind of Prezi tools. The he goes on with the second pararaph and again he gives some more information about some words in the pararaph to help the learners understand the paragraph. And then the same process with the third pararaph, but in this pararaph there is also vieo about the Vikings. The forth pararaph is the end of the reading text and the presentation. I think it is a good topic to talk about and I liked the presentation. It ave me an idea how to use Prezi in ELT classes because Prezi can be used also for other language skills. Prezi is more enjoyable, different, elaborated and useful tool than more of the other tools. It is a nice idea to put some pictures, videos and the deinitions of some unknown words. Since he prepared all the presentation by using Prezi, listeners get an idea at the beginning of the presentation what Prezi is and how it is used. Moreover, there is a handout for the reading text but I think there could be also a handout about the use of Prezi. The only thing that should be developed in the presentation is the last part because after-reading part is missing and it is a very important part in a reading lesson. He should have added also a brief after-reading part to show the listeners how it is also possible to prepare a complete reading lesson with Prezi. Apart from it, it was a nice and informative conference.