PowerPoint vs Prezi

Prezi is a non-linear presentation tool which allows you to start at the top of a concept (a top-down perspective) and allows the audience to see all the component parts of the concept or topic. The presenter or the audience can then explore randomly, or along a fixed path, and identify and discuss the various components. Although Prezi is new and exciting I have decided to choose PowerPoint as my tool of choice. I am not saying that Prezi does not have its advantages although I believe the ease and efficient way I can change slides and the order of my presentation will be of a great advantage in the classroom. As an added note, Prezi with all its swirling and turning makes me feel a bit nauseous. Call me old fashioned but I am discovering more and more reasons to be impressed by PowerPoint every time I use it. Here is a list of only a few of the possibilities of using this great tool:

Creative Presentation Ideas

Flash Cards - Create Flashcard presentations for individual and group reinforcement. You can create a template and choose whether you or your students will insert the words or phrases. Topics may include: reinforcing math concepts; practicing parts of speech; practicing spelling; reinforcing story problems; and reinforcing numbers, letters, or colors.

Field Trip Slide Shows - Develop field trip slide shows to review and apply knowledge learned on a field trip. Students can work together to make a slide show that presents what they saw, as well as what they learned.

Autobiographical Stories - Students can create short autobiographical stories about themselves. Scanned photos can be inserted for interest. Once the slides are complete, you can put them together in a presentation to show an audience, such as an open house or parent night.

Interactive Book Reports - Have students create a PowerPoint presentation about books they read.

Music Class Recitals - For music teachers, PowerPoint is a useful tool for creating slide shows of student recitals. During a recital, take pictures of the students while they are performing and record a small portion of their music. On slides, include both each student's picture and music.

Group Slide Shows - Give your students a topic (such as zoo animals) and tell them to choose parts of the topic to focus on (such as specific zoo animals). Have students research their assigned portions of the topic and develop slides to serve as a part of a group presentation about the topic.

Poetry Readings - Students can create slides exhibiting their personal poetry along with a voice recording.

Science Presentations - Use PowerPoint to teach processes and how things work. Teachers or students can add additional items to a diagram to illustrate how a process grows and changes. Science principles work well using this format.

Student Portfolios - PowerPoint can be used to create portfolios of student work.

Class Yearbook-Type Presentations - Collect photos; information about special events; examples of class and student projects, etc. throughout the year and create a year-in-review presentation.


PowerPoint presentations are excellent tools for use for parent events. For open house or parent night events, develop presentations with automatically timed slide shows. Have these presentations running in the background.

1. Create a PowerPoint presentation to inform parents and remind students of classroom expectations, policies, and other important information.
2. Develop a student slide show that includes digital pictures of each student with notes to their parents.
3. Design slide shows to exhibit student work.

image from www.flickr.com/search/PowerPoint