Sessions /
Developing presentation skills through video projects #87

Teaching presentation skills can be challenging for any number of reasons. One major challenge is the time factor. The best way to learn how to present well is to do some presentations. But, facilitating student presentations can eat up a lot of class time, and if you are leading a class of 20 (or more) students once or twice a week, there often isn’t enough time to give students meaningful, ongoing practice. Students are lucky if they give one or two short presentations during a school term. Without practice, students may gain an understanding of the concepts but lack the ability to successfully carry out a presentation of their own. Another challenge facing educators is the fear factor involved in public speaking. Even among native speakers, speaking in front of an audience can be terrifying. As a second language speaker, the fear is compounded. In this presentation, we will be exploring how to meet these challenges through the use of collaborative video projects using NewsMaker, a video editing tool for use in secondary and tertiary education. It will cover the benefits of collaborating on projects as a complement to in-class presentations, as well as look at the usefulness of video for practice and feedback. It will include step-by-step guidelines for implementing and overseeing video projects in English language classes.