Why use Powtoon in the classroom?

by Maria Victoria Pineda

We have moved to a decade when all the information we need is just one Google line away– what about FIBA2016? who are the real parents of Jon Snow? or is a tarsier a monkey? At the same time almost all urban spaces have accessed to wifi connection. So if this is the case, then the classrooms, canteens and homes of the learners are no different from the urban space that will allow anybody to read her email, post a photo in FB or instagram or even tweet the coffee place where she is handing out.

So in the classrooms nowadays, teachers are not expected to be the all-know-person when it comes to the subject matter. Teachers are now the coaches that challenge the minds of the learners. Teachers are the experience designers that provide the suitable activities to enhance cognitive momentum among the students. Teachers are now free to ask a question she or he may not be certain about because most likely that the learners are informed or may be more informed if they have developed great desire on the topic.

So there is no point now to make Powerpoint presentations that have 30 or 50 slides. It is too much power for points you want to send across. As a teacher, you may want to develop the topics of your subject matter in other ways and enable intelligent questions or messages through a short, animated presentation like Powtoon. Powtoon is like a presentation movie in 2minutes or 3minutes.

Here is my Powtoon arguing why we have to make a short presentation.

 

 

Here is an example made by one of my trainees last June and he showcased about their province, Trà Vinh in South Viet Nam. Positive messages are sent across about Tra Vinh.

Created by Huynh Khoa of Trà Vinh University

Powtoon as a video explainer or a presentation movie provides a set of easy-to-follow functions on how to create animations. The use of the templates also make it very convenient for a beginner. What is important for any movie presentation is that the content or the message has been planned and thought well. And this should work for teachers who have arranged and prepared well-thought activities to generate the mental and creativity challenges among the students.

Powtoon products can be exported to Youtube or as a Powtoon web link, https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/gfJye1Qppx6/vietnam-is/?mode=movie#/ too.

So here is another channel of making a presentation.. short, straightforward, fresh and reflective..

 

 

 

Testing Powtoon

Powtoon is a slides and movie creator. It is an alternate to Powerpoint and allows two types of outputs, a presentation and a movie. For important or abstract concepts, this can be used by teachers. And the teachers would have the option to replay it (even the students). It would allow students to formulate their questions or reconcile the movie with related topics.

Powtoon is not free. It provides free trial for month. The slides or movie produced can be directly uploaded to Youtube (you need to have your Youtube channel in place) or have Powtoon generate a url link to be able to watch and view your movie. The result also has a Powtoon stamp.

Here is an example: (with audio) Additions to Tech4Teach

 

It is recommended to use the ready-made templates of Powtoon. They are convenient to use and the management of animations and timelines are easy to understand, it is in a model + or – 1 second.

For the trial version, a voice over can be inserted in every slide. A voice over can have a maximum of 18seconds to make it work with the existing template. Powtoon has its own voice recorder facility but the result when I tested has some hisss sounds.

There are several online sites to record voice or audio available but the 123 Apps Voice Recorder is the recommendable choice. It is available at this link– http://online-voice-recorder.com/