Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Powtoon Presentation Tool

     Powtoon, is a tech tool that was featured of the Cult of Pedagogy blog back in 2014. It was written by Jeniffer Gonzalez, who writes amazing technology articles! I had never heard of this tool before and was assuming that it was like powerpoint, but with a more catchy name. Powtoon, is sort of like powerpoint, but more enticing. Powtoon is a tech tool that allows students to create animated or cartoon style presentations. Being that we are in the days of Captain Underpants and other comic book/cartoon style books, this would be an engaging and relevant tool to use with students. 


     Students type in the text, just like with powerpoint, but they are able to choose what kind of animation or animated character they would like to add. For example, they could select the animation "boom" for the title and it will make it explode onto the screen. There are many interesting transitions that stay true to the animated/cartoon feel of this app. For example, there is a paint transition, which shows a hand using a paint roller to paint on the next slide. 



     Powtoon creations are converted into a video format and can easily be shared on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. If you use any of these social media forums to communicate with parents/guardians, it would be very neat to share student presentations. 

     Powtoon can be an engaging and efficient way to check student understanding of a topic. It can be used to create an end-of-unit presentation on a specific topic. Students can use this tool individually or collaborate within groups to create a presentation. It can also be used as a lesson extension or enrichment activity for your students who have already mastered the content. I would love to use this tool with my students!

Here is a short information video: 


5 comments:

  1. I love that you focused on Powtoon this week! I have been considering using this with my students but have been a little weary as I have personally never used it. I am wondering how you are considering applying this tool with your own students? It would definitely be great for students creating comics that can’t draw!
    Thanks for sharing!
    Amber

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  2. Hi Megan,

    I was also a little skeptical about Powtoon, for the same reason you were. I didn't realize it had so many features. My third graders are researching people for biographies this month, and I am thinking Powtoon may be a great resource to integrate into our study. Thanks for sharing!

    Maggie

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  3. I have seen quite a few things done with Powtoon and just haven't tried it myself. I am excited to play around with it and try it with my students!

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  4. I think I might try this with my 3rd graders to get them more excited about their black history project. I'm going to play around on this so that I'll be able to answer all of their questions! Lol

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  5. Wow! This looks like a fun and engaging tool. I've been using Google Slides with my older kids but I think this is a much more exciting presentation tool that I can use with my primary students.

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