creation – iLearn Technology

PowToon: AMAZING free animation tool

August 16, 2012Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4144 views

What it is: I have discovered my new favorite creation site. Holy wow this is a cool tool. Basically, it makes you (and your students) look like rockstars when they present. You know all of those super cool animated videos that tell a story through drawings on a whiteboard? Now you can make those all on your own with a super simple drag-drop tool. Meet PowToon. It is awesome. I’m a little addicted to playing with video creation…no joke.

PowToon has a great mission: “to address all the frustrations that people have with power point and keynote and add animation and killer design.” You don’t have to be super tech savvy or design skills to create spectacular animated presentations. The goal here is to help people communicate in a way that conveys ideas. Best of all…it is FREE! Woot! Also, PowToon loves education, they want to help teachers and students create great content that is visually engaging, captivating and fun to make.

Right now PowToon has 5 design styles (with more coming). Added with your student’s creativity, these animations are going to be fabulous. Finished videos can be shared all over: YouTube, Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Twitter, exported or embedded.

PowToon is currently in Beta version. Sign up for an early look at this super cool creation tool. I got my invitation within a few hours. #bam

How to integrate PowToon into your curriculum: PowToon is a fantastic way to share ideas and story. Communication is a vital skill. The ability to express ideas and story in a succinct, clear manner is crucial. Today, students have another facet of communication to learn…visual communication.

PowToon would be a great addition to the design thinking routine. Students can use PowToon to share their ideas or to “prototype” an idea. Students can create videos to show math processes, explanations of complex concepts, review new learning, teach others, explain processes, tell stories, or present research. The possibilities are really endless and students will come up with hundreds of other creative uses.

Teachers can use PowToon to create animations for students. This is a great way to present new information or ideas for discussion.

Tips: The PowToon Interactive Tour and How to Create series are very helpful to watch prior to creating your first animations.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using PowToon in your classroom!

Zimmer Twins: New site just for schools!

October 24, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment6296 views

Read my previous mentions of the Zimmer Twins here.

What it is: The Zimmer Twins movie maker is one of my favorite classroom tools. Recently, they added a Zimmer Twins at School site that has extra goodies built-in that make it an even sweeter deal for the classroom. Yesss. I love it when that happens. On the Zimmer Twin site, students can create really impressive cartoon animations (seriously this is saturday morning cartoon quality). Who are the Zimmer Twins, you might ask? Edgar and Eva Zimmer are 12-year-old twins who appear normal but have developed psychic powers. Strange things began to happen when the twins adopted a black cat named 13. On the Zimmer Twins website, students can create their own cartoon movie endings to a story starter or create their own animated movie from scratch. Students can create and edit movies solo or “Collab-o-write” and work together creating a collaborative movie.

With the free school account, teachers can add 5 students, make 12 movies, visit a profile page for each student and teacher, and have the ability to moderate content. Very handy for classroom use! In the past, I had to create an account for every student, work out how to keep track of everyone’s creations and make sure we could share with each other. Thanks to the new school account, all of this can be handled easily right within one account!

How to integrate the Zimmer Twins School into the classroom: Your students are going to love this site! They can direct and produce their very own animated movies. The easiest way to start using Zimmer Twins in the classroom, is to use it as a story starter. Students can watch a “starter” video and finish the story however they would like. The first time you introduce the site, it might be fun to complete a video as a class. Then students can take over and create their own ending to a Zimmer Twins movie. These video clips make excellent story starters for journal writing even if you can’t take the time to make it into an actual video. To use as a story starter, show the beginning of the short animation to your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector, then let students take over on classroom computers, working together, or writing a journal entry. After your students are familiar with the Zimmer Twins website, they can start a story from scratch. Students could direct “screen plays” of their writing, as a way to publish their finished work. Zimmer Twins would make an excellent alternative to the traditional book report. Students could create a movie where the main character is being interviewed, the story is being summarized, or retold. Students could also create movies about historical events, describing a science experiment or concept, in math as a story problem, to demonstrate understanding of character education or for vocabulary practice. My students have really enjoyed creating movies to show what they have learned on any topic, it is always a sure winner! Are you looking for new ways to engage your students? Why not create a Zimmer Twins original yourself to introduce a new topic. If you are looking for more great ideas for using Zimmer Twins in your classroom, be sure to check out the lesson plans on the teacher page, there are some good ones.

Tips: Zimmer Twins School also offers a VIP account with lots of extras including the ability to add 40 students, make unlimited movies, open comments, write blog posts, write polls, enable/disable student comments on videos. Right now a month-long VIP membership is FREE! You can get a year membership for $89.95.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Zimmer Twins School in your classroom!

Sharendipity

August 5, 2010August 5, 2010Kelly Tenkely2 Comments3060 views

What it is: Sharendipity is an excellent online tool that lets you easily create your own learning and educational game. You can do this by using one of the Sharendipity ready-made templates, or you can create a game from scratch. There just isn’t always a quality game for students to practice with when you need one. I know I have found myself wishing that I could find a game focusing on the exact phonic skill or a game that used the vocabulary that we were working on in class. Often those tailor-made games just don’t exist. Sharendipity is the answer, making it simple to create your own custom games. Games are a fun way for students to practice a new skill and they make a great quick center activity on classroom computers.

How to integrate Sharendipity into your curriculum: Create games that are tailored to your students learning needs. Sharendipity makes it easy enough to create fun games, you can create one in the time it would take you to make copies of worksheets. Use one of the ready-made templates for the easiest game creation, or if you are feeling brave, start from scratch and make your own. You can upload all of your own images to Sharendipity making customization really easy. Consider using pictures of your class, school, or students as the background of a game. Your students are sure to love seeing familiar faces or landmarks as part of the game. These games are great for fact practice and recall in math, vocabulary, spelling, phonics, or geography where quick recall of the basics is key. Sharendipity will walk you through each step of the game making process and when you are finished, you can share the url or embed the game in a class website. If your students are a little older, they can make their own Sharendipity games to practice with. Students can create games for their classmates to play as a way to study. I have students who were constantly creating games and practice activities for my classroom; they got really good at it! If you are teaching in a computer lab, Sharendipity is a fun way for students to create “original” content for their wiki, blog, or website. At my school, we buddy up older grade level students with younger grade level students. It was fun for the older kids to create special games for their buddies after learning about their buddies favorite things. For example, one student found out that their buddy loved basketball and created a basketball themed spelling activity for them.

If you collaborate with another class or another school, it would be neat to swap customized games with them.

Tips: If you are braving creating your own game, be sure to check out Sherendipity’s learning center for a great guide on how to use the tools.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Sharendipity in your classroom!