Video Tools

Of all the tools I tried, I played with PowToon the most. I ended up pushing through and creating my video on it. I was fairly please with my final product, but there were a lot of things I had to figure out on the fly and some I couldn't do. I tried multiple times to change the images I used on the 3rd slide which were the default images. However, I couldn't find something that still fit with my generic kid theme for that slide. If I had an upgraded membership, there would have been a lot more options for me to choose from. I also initially recorded my kids saying "Can we come back tomorrow?" and tried to add it to the last slide. However, then I realized that it wasn't possible for me to add that only to the last slide, the voiceover had to be as long as my slideshow. It was interesting to get my kids to wait until just the right moment to say it again! Needless to say, this is not something I'm likely to give my students to try. I might consider it with older students working in groups, but I don't really think early elementary kids would handle it well. I could see using it to create some cute presentations. It certainly has a lot more options than powerpoint and if I wanted to narrate the whole thing, it would be really easy to add the voiceover. The recommendation is actually that you write the script and record it first and then do the slides and timing based on your voiceover. That's something that would be interesting to try.

I also played with Animoto. I found it a good program to work with and didn't have too much trouble with it. I know many teachers who use it or similar programs to create end of year slideshows for their classes. I am not very good at taking pictures on a regular basis to have enough to do a slideshow at the end of the year. However, I could see using it as a way to promote a special activity or project. We did the marshmallow challenge at the beginning of the year as a class building and cooperative learning activity. I talked about it with the parents at Back to School night, but this would be a fun way to show them what the students had done.  

Two of the tools that really intrigued me were the iTunes apps Sock Puppets and Toontastic. We have a cart of 30 iPads at school that I would really like to incorporate into some of my instruction. Since these apps are free, they would be worth taking a shot at trying. I think the students would really like being able to create their own Sock Puppet and Toontastic videos. Both apps could potentially be used for our biography projects, where the students research someone and then usually create a large poster cutout of their person. They could use these apps to "interview" their person instead.