Prezi, Voki, Animoto, and PowToon (Things 19-22)

Full disclosure: I like the idea of using different presentation tools in the classroom, but I don't like the learning curve that often comes with them. Sometimes I think that the time it takes to master a tool is not really worth the final product; I'm not entirely convinced that using a shiny online tool to present material is any better than a posterboard. I know - the right tool for the right thing! One of the major projects in my seventh grade class is a combined English/Social Studies exploration of the Civil War using Gary Paulsen's Soldier's Heart and Steve Sheinkin's Two Miserable Presidents. We used to have the kids do a binder with the information they learned: they had to research a major battle, write a newspaper, and compose some poems, among other things. A few years ago, in an effort to include more technology in our classes, we switched to an iWeb and then a Google Site. Since we switched, it has not been a successful project because more time has been spent with the kids learning how to create and update the sites than learning about the Civil War or exploring the books. It's enough to make us want to use binders and posters again.

Some of these tools, however, seem to be pretty easy to master. I've used Prezi before and would like to switch some of my Keynote or Powerpoint presentations to this format because I really like how it shows the relationship between ideas - it's much easier to follow than simple slides. There are some things that I haven't quite mastered, though; when I added another detail to the third sentence type, I couldn't get the line to curve, which bothered me enough to spend three minutes trying to fix it...but no more! :) I think Prezi would be a great addition to my classroom presentation tools - I will definitely use it for my Go to School Night parent presentation instead of a Keynote. I could see the students using it for presenting research projects or informational texts.



Here is my Voki - I couldn't use the embed code without paying for the service. I recorded my own voice several times but it wouldn't save and I got tired of trying over and over again, so I just went with the text to talk feature instead. I can't see a use for this in the classroom right now except that maybe the kids could use it to create visual representations of characters from books. However, this is one of the tools that I think would be more trouble than it's worth to work with since some of the characters are only for use with the paid subscription, so it might be difficult to get accurate representations of characters. (Side note: my niece and nephew, five and nine years old respectively, LOVED playing with the different characters, so it's clearly a fun thing to do!)

Animoto was really fun for me as well as very easy to use. I liked looking through the different themes, and for practice, it was great that I didn't have to upload any of my own pictures or videos. Video editing is one of the things I'd like to be better at, and Animoto makes it so I don't have to learn that for a beautiful final product. Again, when I incorporate technology into my classroom, I don't want to have to spend a lot of time teaching the kids how to use it. I would rather have something that is quick and easy to master so they can spend the majority of their time on the content, and Animoto, like Prezi, provides this. I think this would be a great tool for advisory; the students could make short videos to introduce themselves at the beginning of the year instead of the traditional paper interviews. They could also use it for their Shadow Day presentations (when they go to work with their parents and bring back a report of what they learned - they're supposed to take pictures too, so this would be great).



The final "thing" for this week was PowToon. This was my least favorite tool by far because it took way too long for me to learn how to use it for (in my mind) very little payoff. I think this is the classic example of style over substance; at least in English class, there aren't many reasons to make a video or animation to show what you have learned (instead of using another method of representation). I think my students would get way too distracted by all of the different options for formatting and focus on what the project looked like instead of the information they were trying to convey. It's cute, but I don't know that I could manage it well enough to help the kids show all of their learning effectively. 


It was good for me to explore these tools this week; I definitely would like to include Prezi and Animoto in my classes next year! If my students already know how to use some of these tools, I would absolutely encourage them to use them for a project if they think that they would be more effective than a poster, paper, etc. in some cases. However, when the method of delivery (such as an essay) is being assessed along with the content (such as supporting main ideas), it cannot be replaced by one of these. I keep thinking about this idea, though:

I don't want to - in fact, I flatly refuse to - incorporate technology into my lessons just for the sake of having technology, so I've been thinking a lot about how my lessons and objectives need to change when I change my technology. I don't have a lot of answers right now, but thinking about the change is a step in the right direction for me.