Yes, after writing their research papers, they now need to adapt their papers into a presentation so we discussed what it means to adapt a written work by using some of the examples most people can relate to—you know, The Hunger Games and Romeo & Juliet (since we all read the play this year and then watched the Baz Luhrmann film). It led to some interesting discussions and ideas. In fact, I’ve been encouraging my students to use a new tool--PowToon.
PowToon is presentation software that allows users to create animated videos. It’s completely free (unless you want to upgrade to have more features) and quite easy to use. Today I showed students an example video I had found on TeacherTube (sorry, but I’m knee-deep in research papers and have no time to make an example myself!) and then let students decide if they wanted to use PowToon to make a video for their presentation. Some were taken with the idea and went straight to work, but we did discover that it needs to be done on a computer, not an iPad. Yet after they all found a computer, they agreed it was quite easy to use because it’s all about dragging and dropping and making it your own. I haven’t seen the final products yet, but I have seen the work in progress and I think this will be a tool they will continue to use in the future. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s a little different than a traditional PowerPoint. Check it out for yourself! The price is right, don’t you think? ;-)
Cheers,
Lesley