ScreenCast-O-Matic!

What is ScreenCast-O-Matic?

It is a website working with the Screen Recorder Launcher that can be used to record the screen of your computer. At first sight, it seems complicated to use because of the really simple interface of the application. That can seem wrong to you but there is almost no instruction on the application works. However, on the website, there is a short video that can introduce you to how the application works. In the end, it is more than really easy to use.

How does it work?

To see how the tool worked, I tried myself to do a video on the website itself. When you use the tool you can pretty much do one thing, film your computer screen. But, there are some variants of how you can record your screen. In fact, you can decide to film only your screen with your voice on it or you can film your screen and yourself, that will appear in the bottom right corner, with your webcam. Also, you can decide if you want to film full screen or only a part of your screen. If this is the case, you can drag the filming screen and change the size.

When your video is over, you press done and then you have many options for uploading. I  would recommend you to upload your video on the Screencast-o-Matic website because it allows you to review it from your account afterwards. I downloaded my video as a video file. Now that it is done, I cannot change it to upload it on Youtube or on other websites.

The costs for a single account on this website is cheap and worth it. You can have a pro account for 15$ a year of 29$ for three years. However, with the free version you also have access to 15 minutes long videos. The major point that changes with the Pro Version is that you can erase the logo in the bottom left corner of the screen, you have more websites you can publish on and you can edit tools.

With ScreenCast-o-Matic, you can have a good screencast, with a high video resolution (HD) and good sound as well as a direct upload to your computer as a file or have a link to your project (PRO). Finally, if you have the pro version you will be able to reedit your videos and to browse between them on your account.

As an ESL teacher

As Bill Selak, music teacher says, Screencast-o-Matic can be used to comment videos or elements your students struggle with. He personally uses it as clips of 2 or 3 minutes in his class in order to explain with visual support in his class and then send the link to his students in order for them to be able to use it as a tool at home. He states that 15 minutes videos can resume a two hours class and that they are really effective.

Also, teachers use the tool to film themselves talking on their PowerPoints presentations. This can be useful for distance courses or also to help students revise their lessons at home.

I really love this tool. I can see so many uses for it. I am teaching an online course and was trying to find a way to add my “stories” and cool information without putting my face on the screen and this was it. It is so easy to use too. I am very excited about this. I plan to add this in all my classes. Great tool!

–Patty Martin

It is also currently used by teachers to make their students describe different tools that they use on their computers or also to create problems resolutions in mathematics classes. Teachers really enjoy the fact that the cursor is highlighted on the screen and that they are nor obligated to appear on the video. Finally, the web tool is also used bu teachers to grade their students work and to give them comments on what to change in it.

As a teacher

As a teacher, I would like to the tool to prepare different instructions for my classes. Students are always happier when they are shown a video because it seems effortless for them. I believe that the tool could be used in order to lighten the course curriculum and to give my students more interests in my language classroom.

Screencast-O-Matic shows a lot of promise, would be great for quickly creating and sending simple instructions to your less computer-literate friends or family, and since it runs through a Java web applet, it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. –Adam Pash

Also, at a more advanced level, I would probably use it with my students in order to make them create videos or give comments on web app, videos or also websites that like. I believe that the tool can be seen as more than a classroom tool  for teachers. Yes, it is useful for them. However, I think that students could enjoy to use this tool at home and to integrate them in their homework.

On the other hand, this tool could help teachers to light their workload year after year. In fact, when your video to describe what the homework is, is ready, you don’t have to explain it every time and to redescribe it on the course portal. You do it once and then you show it in class and post it on the portal so that students and parents have access to it at home. It would actually reduce the number of questions asked by students and parents because they could replay the video 4 or 5 times if they want before asking you questions.

In brief, I believe that ScreenCast-o-Matic is a wonderful tool that should be used by more teachers and their students.

Jing

WHAT IS JING?

What do you do, if you want to take a picture of your computer screen? You probably smash the “Print Screen” to the point of breaking, since, let’s face it, it does not work half the time and some computers do not even possess such a function. So, what do you do now? Yeah, you can digitally take a picture of your screen, upload it to your computer, and then send it to a friend. However, ain’t nobody got time for that! What if I told you, there was a software that allowed users to quickly take high quality screenshots of their computers, and that was completely free? I know, I know, you are probably calling me an idealist by now, I understand, I too was once a non-believer. But that was before Jing. That was before I discovered that one no longer needs to spam the “Print Screen” function, or hold down four buttons on the keyboard in an uncomfortable position to screenshot a computer. Jing is an online tool that one may freely download on the Internet. It allows users to screenshot their computers, all while saving the images and allowing to share, something not possible with the “Print Screen” function. Moreover, Jing is stationed on top of the computer screen, so one does not even need to open the application when he wants to use it! Simply click on the yellow light, press capture, and voila! You have a a high quality screen shot that is saved directly to your desktop. Another awesome capture tool that Jing offers is the video option. One may even take videos of what he is doing on his screen. Hence, this allows Jing to be used in the flipped model classroom, for tutorials, and so on. The video option will be explained more in depth later on.

This is a screenshot used with Jing. The picture is high quality, easily saved and uploaded. I can take pictures of practically anything and send it to my friends: Look! Jon Snow is back!

WHAT DOES IT OFFER

Jing offers two basic tools- screenshots and videos- which both have similar and distinct features. The screenshot option is great because it allows you take a picture of your screen and saves it directly to the Jing files. Conversely to the “Print Screen” button which does not save the image in a file, Jing also users to modify their images. If one is unsatisfied, he can resize, add text, and so on. Once the image is customized to one’s liking, he or she can easily share it to the web or message it to a friend. Screen shoots are now a very quick and effortless procedure that once made me want to pull my hair out.

The video capture, even though it sounds a great deal more complicated, is in fact very innovative and user-friendly. Even though before Jing there was a way, although very difficult, to take pictures of a computer screen, there never was a way record what you were a doing on the computer. Hence, explaining instructions could be very complicated if the two people were not in the same room. However, Jing allows you to capture on video what your are doing and send it to friends, students, and so on. It is perfect for tutorials. I also have an anecdote on video capture and Jing. In college, my teacher sent us a list of instructions on how to complete a very complicated procedure on the computer. None of us really understood and could not do the homework. Therefore, he made a Jing video, recorded himself doing the procedure on his computer, and sent us the video! It was so easy once we had a visual support.

As touched on earlier, Jing offers tons of sharing options that make sending pictures or videos to friends easier than ever. Once a picture has been taken or a video recorded, all one has to do is find the file in the gallery, click on it, and press the share button.

Converse to the opposite tools used this semester, Jing does not have a YouTube channel dedicated to tutorials. This situation is unfortunate, as beginners would greatly profit from it. This is not to say that Jing is complicated to use, or that they are not other tutorial videos out there. In fact, thousands of tutorials of how to use Jing are available, but since some of them are outdated or wrong, I think an official channel from Jing which would post updated monthly videos of their new product and teach users how new features work would benefit everyone.

HOW DOES IT WORK AND MY EXPERIENCE

As I mentioned before, Jing is very, very easy to use. First, to access this tool, one must download it on their website (free). The software is relatively small, about 6,4 MB, signifying that just about any computer could install the program. With a decent Internet connection, Jing takes maybe a minute to download. The entire process is extremely quick and allows users to get into the action as quickly as possible.

Once Jing has been downloaded and installed, a half yellow circle should appear on the top on the computer screen. To take screenshots or video captures, you simply have to click on the left cross that is entitled “capture”. Then, simply select the region you want captured. 3 options will then appear, “Capture Image”- which will take a screenshot of the computer screen, “Capture video”- which will start recording the screen, and finally, “Redo selection” if one is unsatisfied with the format of the image.

Once the item has been captured or recorded, users now have the option to either share it, or modify it by adding text, color and so on. For videos, the audio can also be modified, and I have found this feature particularly well developed, as the sound is great, but adding additional voices or soundtracks can quickly get cacophonous.

Here is an example I made for my Grandma who did not know how to go on YouTube. Instead of telling her on the phone to click on Google Chrome and then type YouTube, I simply made her a video and sent it to her via email. If one will kindly click on the link below, he will be redirected to the actual video.

*If the link does not work for some reason, simply copy and paste the URL and it should work fine afterwards.

 ESL CONTEXT AND OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

As Nathan Davidson, Director of Instructional Technology for the MSD of Lawrence Township in Indianapolis explains, some students in ESL contexts simply cannot keep up during traditional lectures. This causes them to drift away, not pay attention, and ultimately give up. He stated that, with Jing and other online recording tools, teachers were able to post their lecture materials online so students could review notions they did not understand in class later. This is very helpful, because if a pupil does not grasp a concept in class, he does not need to panic and think that all is lost, as he can review it later on at home. Davidson adds that, even though video capturing tools have greatly helped ESL students,  he also believed that the most effective way of teaching was the hybrid method (online and traditional).  I  also believe that employing technology to a certain degree while maintaining a certain balance with teachers is key for classroom success. Finding an equilibrium will benefit all students, since some already succeed with the traditional method while others struggled.

For schools thinking about adopting the flipped classroom model, Jing is perfect. First of all, it is accessible for poorer schools, given that it is free, and the high picture and audio quality is perfect for transferring information. TechSmith, the creators of Jing, have developed a PDF exclusively dedicated to how their product can be used in the flipped classroom model. Teachers can visually capture what they are doing while giving instructions, and then send it to students to view the night before class. A downside to Jing is that the maximum video length is 5 minutes. However, since once can make just about unlimited videos, this should not be a big problem.

As the two previous paragraphs were mainly for the teachers’ use of Jing,  ESL students can also use the tool for projects or activities. Since ESL students are usually shy and lack confidence in their language skills, presentation activities are perfect ice breakers. As the page Teacher Challenges offers, students can use Jing to make an interactive Prezi presentation, with their voice already pre-recorded. Hence, students can practice their English at home and present themselves to the class-thus making them more at ease and more willing to speak! It is a win-win situation for everyone.

Overall, I would have to say that Jing is an absolutely fantastic tool. As a student-teacher still contemplating whether using the flipped classroom model is a good idea, I think Jing may have convinced me to use it in my future career. All in all, if I could rewrite history, all of my life up to this point would be called BJ- Before Jing.

Snagit: Reinventing The ScreenShot

In the teaching profession, it can be sometimes helpful to have access to certain tools that can simplify the work. As a future English language teacher (ESL), I truly believe that software like Snagit can help classroom management. It can also take the creative aspects of the class to a whole new level.

What Is It? 

“Snagit is Screen Capture, Redefined” https://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html

As presented below, Snagit can be used to capture the whole screen or only what is needed on the screen. After taking a screenshot, one can add features to explain the caption more in details. Snagit can be used for finance, education, web design, training and even advertising. Indeed, it can also be used at school, at work, and at home.

How Does It Work?

First, Snagit is used to take scrolling captures on the web. It is an easy-to-use website on which one can try the 15 days of free trial. In fact, it costs 66,38$ to download it on your computer as a personal or professional user. For teachers and students, it costs  39,80$. Once it is downloaded on your computer, all you have to do is place your cursor on the red button on the dragging tab bar on the right side of your screen. You can also click on the camera at the top of your screen to take screenshots and videos of what you want. One can add stamps, blurbs, crop outs, and other features to personalize the screenshot. 

Second, Snagit is compatible with mobile devices. The user can install the app on an IPhone or an Android. He or she can download pictures directly from his or her cellphone to Snagit. It can be very helpful if the user finds a picture on the web and wants to save it for later. 

Third, Snagit for education can be very helpful for both teachers and students. As presented below, it can be useful for grading assignments, giving oral feedback, correcting homework or even giving a flipped class.

“It gives the teacher an easy way to create one-take video lessons, grade assignments, narrate feedback, and build engaging handouts” https://www.techsmith.com/snagit-education.html

My Opinion

As shown below, I signed up for the 15 days of free trial to get a hint of what Snagit provided. At first, I had to download the software for my Mac because it is adjusted to the need of my computer. One can also download it for a PC, but I do not know if the features change that much. It took approximately 3 minutes and the software was completely installed on my computer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I personally tried Snagit to know how it could work in a language class. From my point of view, I believe that it is a very easy tool and that one cannot get lost using Snagit. The only thing I thought was difficult to do was saving the picture because there is no precise button. When I listened to the online tutorial, the saving button was clearly demonstrated but did not seem to appear on my computer. After a while, I found it and I also discovered that the screenshots were automatically saved in my computer files. 

In my opinion, one of the drawbacks of Snagit would be that it is not free. For a student, it can be expensive and for a teacher, I believe that the money is worth the software. Andrew Douch, an ICT and education blogger think that it is too much:

“But this time it’s not free. It costs $30.  It’s reasonably good but expensive for what you get.  It punches below it’s weight.” https://andrewdouch.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/the-best-screencasting-software-for-teachers/

Also, Snagit is only offered in English or in German. If the website could be installed in many languages, I believe that it would have been a lot more interesting for other languages teachers. They could have used stamps in the targeted language to give feedback on an assignment, for example.

ESL Teacher Point of View

“Snagit is a great little tool. I can record whatever’s on my screen, including my webcam. I think it gives it that human element, where you can see the person talking to you and not just hear the voice.”

Rob Z., middle school teacher https://www.techsmith.com/snagit-education.html

Indeed, I agree with Rob Z. Using a webcam to personalize a subject matter can grab the students’ attention in an efficient way.  In fact, Snagit can record whatever is on a screen. The teacher can comment it and add arrows or stamps to the video capture. Unfortunately, with Snagit, the teacher cannot add crop outs to add comments on a video.

Tutorials are provided on the Snagit website to help the students and the teachers that use it. Many videos and written steps can explain how the website works and where to go. Snagit provides a grading tool that can help teachers grading the students’ evaluations. On the previous link, there is also a tutorial that shows how to narrate the feedback for the students. Plus, stamps exist, such as smileys, mathematical clipart, music stamps and even Christmas images to help the teachers grade or mark homework in an innovative manner. On an overall aspect, Nathan the Paul believes that Snagit is very simple to use:

“This in itself is pretty simple. The default option is “region” capture: you click the big red button, and a big yellow crosshairs appears on your screen. You drag it across the image you want to capture–release–and voilá!” https://nathanthepaul.com/2014/02/24/snagit/

With Snagit, I would probably do a flipped classroom. The previous link provides all the steps to do “your first flip”. It is an innovative way to teach subjects such as English. I would probably start by giving a small lesson on a certain verb tense in a flipped class. I would do a caption on a grammar rule about the verb tense and I would record my voice to explain some specific points with Snagit. Also, the software provides the teachers more time to his or her students in class to explain other subjects or to answer questions. 

https://www.techsmith.com/education.html

In conclusion, Snagit can be a very helpful tool for students and teachers. As a future ESL teacher, I believe that Snagit can be used for flipped classroom and it is a great way to be creative. Plus, I think that the students would certainly enjoy having innovative feedback on an assignment.

StoryJumper: An Incredible Way to be known as a Writer

What is it?

According to Peter Weck and John Yen, the founders of the website,

“StoryJumper is a leading education tech platform that makes it easy for you to publish your own children’s story book.”

Individuals, from children to parents, can create their own story book as well as discovering some interesting books for children. StoryJumper is currently the number one rated site for making storybooks because of its easy and understandable set of tools for parents, children and authors to write and illustrate short stories for young children.

In addition, the owners of the website created a platform for schools entitled StoryJumper Classroom Edition, where teachers and students can share their creation with the class. The platform is also designed to manage and review students’ work, and it  offers strong privacy control as well. Other than that, the two websites have the same options and tools.

What does it offer?

StoryJumper, which was launched in 2009, allows writers to create “[…] adventure stories, fairy tales, treasure maps, photo books, and calendars.” Therefore, StoryJumper has a lot of possible templates and options for all users’ needs.

As it is presented on the log in page of StoryJumper, education is very important for the developers of the site since it allows teachers to have their own platform by simply checking the box that says “I am a teacher and I want to use StoryJumper in the classroom with my students”. Then, the teacher has to enter the school postal code and the school name. After creating the class’ account, the teacher has to create a class by entering a class name, a password for all students to access the site, the duration of the class/activity, and the total of students. Afterwards, the teacher is now ready to give his/her class.

After entering in StoryJumper, a tutorial video appears on the front page presenting all the steps to create your story book, which, in my opinion, is very essential to start with the website. Teachers can distribute handouts to provide directions to their students as how to work with StoryJumper at school and at home. For this reason, teachers do not have to explain step-by-step the process to create a story book and  save time as well. Subsequent to watching the video or reading the instruction, the users are now ready to create their own story book for kids. To begin, choose a type of text box to write the story of your book; you can change your text box font type, color and size. Then, you can add a character by simply clicking on props and typing in the research bar the name of your character; many categories will be offered to you. You can copy your character, drag it to other pages, and delete it. You can as well upload your own pictures by clicking on photos at the bottom left corner of the page, and use it as a scene background or prop. After choosing your picture, click on it and drag it to the page.

After choosing a character and pictures, you can add a scene, other characters and text to your page. The order of the pages can also be changed by dragging them around on the scenes slide; they can also be added to your story, deleted or copied.

Then, after creating the pages of your story, go on the blue page of your book, which is the front page, and modify it. First, create a title to your book, then, write the author’s name at the bottom of the page. Second, chose a color for your front page. Props, scenes and text can be added to your front page as well.

When you finish editing your story book, click on save and close at the top right corner of the page so that you can review your book, add more changes, share it with others and with the website’s library, and print your book. StoryJumper can also be used to read and discover some books. If you do not want or do not have the time to create a book, the website suggests some books that you can read instead of creating one.

My experience

To begin, StoryJumper is a very simple and well-organized website; the students are not overwhelmed with too many options and the steps to create their storybook are already ordered so that the creation of the book is enjoyable and easy. Furthermore, the fact that a video tutorial appears on the front page when students’ first enter their homepage is really essential and useful. For this reason, students will already have in mind what are the special tools and how to use them, they will not pass a lot of time trying to comprehend the website.

Throughout my observation, I was testing the tool with a student point of view since I could not enter as a teacher because it required a class ID, which I did not have. However, most of the users have access to the same options and tools on the website. hOWEVER, teachers have the possibility to access and review their students’ story book before publishing it.

Moreover, a lot of possible templates are offered in StoryJumper that suit a lot of students’ desired themes for their tales. For instance, a student can first tell a story about a safari, then go on the website and be sure to find some characters and scenes that are related to his tale, which is also a benefit presented in Bobby Travis’ article.

I recommend to use StoryJumper with young children since older students can find this website not challenging at all because it does not require a lot of skills and understanding to use StoryJumper. Thus, it will be more acceptable for young children because there is a lot of advice. Thus, children will never have to rely on themselves when they are stuck from inspiration. Finally, StoryJumper lets students create and publish their own illustrated stories, and improves students’ creativity and technology skills.

Use in ESL teaching

As previously mentioned, there are a lot of possibilities offered to students and teachers on StoryJumper. For instance, Emma Gillepsie, an English teacher from elementary school, said that “[she] use[s] StoryJumper every year to publish student poetry anthologies. The students publish one poem every two weeks and use graphics saved from web searches and clip art to enhance their books.[…] At the end of the year we share one favorite poem at our annual Poet’s Tea. The students, administration, and families all LOVE this project and its end result.” Therefore, StoryJumper can be used for other things than only for writing stories and tales, and they will all be equally appreciated.

In my opinion, ESL teachers can use StoryJumper to develop and evaluate students’ English writing competency. By asking students to create a story on a regular basis, the teachers have the possibility to evaluate and observe students’ writing skills development. They can notice grammar errors, vocabulary errors, syntax errors, and cognates. For this reason, ESL teachers are more aware of the recurrent writing errors that their students do and can correct them during class. Moreover, ESL teachers can evaluate and develop students’ English reading skills by asking students to read books that are from other students or those that are published on the website’s library.

Furthermore, ESL teachers can use this tool to present new subjects, topics or the course plan in an innovative and creative way in English since the website is only presented in this language.

Some of the negative points of StoryJumper are that the website does not allow students to use their oral English. For this reason, they more or less practice their English oral competency; they focus more on their ability to write in English. Thus, the website can add a voice recorder where students could record themselves reading their own book. Also, StoryJumper should not be used with more advanced English learners because I consider it too childish. The tools are too simple and there is not a lot of place for improvement regarding the skills that advanced L2 students already have. Therefore, this website has a restricted audience, which are mostly students from elementary school to high school.

All in all, I recommend this application for ESL teachers because StoryJumper encourages students to exercise and develop their English reading and writing skills. The application also makes the presentation of a new subject more interesting and more attractive to the eyes. Thus, students will be more inclined to listen while the ESL teacher is talking, and, at the same time, they will improve their ability to listen to people in English. Finally, ESL teachers really benefit from the tools offered on the website, especially for the observation of students’ work and development, and for the presentation of class’ subjects.

Videoscribe: Powerpoint’s better cousin

What is it?

When it comes to giving a good presentation, nothing is more important than the attention of the viewer or listener. Whether giving a small class to children or giving a one hour lecture to adults, the viewers must have some sort of engagement with the speaker and what he says, or else the attention span of these viewers will quickly go away. By then, it won’t matter what you have prepared: it will not have left a big enough impact and nothing will have been learned. And most of the time, visuals are an essential key to solving this problem.

While powerpoint is a serviceable tool for anybody giving a presentation, there exist other programs that offer a more interactive and appealing final product. One of those programs is called Videoscribe. Created by CEO Jon Air and Eric Oakland in 2008, Videoscribe “creates engaging scribe video animations quickly and easily without the need for technical ability or design know-how.” (file:///C:/Users/Francis/Downloads/How%20to%20Design%20Your%20Own%20Whiteboard%20Animation.pdf). Unlike powerpoints, videos on Videoscribe are done as one continuous flowing series of animated images that can be used for miscellaneous purposes like teaching a subject, giving instructions, presenting a plan and even more. This program is so effective that it claims having gotten the attention of the British Government to explain policies, the Swedish Parliament and even president Barack Obama himself. Claiming to be the first program on the web to enable simple self-made scribe videos, this video animation software program brings whiteboard animation to a new level. But how does it hold up as a whole?

My personal experience

Having personally used it, I can safely say that it is a simple tool to use. Upon downloading the program, a small video explains the basics, and that’s all you need to see before getting started. To try it out, I made a small video on hot spots to visit in Spain.

You can choose the animation you use for presenting an image or text, and it usually represented by a hand that writes with a marker. That is for the texts. When using images, you can also make them appear by having the “hand” dragging it on screen or having the previous image morph into the new one. Each animation can be edited by clicking on it, and three different timers can be tampered with: one for how long the animation lasts, another for how long the final text or image stays static and how long the transition is with the next animation. You can also edit the angle, size and color of the text or image like on any other software.

After each animation is created, it appears at the bottom of the screen on a timeline, to show which will appear first. You can change the order of the animations by simply dragging them wherever you want on the timeline. You can also adjust the length of the animation by editing it from the bottom of the timeline.

When adding images, videoscribe offers a variety of different pictures and drawings that can be well animated. As I said before, when animating a picture, the animation by default will be a hand paintbrushing the image from left to right. However, if you use an image from the program, the animation will be done by drawings, meaning that the animation ”hand” will draw the picture line after line, which gives a pretty good visual. You can also import images from your computer or from online. Unfortunately, I did not seem to be able to take images from my desktop, so instead I resorted to adding the direct link of the images online in order for them to be able to be used.

One practical aspect that videoscribe offers is that it is easy to organize and reorganize your images and text. It does not follow the traditional powerpoint by creating slide after slide. Instead, the program works a bit like Mural.ly: Your images can be put anywhere on a big ”whiteboard”, and the logical flow of your ”slides” will depend on how your organize them on the timeline. So instead of cutting directly to the next slide, your images transition in a way where the focus is moved in the direction you want, just like a camera filming a different area in a single shot. That is how the final product is presented. You can even add the option of zooming out at the end to include all of your pictures in the same frame.

Finally, you can add a soundtrack to your presentation. Just like for the images, you can select from a variety of background music, varying from rock to soft music. You can also import your own music onto the final product. The whole program can be used if you pay the full version. Otherwise, you only get a seven-day free trial like I did. Also, if you buy the full version. you get access to more fonts, images, and music.

Personal opinion and relevance for ESL teaching

As many people have as experienced as well as I, Videoscribe is definitely an easy tool to use. Not only that, but it also gives great results and is cost effective way to create whiteboard animation video. The only downside to it is that it has a laggy and slow software interface, especially for a big project. And this is not just a random fact, it is something I experienced myself. The software crashed more than once for various reasons. Sometimes it was because I had too many pictures, another time it was because I tried an animation that was too detailed. I was not even able to add my own created file to this blog post because it was not able to be read other than by Videoscribe itself. This come as an inconvenience because if someone ever wanted to do a big project, it would be difficult because of the lags.

As a future ESL teacher, I can see how this program could come in handy. Since a presentation must include out of the ordinary elements to be able to be memorable, videoscribe is the perfect tool for this because the animation is appealing and if fit to get the attention of younger viewers, especially because it looks like they are watching a movie. But since it cannot be used to big projects, it can be used for small lessons to give. Better yet, some teachers have even started using Videoscribe in flipped classrooms, and I realize how this can be a good thing. Since flipped classrooms need to be short, this tool is perfect to come across a specific subject and present it briefly with cool animations and engaging visuals. But since I do not really plan on maybe using flipped classrooms later in my career. I do not think I see myself using this software very often. Even if I had a good experience with it, I might not use it very often, only maybe to explain quick and general grammar rules, but never for a subject such as literature. In my opinion, there are other ways for such subjects. But as is, Videoscribe is an admirable tool that I can easily see come in handy for various situations, especially in ESL teaching.

Voki

“Voki is an educational tool that allows users to create their very own talking character.”

Voki is created by Oddcast a New York based media technology company. The website offers students and teachers the opportunity to present information in a different way. The main Voki access is free for educators and students, but the other divisions of the website (Classroom, Presenter and Teach) have a yearly subscription price. Users can customize a character to their liking, it even represent them or a historical character.

Voki is an easy tool to use. In fact, after login in the website you can start creating you Vokis. Vokis are avatar you can create to you liking. The user can choose its look, add clothes, accesories and add a background. Once the Voki character is customized, an audio presentation can be attached to the character. After, the Voki is ready, you can easily share you presentation. Indeed, you can send your presentation by email and share on social media or on a blog. The Voki website also offers plenty of lesson plans for teachers to use, on various topics and personalized for different grade levels.

Voki offers more educational possibilities by offering different ways to share and use the characters. Indeed, the website also offers Voki Classroom, Voki Presenter and Voki Teach. “Voki Classroom is a student assignment management system for Voki.” This lets a teacher assign work to students while being able to access and change their privacy settings. It also make it easier to share the Vokis students made for assignements. Voki Presenter lets the educator build presentations for a class. This way, the teacher can add Vokis to slides in order to make presentations more fun and interactive. It also makes it easier for students who missed a class to catch up. Voki Teach includes the same features as Voki Presenter, while also including different lessons ready to use and teach.

My experience with Voki

When first trying Voki, I was very skepical of the functions it had to offer, but I was very surprised by how easy it is to use. In fact, after accessing the site, I first got to choose what type of face I wanted my Voki to have. Then, I was able to change and adjust multiple features of my character, which I found fun and impressive to use. I could also change my characters, makeup clothing and accessories to make it even more personalized.

Then, I was able to add a voice to my character. Voki offers different methods for adding a voice to the character, which is very convenient. The first method was to call a phone number and enter a specific passcode, to record my audio to the character. The second method was to type in the text, which would generate a computer recording for my character. The third method was to directly record myself on the website with a microphone connected to my computer. The last method was to upload an audio file from my computer. I chose to use to add type in my text for a computer generated audio. This was very impressive to use, since I was able to chose the language my character was to speak in as well as one of the built in accents generated by the website.

After adding the audio to my character, I was able to change the background in which I wanted my character to be. The website offers a wide variety to choose from and adapt to your character and presentation.

Once I was done customizing my character, I was able to publish my character and choose the way I wanted to share it. Here it is. Overall, I found that using the website was very easy and found that the functions were varied and interesting.

My opinion as a futur ESL teacher

As a future ESL teacher, I find that Voki can be a useful tool for certain projects. In fact, I find it interesting that students can join their audio recordings to a character. This way they can do projects where they practice their oral skills without having the pressure of being in front of a class or being filmed. Moreover, I find that some of the animations can truly add to a simple presentation. Indeed since the Voki characters can be historical figures, it could be interesting to add the Voki during a lesson on that specific historical figure. It could be, in my opinion, a fun way to make presentations more engaging for students. Furthermore, Voki is very simple to use and the website offers multiple functions to personalize your character. All in all, I don’t think I would frequently use Voki as a future ESL teacher. In fact, if I was to have students make Vokis, I feel that students will waste their time on making a character and use it as a game instead of focusing on the oral presentation aspect of Vokis. I also feel that Vokis are a little childish for high school students. Maybe with elementary school students it could be pleasant to try, and use Vokis inside a class project, but Voki doesn’t service this age group. Indeed, after exploring the site I found out that students have to be 13 or older to sign up, which is deceiving, even though you can still use and build vokis without signing up to the website.

Other opinions

After looking at Voki, I looked for other users opinions. On the website Edshelf , a website dedicated to helping teachers find the right educational tool, users seemed overall pleased with Voki. In fact, lots of users reviewed the app by saying that it was more engaging and interactive for students than regular presentations. Some users pointed out some of the same downfalls of Voki as I did. Indeed, one user said that it would be more appropriate for younger students, since the characters are more juvenile. On another website for discovering teaching tools, Graphite, reviewed Voki by giving it three stars out of five. Graphite stated the pros of Voki as being more fun and entertaining for students, as mentioned previously by myself and other viewers. For the cons it stated that Voki wasn’t intuitive to use. Moreover, Graphite offers the possibility for teachers to rate the website and teachers rated it four stars out of five, which is better than I would have thought.

Overall, in my opinion, Voki isn’t the best educational tool, but in certain contexts it could be pleasant to add characters for special presentations on historical figure for example.

Dominique Falardeau

GoAnimate: Flip Your Teaching Around!

In the recent years, videos have acquired a growing importance on the Internet. Whether it is on YouTube, Facebook, or elsewhere, DIY (Do It Yourself) tutorials, advertisements, personal opinions, and more are shared through the Internet. However, creating videos can be time-consuming and may require a lot of material. GoAnimate has come up with a solution: easy, animated videos that can be created in only a few minutes.

What Is It?

According to their website, GoAnimate, which was created in 2007, is

The world’s number one do it yourself animated video website.

GoAnimate allows individuals to create animated videos. It can be used by individuals, businesses, or schools. This article will focus on GoAnimate for Schools.

What Is Specific to GoAnimate for Schools?

GoAnimate for schools is the same application as GoAnimate, but it allows for much more security for your students. For example, each school has its own GoAnimate private address. Options like integration with social networks are blocked, only teachers can download a video or approve downloading, and props that are not school-safe are not available to students. Your students are assured to work in a safe environment. Also, GoAnimate for schools allows for easy classroom management. Teachers can manage groups that they create, contact their students through an e-mail system, and can approve or reject students’ videos and comments. Furthermore, the activity feed on the dashboard (homepage) allows teachers to see all of their student’s recent comments and videos. GoAnimate also offers many school-related templates which allow teachers to rapidly create simple videos. For a demo video of GoAnimate for schools, click here.

How Does It Work?

Signing up is simple and quick. If your school already has an account on GoAnimate for School, the “super teacher”, who is the person responsible for subscriptions, will add you to the account. Otherwise, you can create your account and become the super teacher yourself. GoAnimate offers a fourteen-day free trial to new members, but is a very expensive application to work with. Indeed, GoAnimate for School asks, for a year’s subscription, 59$ for a single teacher or 99$ for a teacher and up to 50 student users. It is important to mention that most ESL teachers at the primary level have a lot more than 50 students, so the bill can go up rather quickly, which is one of the disadvantages of GoAnimate.

GoAnimate guides users from the very beginning by offering a tutorial video. The video is helpful and explains the basics of how to use the application, but does not explain everything, such as where to create our own characters, how to record our voices, etc. My experience with GoAnimate has left me a bit frustrated because the website is not that intuitive, and so sometimes I had to look for a button or an option for almost a minute, which exasperated me. This can eventually cause classroom management problems if the students get impatient or decide not to do something because they are frustrated. One solution that I found useful for teachers is the FAQ (frequently asked questions section) and the informative blog, Educator Experiences. These two sources of information can help teachers improve their use of GoAnimate for Schools.

GoAnimate’s video maker

There are two options from which users can create videos. The first option is to make a video without a template. Teachers can choose from varied assets (themes): business friendly, stick figure it out, good on paper, and more. Making  a video is very simple, as it works on the principles of “drag-and-drop.” You can choose from a wide variety of templates, characters, props, text bubbles, vidgets, and sounds and music (see image on the right). You can also import media. If you feel creative, you can even create your own custom characters (see image below). I was impressed by the customization options: size, clothes and colours, haircut… Everything could be chosen according to my own taste! The best thing is that it does not end there! You can add actions to your characters, you can add enter/exit motions to both your characters and your props, and you can zoom in and zoom out. This can make videos look more realistic and is more efficient when it comes to catching students’ attention. Another great thing about those videos is that you can record your own voice, and the characters’ lips will be in sync with what you are saying. For people that are too shy, there is a text-to-speech option which allows people to write down what they want to say and choose a voice from a vast selection to say the text. While this option to add your own or a computer-produced voice seems quite nice, it is limiting. There is a twenty-second limit for voice recordings and a 180-character limit for text-to-speech dialogs. While the users can copy the scene and record another twenty seconds of speech, this leads to useless breaks. Furthermore, twenty seconds is not a lot for a student learning a second language to say the information he wants to convey.

 

There is also a second way to make nice videos: templates. Templates are a good tool to use because they will allow you to create a video in a record time. They are like already set videos; teachers only have to choose from a limited selection of backgrounds and characters, record their voices (or use the text-to-speech tool), and voilà!

Examples of themes from which users can create videos

 

A great thing about GoAnimate is that you can preview your videos before publishing them, and you can also save them to work on them later. Once the videos are published, you can still go back and work on them. However, beware, the systems is really slow when it comes to loading information. Every time you add a new recording of your voice and every time you want to preview your video, you will have to wait. Waiting once seems fine, but I can tell you that it gets heavier as you work on your video. Once again, not only teachers get exasperated. Your students might cut down on the reviewing because they are tired of waiting for the video to load.

My Opinion as an ESL Teacher and Uses in the ESL Classrooms

GoAnimate can be used in varied ways not only by ESL teachers, but also by their students! Everyone can make a video rather quickly. It is a tool that is particularly useful to get your information across and to test students’ comprehension of subject matters and oral production skills. Even though some teachers, such as Mary Beth Hertz, mention that GoAnimate is good to use with younger students, I would recommend using it with high school students. The fact that it is not so intuitive and that there is an impressive number of props, actions, characters, etc. that you can choose from can be confusing for younger students. Still, the level could be adapted to primary-level students by not having them use all of the functionalities available on the website. I think that students will love to work with GoAnimate. It is a lively, entertaining, and even fun, application that they will want to use more and more.

Once I started using it, I noticed that there were a lot of uses to GoAnimate. GoAnimate is especially useful when it comes to creating flipped classes. Flipped classes are organized so that students learn the class’ theory by looking at a video at home and use class time to practice with exercises and projects. In fact, Alisa Wolf emphasized:

Animated filmmaking is a powerful classroom tool. Teachers can make video lessons that students consume at their own pace, with as much repetition as needed for the lessons to become clear. Students prone to distraction can put on headphones and focus on the videos, eliminating classroom distractions and reducing the possibility of overstimulation.

GoAnimate videos are perfect to help students learn! The fact that they are animated will keep the students well focused.

GoAnimate can also be used to introduce new subjects with a powerful touch. As Jennifer Gonzalez stated,

A good video is like a shot of B-12 to any message you’re trying to get out there.

A short video can easily catch the students’ interest. There are many ways to do so. For example, if you are going to talk about a public personality, you can create a video of yourself interviewing the personality. The fact that the video is colorful and animated will automatically catch your students’ eye and the realistic aspect of the video will give your students something concrete to relate to.

GoAnimate can also be a more interesting alternative for students to demonstrate their learning. Indeed, as mentioned by Mary Beth Hertz,

There’s a very high engagement level with this program; students will love working with the props, animations, and effects to create professional looking animations. This could encourage reluctant writers to engage in script writing and story development more readily than they otherwise might. It’s also an excellent alternative to PowerPoint presentations and the like for students to demonstrate information they’ve gathered.

For students, GoAnimate is not just about reporting information, it is also about making it feel real, as they have characters report their findings. A short amount of class time can be spent showing the students’ videos, which will lead to students working even harder to create a final product which they can be proud of. Furthermore, as Holly Clark mentions:

Next time you want students to show you they understand a concept, consider having them create a GoAnimate for Schools project. You’ll find that they will watch their own videos over and over again.

As I was making my first video, I indeed watched it at least 20 times before the product was finished. It is true that I learned my arguments by heart just by doing my video. Here is the link to my first video on GoAnimate.

GoAnimate’s biggest advantage, according to myself, is that it can be an alternative to oral productions. Instead of having the students do their oral presentations in front of the whole class, when their performances’ level can be lowered by factors such as stress, have them record their speech on GoAnimate. This will provide you with a stress-free way of evaluating your students.

Even though educators seem to have an overall good view of the application, all the technical disadvantages of GoAnimate mentioned before, namely, the twenty-second speech limit, the unintuitive video maker, and the slow loading of previews, keep me from saying that I would use GoAnimate in my classroom. Even if it is a very good pedagogical tool and that I feel that it can be really useful, those limitations caused me much irritation. The high price of the subscription can also be very limiting in a public classroom setting. In addition, I have to agree with Brian S. and Mary Beth Hertz: the students might rush the writing process in order to skip ahead to the fun video-creating part and they might lose time by trying to use all of the available options of the website in their videos.

All in all, I would still recommend using GoAnimate for its very wide possible uses. I believe that it is a tool that can really increase students’ mastery of all subjects. However, I recommend that teachers do so only for short videos (no longer than two minutes) and that, prior to letting their students use the website, they go over the functionalities with them.

by Camille Leblanc, TESL student at Laval University

My Opinion on Powtoon as a Future ESL Teacher

What is Powtoon?

Powtoon is an easy-to-use 2D animated presentation tool. It allows the users to save their flash animations and present them. There are three pricing options, so that it is accessible to everyone: free, professional (starting at 20$ per month), and agency (starting at 40$ per month). The higher options have a greater amount of options.

How does it work?

To create a new flash animation, the user has to subscribe. Then, he chooses between two options: “Start from Scratch” or “Customize a Ready Made Powtoon”. The first option exposes numerous templates that are ready to be modified on the needs. The second option allows the user to choose amongst different animations for different situations, sometimes nothing needs to be changed. Then, the animations are separated by topics: “Business”, “Marketing and Sales”, “Training”, “Education”, “Personal/Social/Fun”, and “Events and Greeting Cards”. Once an animation is chosen, the possibilities are endless. Powtoon allows the users to play with the colors, with the text, with the images, with the animations, and with the sounds. At the end, the video presentation can be posted on Youtube, Vimeo or Wistia or it can simply be saved as an MP4 file, as a PPT file or as a PDF file. On the time line provided, the user can put whatever he wants: he can choose a background, he can add logos and images, and he can put an animated characters. These same characters can move and do different things, such as talking, waving, or smiling. Then, at a given point on the time line, he can change images, he can change what the character is doing, etc. At any time during the video, he can add or delete something. For example, if he wants to make a video of a teacher talking to his students, walking to the other side of the classroom, and then telling another thing, he can. First, he chooses a school background, an animated character and a text or with an actual voice. Then, he animates the character to “talking”. At a given point, let’s say at 20 seconds, he can make the character move to the other side of the classroom by choosing the right animation. After 5 seconds, he stops the animation on the timeline, and he can then start making the animated character speak again. As complicated as it may sound, Powtoon make the possibilities to create attractive animations endless!

ESL Teacher’s Point of View
From an ESL teacher’s point of view, I think Powtoon is a useful tool. First, it is easy to use for everyone, teachers and students. In less than two minutes, I was already subscribed and I was working on my first project. The website also gives a tutorial option in the beginning, to make the creation process easier.

Then, it has endless possibilities for teachers and for students. A teacher can choose the “education” section and create or modify a video to originally present themselves, the content of their course or the content of a specific project. A student can use Powtoon to make a presentation more interactive and more original.

Finally, the animations are fun. I personally think Powtoon is an excellent alternative to presentation tools such as Power-Point. The videos made online with the website are generally more interactive, present more animations, and are more pleasing to the eye than a simple PPT presentation. It is important to use techniques to keep students’ attention in class, and I think having a good visual support can help.

As for students, they could use the tool during different ESL projects. First, they could use it to do an animated video with a “voiceover”. For example, they could be in pairs. With Powtoon, they could create a funny animation with two characters, and these characters could have the students’ voice. This would be a fun way to practice their pronunciation and speaking skills in their second language, without having to do an oral presentation in front of the classroom. The project could be presented in front of the classroom, so that students are motivated to do a good job. Then, the students could use it as a visual support for a teaching act. For example, each week, a team could have to present a one a grammar rule of their second language using Powtoon and its animated characters. Not only this could improve the students’ knowledge of the rules and their writing skills, it would motivate the students, as they are given the role of a “teacher”.

Other critiques 

Powtoon’s reviews are generally positive. Users state that the online software is easy and fun to use. Alicia Leonard, a math teacher, says: “I used this tool to create a flipped math lesson for one of my graduate classes. I had SO much fun with this, and found so much value in it, I actually upgraded to the EXTREMELY reasonably priced student subscription. The only weaknesses I could find with this tool are related to the limitations put on the user of the free version. They disappear when you pay the nominal fee for one of the many different upgrade types.” As mentioned earlier, there are different pricing options. The free version does not allow users to use every option. For example, the Powtoon logo stays on the animation, a membership is necessary to delete it.

An English Language Arts teacher, Shari M., states that “as teachers, we normally think more is better, but what Powtoon teaches students is how to create a presentation which will keep your intended audience’s attention and pull out the important information (gist, theme, etc.). […] Its focus on audience, message, and time, aligns nicely with some of argumentative and persuasive writing strategies. It can be used to help write an effective thesis, used as a “trailer” for an argumentative essay, or to simply provide the writer with another way of looking at writing an effective thesis statement!” In fact, visual support is a big part of the teaching process. An educator cannot expect his students to learn effectively if he does not have their attention. By creating an animated video with Powtoon, the teacher makes sure that students pay attention to the lesson.

Conclusion

As a future ESL teacher and as a student, I think Powtoon is an useful animated presentation tool that can be use in any given situation. As well as being easy to use for everyone, it is fun and original. Keeping the class’ attention has never been easier!

Maximme Grenier

The Scribing Revolution

VideoScribe is an application that lets you create scribe videos or whiteboard animations. The animations are drawn onto the white background by a human hand. The application allows you to create videos with images, music and voiceover. It lets you communicate clear, structured ideas as well as tell your own stories to the public. VideoScribe is easy to use and would be efficient in a classroom environment since it stimulates viewers’ anticipation, it requires a low budget and it provides multisensory learning which improves students’ problem solving abilities and memory recall.

First, VideoScribe is a tool that promotes curiosity. The tool creates what is described by artists as viewer completion. Viewer completion is the way the human mind can complete an image despite the lack of details. For example, a student could see a complex word or the beginning of a sentence being written in front of his eyes and could make inferences pertaining to the rest of the word or sentence. Whiteboard animations also stimulate viewer anticipation which is when the audience has to guess what is being drawn next. Viewer anticipation creates enjoyment and curiosity and fosters the learning and engagement of students. For example, a teacher could create an activity in which students would have to guess, with an image being drawn on the board, challenging animal names such as sloth or hyrax. Moreover, VideoScribe supports flipped classrooms since students can make their own scribes at home. Flipped classrooms allow students to spend more time on finding problems and solving them, on collaboration, on research and on knowledge building  with the help of their teachers and their peers. According to an article on a Glen Rose School in Texas, VideoScribe is a fun and tactile experience that can be enjoyed by all ages. Teachers can share their scribes on a school platform and students can create their own scribes easily at home. Not only does VideoScribe foster curiosity among students, it also supports their learning in an enjoyable environment.

Second, the application does not require an important amount of money from teachers and from the school in general. The application, which costs 12$ a month or 144$ a year, enables ESL teachers to create all sorts of activities. With the tool, users can add images from the web or from a template, add text, charts, music from the web or from a template and add a voiceover. VideoScribe enables users to create high quality material at a low cost. Teachers do not have to hire a professional to film a video, to hire actors to play in it or to hire a graphic designer to edit the video. The application allows teachers to create small functional language activities or even entire grammar lessons. I tested the tool and was surprised at how easy it is to use. I was also amazed at how many options there are, such as choosing the default hand from a wide selection of hands, or even adding your own hand to draw whiteboard animations. The application is convenient to teachers and to schools in terms of budget, time, resources.

Third, VideoScribes provides multisensory learning (hearing and sight) which improves the way students solve problems. According to a study conducted by cognitive psychologist Richard E. Mayer on three groups of students (one group taught using sight, one using hearing and the third one using sight and hearing), multisensory environments foster performance and accurate recalls with better resolution and longer retention of information. The results have shown that multisensory learning improves problem solving by 50-75%. The ability to solve problem is part of the intellectual competencies students from the MELS programme have to develop. As a teacher, I could improve my future students’ problem solving abilities by creating multisensory whiteboard animations which would also increase their motivation. Therefore, using VideoScribe in the classroom would be beneficial for students because they could understand the information better and retain it longer.

In conclusion, VideoScribe is an affordable, easy-to-use application that would improve my students’ anticipation or curiosity, their ability to understand concepts and their ability to retain these concepts. I think VideoScribe would be useful in the classroom to increase my students’ motivation. Therefore, the atmosphere of the class would improve, the students’ attitude towards learning a second language would be more positive and the general success of the class would certainly rise.

GoAnimate

What it is 

GoAnimate is a website to create videos for different purposes. It can be used either for business or education, but this blog will mostly be about the educational side. You can do all your videos by yourself because it is really simple to use.

How it works

The website works as a teacher and student community. If you are the first teacher in your school to register, you will be asked to register your school and create a school profile. Then, you will be asked to choose a “super teacher” who will be the person in charge of adding teachers to the Dashboard (the home page) and managing comments or posts published on the Dashboard. After, you can create your own profile and classes to which your students can access with a group code.

This is where the fun part starts: creating your own videos. The first thing you have to do is choose a theme out of the 17 available. The best one to choose if you are a teacher is obviously “School Chronicles Template” where you have a classroom, a blackboard, a hallway, a schoolyard, a locker room and a bedroom setting. Next, you have to select the two characters out of the ten available. Those two characters will be the ones having a dialogue of your choice, which is the next step. You can either record your own voice or write a dialogue of up to 30 exchanges and choose the language, emotion, and voice of your choice. Once you get familiar with the tool, you can create more elaborated videos with  various settings in the same video, props, time frames and more. You can preview and edit your video as you wish before posting it to the Dashboard. Once it is published, the students and teachers who have access to your group can view it and add comments.

How to use it in an ESL classroom

You can use GoAnimate to present your class content in a pre-made video like in a flipped classroom. Alice Chen, an English teacher, flipped her classroom and chose GoAnimate:

What if you could flip your lesson in a fun and humorous way? Instead of filming myself explaining a concept, I prefer to use the colorful and unique characters from GoAnimate for Schools to do it for me.

GoAnimate can enhance your flipped classroom and make it more catchy for your students! It’s a great way to introduce the concept of flipped classroom because it will be something totally new for your students and I think they will be more interested in animated video than in a video of you talking. However, you are not the only one who can create and post videos: your students can too! This is a creative way to have them practice their writing skills by writing a dialogue and see their work animated. It can make them practice their oral skills without having to give a presentation in front of the whole class and being shy to film themselves. What is great about GoAnimate is that there is an “Educator Experiences” section and a “Lesson Gallery” where you can get new ideas and reviews from other teachers. Overall, teachers who used GoAnimated were really impressed by the simplicity and the motivation of their students:

GoAnimate provides a place for kids to watch their stories come to life. There’s a very high engagement level with this program; students will love working with the props, animations, and effects to create professional looking animations. – Mary Beth Hertz

I think students would invest more in their work by using such a tool and that they would be proud when seeing the final result. If you show them examples of videos, I’m sure they will want to start right away and have tons of original ideas.

My point of view

As a future ESL teacher, I would definitely try out GoAnimate with my students. When I tested the tool, I thought it was very simple and fun to use. To test it out, I created a video of teachers greeting their students in the classroom. Even though I do not like recording my voice and listen to it, I would recommend not using the voices templates. They sound ridiculously robotic even if there is an “emotion” option, it feels like they always talk on the same tone. I think students will benefit more from hearing a real person with a real accent and a good pronunciation talk than from hearing a robot. Another negative side of GoAnimate is that it is costly, considering that many schools do not have a huge budget for new pedagogical tools. You can try it out for free for about two weeks, but then you must subscribe and pay around 100$ a month.

Overall, I think my students would be very motivated to complete tasks using this great tool. I agree with Jacqueline Slogan when she says:

Students seem to respond with more interest when using their own creations when presenting projects to their classmates. And this website is fun enough that the viewing students are as interested as those who have created the presentations.

It is true that the students’ interest must be much higher to create project with GoAnimate and to listen to their peers’ work. It also gives them the chance to be more creative and have fun while learning. It can be time demanding at first, but remember that once a video is created, it can be reuse in the future.

Karine Veilleux, TESL student at Laval University

GoAnimate: Make Your Class More Interesting

Nowadays, it is a real challenge to entertain students. Fortunately, software tools are here to help teachers make their classes more interesting and more adapted to students’ needs, like GoAnimate.

What is it?

GoAnimate is a software tool where you can create professional animated videos. With GoAnimate, one can create business videos to explain complex topics or train employees. With a free trial of 14 days, it gives the opportunity to explore the tool and then decide whether or not to buy it.

How does it work?

With GoAnimate, you can promote, present, train, explain and entertain your audience. You can choose from business-friendly video, whiteboard animation, video infographics or common craft.

While creating a video, the first step is to give it a title and a subtitle. You just have to double click on the placeholder to give your video an opening title. On the left corner at the bottom of the page, you just have to click on the + icon to add a scene to your video. Then, you have several categories at your disposition, varying from the office to home. After that, select a template to put on your timeline. The choices are endless, from a conference room, to a restaurant, to the theaters, etc. Every template contains characters, backgrounds, props and textboxes. Everything is already done; you just have to customize it.To modify a character, just click on it. You can change his hair, his skin color, his eyes and much more. Characters can do hundred of actions like pointing at someone, paying something or even cooking. There is a search bar where you can type the action you want your character to do. After you have chosen your action, just click on the select button. Characters can inline a dialog by recording your voice, uploading a file or put a text-to-speech. All characters and props can be swapped. You can browse and select a character from the left tray and see it update on the stage. There is also a wide variety of characters choice.

To create a transition, like going from day to night, click on your scene and select scene settings. Then, you can change the background color. You can also add effects such as transition with previous scene and visual effects. You can also upload your own images, audio files, outside videos, bounces and logos in your video. Finally, to publish your video, download to video, export it and post it on social medias.

GoAnimate for schools

GoAnimate for schools is a platform where both students and teachers can create animated videos for the classroom. Videos and technologies are huge these days, with GoAnimate, students can master subjects like English, math, history and more. This is a good way to engage students. Each school animated website has a secret address. Integration with social networks is blocked; it makes it safer for both students and teachers. Downloading and sharing are available but it requires the teacher’s approval. All characters and background are adapted for schools. It also got quick video maker and full video maker. Students and teachers can choose from a variety of characters, backgrounds, props and music. For shy students, there is a text to speech actor that contains more than 20 languages. There is nothing to draw, nothing to download, no programming; just great results with drag and drop tools.

A great alternative

Instead of giving readings and homework to your students, you can give them a GoAnimate video to watch. It will be fun for them and they will learn at the same time. It is also a new inventive way to teach new topics and materials to students. With animated videos, it will be easier for them to understand what is being learned. It is also an original way to teach your lesson and it might get students more motivated.

Students can also create a story about the topic of their choice or a topic chosen by the teacher. They could then do an oral presentation about their topic and present their project to the whole class. This is a good way to enhance their creativity. Also, the tool is in English so it is a good way for students to practice their L2.

To explain professions or any other topic, you could use different characters with different jobs and ask students to guess what are their jobs. This would activate students’ prior knowledge and they would learn new vocabulary words.

My opinion as an ESL teacher

I think that GoAnimate is a great tool for both students and teachers. It is simple and easy to use. Animated videos always attract the eyes of students, especially younger ones, so this is a good platform to keep them focus and on task. As a future ESL teacher, one interesting activity that I would do with my students is to create a story or have them do an oral presentation using GoAnimate. It goes beyond the tradition powerpoint and word texts and it may motivate students to do more. I really like the fact that they did a GoAnimate especially for schools, this is a good alternative to other platforms and it is unique and interactive.

One concern is the price; some schools do not have extra budgets to have software tools since books are quite expensive. 39$/month or 299$/year is quite high-priced for a software tool.

In general, I strongly believe that GoAnimate is a useful platform for ESL classroom and that it can be used to do many projects, homework and more. It offers endless possibilities for both students and teachers and I would definitely use this tool as a teacher.

Dorothée Grenier

TESL student

Voki: A Good Idea Poorly Presented

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What is Voki?

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Voki is a website that allows its users to create talking avatars which they can publish and share online for others to see and hear.

 Attention Teachers –

Voki also enables you to facilitate rigorous, inquiry-based learning, manage student assessment, and effectively analyze the outcomes. Millions of teachers and students all over the world have discovered the power of Voki and we would like to bring our blended premium learning tools to your classroom.

The Voki Team

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Research

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There are three different versions of the website tool, namely, Voki-Free, Voki Classroom, and Voki Presenter. According to the Pricing section, Voki Classroom and Voki Presenter are individually available for different costs depending on desired subscription time and the number of accounts desired. They are also available together for a reduced price.

According to the article  Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers, there are various strong points and weak points to the Voki web tool. The most striking ones are that “students don’t need a microphone – they can use any telephone, including their personal cellphone. Voki recordings can be called in by phone, created with text-to-speech (typing), using a microphone, or by uploading an MP3 file” and it is “TOO fun—making the avatar is so much fun that students lose their focus on task at hand, and spend more time making funny avatars”. Furthermore, this article provides various ideas for classroom applications.

Similarly, various online sources describe different ways to use Voki in the classroom. In his article Voki Creates an Education Site… Twenty Ways To Integrate Talking Avatars In The Classroom by Michael Gorman, the author provides a list of 20 interesting ways to use Voki in the classroom including test reviews, scavenger hunts, story writing and story telling, poetry and music composition, and much more.

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Personal Experimentation

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When experimenting with the free version of this tool, I ran into various malfunctions.

Firstly, the website did not recognize the accent in my name so my name appeared as Mélanie Lalonde instead of Mélanie Lalonde. This is not very useful for the application of this tool in a place such as Quebec in which many students might have accents in their names.

Secondly, when editing my personal information, the function edit “my birthday” was there but was unclickable so I was not able to edit my birth date.

Thirdly, there are always advertisements on both sides of the web page as seen in the image below, which is not recommended for pedagogical use with students.

Fourthly, I experience difficulties when creating my avatar. Although there are various possible ways to record and the process to record a voice segment was fairly clear and easy, I was confused as to how to create my character in the beginning. When seeing the dice under the illustration of the avatar, I though one had to randomly select a character which was not the case. Now a days we are so used to having a tutorial video or pop-up that explains how to proceed, but there is no such thing provided on this website. Once taking the time to play around with it, I found that it was fairly easy to create an avatar. However, the experience was time consuming which is something one wants to avoid, especially with students in the classroom.  Furthermore, some features such as accessories were unavailable in the free version of the tool.

Lastly, as voice recordings cannot be any longer than 60 seconds in the free version Voki, this might not be suitable for every user’s needs. It is true that it is possible to make more than one voice recording but it becomes a hassle as one has to create other avatars.

Although the process of creating an avatar, recording a voice segment, publishing and sharing the Voki turned out to be fairly easy, the experience as a whole was not great. Running into such malfunctions negatively affects the user’s outlook on the website as a whole, causing the great idea of communicating through avatars to be overlooked.

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Pedagogical Applications

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The idea behind Voki can be useful in the classroom in a variety of ways as illustrated by the applications presented in the image below. However, when using the free version of the website, the options become very limited, mostly because recorded segments are limited to 60 seconds and there is no access to the management system, the presentation tool, and the ready-to-teach material.

As a whole, this web tool provides an interesting way of evaluating students’ oral competencies when having students record audio segments using their own voices. It also introduces students to new ways of using the web for communication purposes.

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ESL Teaching Applications

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This idea behind the online tool can be useful when it comes to second language learning. Through the use of avatars, students are not pressured under the stress of standing up in front of the class to speak a new language in which they are prone to make errors. While eliminating the stress factor, the use of such a tool allows students who are shy to be able to deliver good speech.

Furthermore, Voki allows teachers to evaluate their students on the C1 competency as the students’ record their own voices in order to make their avatars speak. This can be a wonderful experience for the students who can record their segments as often as they like until they are completely satisfied with them.

Finally, as teachers can also create avatars to which their voice recordings are attached, students are exposed to language being taught. It is important for ESL students to hear the language they are learning in order to have clear examples of pronunciation, fluency, and intonation. Although it is true that such a tool is not necessary as students can hear the language in the classroom, Voki provides new opportunities by allowing students to hear the language outside the classroom, whenever and where ever they like.

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Conclusion

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After researching and experimenting with this tool, I came to the conclusion that Voki is a time consuming web tool that is based on a good idea that is simply poorly presented. Although the tool provides a secure environment for students to practice their oral competencies, the presentation of the website and the limited amount of recording time hinders the idea.

I cannot say that I would use Voki in the classroom but if I come across a well-presented website with a similar idea that provide more focus on the voice recording itself rather than on the visual aspect of the avatar, I would definitely use it in the classroom.

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Mélanie Lalonde, an ESL teacher in training from Laval University

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Powtoon: Traditional Learning Revised

During the past years, technology has been occupying an increasingly important role in education. Indeed, it has begun to change the dynamics of traditional learning and has progressively evolved to meet new educational standards.

With this in mind, Ilya Spitalnik, Daniel Zaturansky and Sven Hoffman joined forces in 2012 to develop a new online platform that would offer an interesting alternative to traditional teaching methods.

What is PowToon?

PowToon is an online platform destined to create personalized animated videos.

Three versions of the platform are offered: the free version, allowing up to five-minute presentations to be created, and the pro and business version, available at the monthly cost of 19$ and 59$, respectively. Subscriptions to the pro version offer more free music and styles, and allow for longer videos to be created.

How does it work?

To create a free account on PowToon, users must first provide their full name and email address, as well as the purpose for using the application (business, marketing and sales, training, education, personal and social events, etc.).

Once logged in, two choices are offered: users can either customize a ready-made PowToon or create a new one using a blank template.

A tutorial is then offered in order to explain the key features of the application. The web page looks like the following:

On the top of the page, users can access the standard functions related to animated video making such as the save, preview and export feature.

On the left hand side of the screen, options concerning additional templates are offered. Users can either decide to use the slideshow or movie format to create their presentations. Slides can then be viewed or rearranged by simply dragging them up and down the menu.

On the right hand side, options concerning special effects and graphics such as props, characters, markers, action buttons, backgrounds, and shapes, can be found. By using the timeline bar at the bottom of the screen, users can easily animate their characters by adding various effects.

Pedagogic use for an ESL teacher

As a future ESL teacher, PowToon offers a variety of options for creating simple and engaging animated presentations.

On one hand, teachers can present their course content, lesson plans, and activities by simply creating various slides using the application. Voiced explanations, along with animated characters, can then be added to the timeline to make the content more dynamic.

For example, some ESL teachers have previously used this application to explain grammar points to their students in a compelling and engaging way:

On the other hand, students can make their own PowToon presentations. With the help of the provided tutorial, students can navigate the platform and use their creativity to personalize their slides. PowToon can therefore serve as a visual aid during an oral presentation or for project-based assignments such as a book summary or review.

My opinion as a future ESL teacher

PowToon is an innovate, dynamic and creative tool that can be used to meet many educational purposes. Indeed, it allows ESL teachers to develop a new alternative to traditional teaching referred to as “flipped classroom.”

“The ‘flipped classroom’ is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions.” –Educause Learning Initiative

This phenomenon, gaining popularity all across the globe, includes numerous advantages for ESL teachers.

First, by exporting videos on Youtube, all students can have access to the course content at all times, as only an Internet connection is required. Lessons and activities can be easily accessed and shared amongst teachers and students. Consequently, this allows students to learn and progress at their own pace, reviewing certain lessons if necessary.

Second, using the “flipped classroom” technique with the help of Powtoon allows teachers to maximize classroom time by focusing on practice exercises, rather than theoretical concepts. Teachers can therefore spend more one-one-time with their students, which are, in turn, given the opportunity to ask questions about content material they find difficult or confusing.

Indeed, as noted by volunteer teacher Mr. Edson Tellez, using Powtoon in the classroom seems to have had beneficial effects on the students’ learning:

“They’re getting more creative, more receptive, and more dynamic in each class” –Edson Tellez, volunteer teacher.

Third, by creating such videos, students are free from distractions and interruptions that are likely to occur in a traditional classroom environment. This allows for a great time-saver, as it prevents teachers from having to interrupt their lessons to spend time on disciplinary measures.

Lastly, even teachers with limited computer skills can use PowToon, as the application is easy to navigate and use!

This is what Amy Gibson, High School teacher, attempted to explain:

“Finally, a presentation tool that incorporates an intuitive user interface, super cool comic graphics, is 200% less frustrating than Prezi, and offers a zillion more options than the free version of GoAnimate” –Amy Gibson, High School teacher.

That being said, by taking into account the benefits of using the “flipped classroom” method in second language classrooms, I would definitely recommend Powtoon to all ESL teachers.

Voki: A Fun Teaching Tool

According to Voki.com,

Educate, engage and enjoy with all our Voki products!

What is Voki?

Often used in the field of education, Voki is a website that allows the creation of animated characters. Voki users can create an avatar that looks like them or leaves room for imagination. They can also make their characters speak with their voice or use the pre-recorded voices available on the website. The avatars can finally be placed on a website. Voki also offers three other options for teachers to help them in their teaching: Voki Classroom, Voki Presenter and Voki Teach.

Creating an Avatar

Creating an avatar is simple and free. First, users must create a Voki account. Registration is simple and fast. Then by clicking on the “Create a new voki” tab, users of the software can create their avatar. They can choose a character among different styles: classical, animal, Oddballs, and more. They can also choose its clothes and accessories. A background can also be added and users can play with different colors to modify their character. Then, to make their character talk, the users of the website have four options: Record By Phone, Text To Speech, Record With Microphone and Upload An Audio File. It is important to mention that the “Text To Record” option allows the user to choose the language, sex and accent which the text will be read. Finally, users can email their Voki or post it on a blog, website or social media.

Here is a really helpful tutorial that shows how to go about using Voki.

As mentioned above, the website also offers other options than creating an avatar. Voki Classroom is one of these options; it allows teachers to manage their students’ assignments with accounts. Also, Voki Presenter is another option available on the website; an option that allows teachers to create visual and audio presentations, using avatars. Finally, Voki Teach offers teachers prebuilt presentations and lesson plans. It is important to mention here that the Voki option is free but the three other options are not free. You can consult the price list on the website.

My experience

From the very first time I used Voki, I immediately loved this website. First, the website is very easy to use. It is very clear and offers many explanations throughout creation. The software also has a section that provides users many ideas and a multitude of user tips. Also, some websites offer clear explanations on how to use Voki. Prezi.com was one of those websites that helped me create my avatar. If I would have to use voki in my class, I would show my students this website to make sure they clearly understand what are the different steps in order to create an avatar.  In addition, the site offers a very attractive and original content. I really enjoyed creating an avatar; the website offers a wide variety of options to create it. I had fun changing the hair, the clothes, the accessories, and the wallpaper of my animated character. Finally, the only thing I enjoyed less is the rapidity of the website. It was quite long to record my voice and then post my avatar on my Facebook profile, for example. In other words, the website lags a little.

 

My Point of View as a Future ESL Teacher

According to José Picardo,

Voki allows teachers and students to create speaking avatars in a fun, stimulating and engaging way.

Indeed, as a future English teacher, I believe that this software can only be beneficial for teaching. First, it is clear that using technology in class always interests students. By using this website, students can only be interested, entertained and motivated. This way, they participate more in class. Moreover, Voki can be enjoyable for learning a language. According to technology4kids.pbworks.com,

It’s a great way to improve your students’ speaking and listening skills in an engaging and innovative way.

As mentioned above, the avatar can take the voice you want. It is interesting for students to hear and become familiar with other voices than the one of the teacher. Students can therefore improve their ability to understand a language. Afterwards, it is worth using Voki to allow students to improve their ability to communicate in a second language. Learning a new language requires a lot of practice then asking students to create an avatar and then record audio recordings, teachers can help them to improve their ability to communicate orally. Finally, the website is easy to use, but I think it would be too complicated for elementary students to use it. I think I would use it most with high school students since it would be a waste of time to explain my young students the record section. I believe there are easier and faster ways to record elementary pupils.

There are many different types of activities that can be done with Voki. Some websites such as educationworld.com and techlearning.com provide teachers a range of ideas. Vocabulary, icebreaker and writing activities are different tasks mentioned by the two websites to help teachers include the use of avatars in class.

As a future teacher, I would use Voki for different purposes. First, in order to entertain my students, sometimes, instead of giving instructions orally, I would have my avatar give them instructions. Every now and then, I would change my avatar and its voice. This way, students would be likely to listen to different voices and accents.

Also, instead of asking my students to do an oral presentation, I would probably ask them to record their presentation through the use of an avatar. This way, some students would feel more comfortable and at the same time, I believe it is an interesting way to evaluate students.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Voki website, which is fun to use, offers many advantages for teachers that can greatly assist them in their teaching. Whether it is creating an avatar, using Voki Classroom to manage students’ assignments, using Voki Presenter to create entertaining presentations, or simply using Voki Teach in order to use preconceived lessons, Voki is the indispensable website for teachers. In addition, given the growing popularity of the use of different technologies, students can only appreciate the use of such a website to help them in their learning. Guaranteed fun!

Anabel Drouin

Laval University

 

 

 

 

 

 

PowToon: Bring Awesomeness Into the Classroom

“Most of my classes responded with clapping and a “That was awesome!”. To say the least, they were really impressed!”

–Elizabeth Frank, teacher

In Employons le français en français de base!, Miles Turnbull recommends several strategies to maximize the use of the Target Language (TL) in the classroom, which leads to an improvement in students’ language learning process. One of these strategies include strategies for teachers’ to make themselves understood by their pupils, such as using visuals, paraphrasing and writing key words on the board. Powtoon, a video-creating website, allows teachers to use almost all of the strategies mentioned by Turnbull. This tool provides students with a dynamic visual support that will definitely catch their attention.

What is it?

“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 is a presentation software which allows users to either create slideshows or short animated videos. One can decide to use one of the many templates offered or to start from scratch. Powtoon’s goal, as it is often used on the website, is to bring awesomeness to your presentations, and for students it hits right on the mark. The bubbly funny presentations will unquestionably leave your students speechless as it greatly differs from the traditional PowerPoint.

“If you are looking for an innovative way to create presentations that engage your students, PowToon is for you!”

–Shayla McGhee

On the free version of the website, you can access some of the content to create five-minute videos and share them on Youtube and Vimeo, giving the creator the possibility to embed the video on a website. By getting a license, teachers can also create a sort of “classroom” in which students can submit assignment.

As said on Green Light Learning Tool, “the free version of PowToon lets you build an animated video using a number of backgrounds, images, effects, and sounds. A paid subscription gives you additional choices as well as the option to publish your creation without the PowToon watermark.”

As explained on Powtoon’s blog, “when students create PowToons and save them under your group name, you will see the names of the students and a new submissions notice highlighted in yellow. By simply clicking on the new submission section, a new window will open which will allow you to view each PowToon individually.”

How does it work?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When you first go on the website, you simply need to click the big blue button to start. Before creating your first slideshow or video, you will have to sign up and you can do so by connecting Powtoon to your Google and Facebook account. If you have a professional account for wither of those two, it can come in handy. When that is done, you can choose to either start from scratch or a “ready-made” Powtoon. I decided to use one of their templates to see what it looks like. You have plenty of templates to choose from, and they are categorized by theme. Once you have chosen the desired template, you are ready to be creative!

Powtoon offers you the possibility to go “Simple Mode” or “Customized Mode”. I started on the first one, but soon changed to the latter because it allows for much more room to personalize the template (and I personally preferred the display). To change a picture, you simply have to click on it and then hit the “Swap” button to choose another pictogram from the library. The process is similar for the text, simply click on it once if you only want to change its colour, its font or its size; if you want to change the text you have to double click and it allows you to change the animation applied to the text. I especially appreciated the fact that I could see what the effects looked like. Powtoon also offers the possibility to Voice Over the video/slideshow or simply to add a song. When you are satisfied with the result, you can export your video to the desired website following the instructions provided. 

Although it looks quite simple, editing a template is quite consuming. I am at ease with such tools, and it took me about half an hour to modify the template I chose (and I did not change much). Therefore, if you are looking for something quickly done or if you not quite at ease with using such a tool, I would not recommend Powtoon.

Here is what mine looks like!

http://www.powtoon.com/embed/cjomKdkqxs5/

Powtoon as a Pedagogical Tool in an ESL Class

“A major factor in creativity is education: not whether you had a ‘good’or ‘expensive’or ‘public’ education, but whether you were encouraged to develop your creativity starting at an early age and continuing throughout your school years.”

– Adobe.Inc

The mind blowing fact is that developing creativity is the number one determining factor in the overall success of your students! Even if you teach in the most affluent school, with the most high end gadgets – your students are still only as good as the instructions given to them. They are only as good as the lesson you present and the creativity you encourage.

–Powtoon’s blog

As mentioned in Harry K. Wong’s There Is Only One Way to Improve Student Achievement, skillful teachers are the only reason for students’ academic improvement. By combining skillfully trained teachers with activities that foster creativity, it would doubly enhance students’ learning process. This is supported by Turnbull’s research as one other type of strategies he mentions are strategies to maxime students’ use of the TL. Such strategies include allowing students to personalize the content and choosing activities that interest students. By using dynamic presentation software as Powtoon, students would certainly engage more actively in language classes who tend to be seen as boring and repetitive.

One recent practice in classroom which also lead to students’ engagement is ‘flipping‘ the classroom. In the flipped classroom, students do all the learning at home where they can pause, rewind and review if they need to, and they do ‘homework’ in class. In an ESL classroom that leaves a great deal of time for students to interact, practice grammar rules and ask questions when they most need it. In fact, the most interesting aspect of flipping the classroom is that it allows for more effective differentiation. Students who have difficulties can be helped, and those who are more advanced can move forward. With its fun and short videos, Powtoon is definitely a great tool to integrate the flipped classroom to students.

 

“Finally, a presentation tool that incorporates an intuitive user interface, super cool comic graphics, is 200% less frustrating than Prezi, and offers a zillion more options than the free version of GoAnimate. I know we just met, PowToon, but I think I am in love.”

–Amy Gibson, High School teacher

Powtoon can also have various other uses in a traditional classroom. For instance, the Mission Impossible template, teachers can present assignment in a fun way一instead of the boring Word document, students are showed as a spy would, a mission which includes all requirements and evaluation criteria. Moreover, the software is an enjoyable way to present a new topic to students when starting a new unit while presenting them the unit’s vocabulary (eg. the Five Facts template). The presentation tool also an easy to follow Book Report template who could help be used with more advanced students who read novels. This way, students also get to choose a novel they are interested in as suggested by Turnbull and they get to do the same assignment. Advanced students could also be challenged to share ideas or beliefs using the tool in which they would have to prove their point or the challenge could simply be to use the tool for groups who are not as advanced. Videos can also help a substitute teacher! 

Finally, gone are the days where you had to reteach all the grammar rules students have forgotten over the summer! Powtoon is a great way to pack a lot of content into a few minutes of classroom time as said on Green Light Learning Tools (Students could even watch them at home!).

“There is a bit of a learning curve involved when using PowToon at first, but overall, we’ve found that the results are well worth the time and effort.”

–Green Light Learning Tools

Whether it is to flip your classroom, to present a project or to teach some vocabulary and grammar, Powtoon is a great lively tool that will catch students’ attention and get them to be more engaged.

Laurence Leclerc, first year BEALS students at Université Laval

An Overview of GoAnimate ( Blog article 3)

What is it?

According to Wikipedia,

“GoAnimate is a cloud-based, animated video creation platform [, which] is designed to allow business people [and other individuals] with no background in animation to quickly and easily create animated videos.”

GoAnimate was originally built by Alvin Hung in 2007. He wanted to create a short animated video but could not find any appropriate sites for his project. Thus, he created an online animated video creation platform that could serve his needs and others’ needs. In 2008, Go!Animate, which shifted to GoAnimate in 2012, was created. At first, GoAnimate was only used by regular individuals, such as teenagers and kids, but, the platform became more and more popular and held a lot of attention in the community. Therefore, businesses, such as Youtube, companies and schools asked to became partners. Of course, GoAnimate was not ready for that. For this reason, the owners of GoAnimate developed the website’s tools, such as its logo, themes, templates and business features, and adapted their product so that it could serve a much wider range of users. In 2011, GoAnimate also created a school animated video creation platform for teachers and students called GoAnimate for School “[…] featuring dedicated privacy, security, content moderation, and group management features.”  In 2012, GoAnimate became a whole new website with a lot of helpful and creative tools to create an animated video for anyone.

What does it offer?

As said earlier, GoAnimate is an animated video creation platform that allows individuals, from students to business associates, to use sophisticated filming tools to create their own short video. The video creation platform is designed to respond to a lot of different people’s needs. Just by creating your account, you can see all the possibilities that are offered to you; you can register as a K-12 educator, student, accountant, marketing professional and more.

When entering your homepage, GoAnimate greets users with a video that shows them how to begin with the platform, which really helped me to understand  how to create a video with their tools. Basically, GoAnimate provides a lot of possible templates that you can use depending on the type of video you want to create. Thus, you do not start with nothing, you have a lot of things that are offered to you beforehand, and, throughout the creation of your video, you can personalize the site’s features. To start your video, GoAnimate asks you to write an opening title; the size, the color, the type of writing and the background of your text can be adapted to your style. After this step, add a new scene to your video by choosing a category from 32 possible templates. Thus, a business man can decide to present his project using the office, marketing or finance template. Templates for schools, such as education and training, are possible as well. After clicking on the category,  different scenes are showed to you; you just have to drag one to the scene setting rectangle at the bottom of the page or you can click on the rectangle entitled “Add scene” at the bottom right of the page. You can add as many scenes as you want to your video.

You can also add narration, music and effects by clicking on the scene that you want at the bottom of the page. Then, you can change the scene settings (music, narration and effect) and the duration of your scene. The music can come from GoAnimate’s list or from your own music list, and, for the narration, you can use GoAnimate’s voice cover, type a text, or record your own voice. After adding additional features to your scenes, you can add other characters by clicking on the man at the left corner of your page. A lot of possible characters are offered to you, from business men or women to children or school educators; you can also change their clothing, their hairstyle, the shape of their face and body, their eye color, and more.

Moreover, you can change your characters’ action and position by clicking on them. Then, a range of possible actions will be offered to you at the left of the page. Also, you can personalize the objects of the scene by clicking on them.

Subsequent to this step, other features are offered to you. Amongst others, you can add texts, sounds (campfire, chicken peep, and ocean), grids, and percentages to your video. When your video is done, you click on preview at the top right corner of the page, which allows you to see your video before its published,  to notice some dysfunctions or mistakes in your video, and to correct them afterwards. Then, you can save it on your homepage as a draft, as private or as public, and you can now show the final product to others. GoAnimate for Schools is the safe version of GoAnimate; students’ videos cannot be published on the public internet nor shared on social networks without the teacher’s approval. GoAnimate for Schools offers quite the same things as GoAnimate, but it is more restricted (no weapons, no drugs or alcohol…). Teachers have the possibility to block offensive or disrespectful language and pictures that they don’t want their students to use, and they have the privilege to look at their students’ videos before allowing them to publish it on the class’ homepage.

My experience

To begin, I could not enter on GoAnimate for Schools because I needed a private school login URL, which I did not have. Thus, I will stick with GoAnimate, which is quite similar to the school platform.

The first thing I noticed about GoAnimate is that it is accessible for all people of different ages and different countries, and that there is a lot of support and documentation as how the platform works and on other aspects of it. There were a lot of videos on the platform and on social media (YouTube) to guide new users.

When I logged in the animated video creation platform, I registered as a student, which allowed me to see the site from a student perspective, even if students, teachers and other professionals have access to almost the same thing on the platform. At first, it was quite difficult to create the video because there were too many options offered to me, which can be overwhelming for students, especially for young students. Thus, I do not recommend to use this platform for elementary students because it is too advanced for their age, and they may not have the patience to do a project this big. However, I recommend to use it with older students from high school, Cegep or University, because it will develop their creativity, critical-thinking, and technological skills, which are very important skills to master at their age. Furthermore, the animated video creation platform helps learners to master English since the platform is only in this language; they need to write and read texts in English, and to speak in English to record their voice. Therefore, students can improve their English competencies (C1, C2, and C3). Even though the options can be overwhelming, it is also useful to have a lot of options for the creation of a video since all students have different interests. Thus, if a student wants to make a video on holidays and another one wants to make it on science and technology, they can do it. For school projects, I recommend teachers to use the platform for group or pair work since it can be a lot of work for one person. Finally, GoAnimate is a useful design and creation website that engages students in digital creation of professional-looking animations.

Use in ESL teaching

The possibilities on GoAnimate are endless. As said on GoAnimate for Schools app on Google Chrome, teachers can use the platform “[…] for flipped classrooms, lesson introductions, presentations and reports, language training and to engage students with special needs.”  For instance, ESL teachers can use GoAnimate to practice and develop ESL students’ spoken, writing and reading English. GoAnimate can be used as a tool to demonstrate and evaluate students’ mastery of the English competencies by asking them to record their voice in English, to put their writing skills into action, and to read the description and instruction of each templates, which is in line with Mary Berth Hez’s point of view.

In addition, ESL teachers can use this platform to present some new topics in English, which can be used as an alternative to PowerPoint presentations, since a lot of different templates are offered on the website. As presented by  Michelle S., an English Language teacher, GoAnimate can be used “[…] to create announcements, instructions, or project examples for […] students, which [she] embed[s]  in [her] online classes for [students] to view.” Most of the time, she uses this website to have students create a project that reflects their learning of the class’ subjects. For this reason, the platform is very useful to evaluate students’ improvement throughout the year. Also, students can learn some new English vocabulary from the teacher and students’  video that may include new words because of the many options available on the platform.

Some of the more negative points are that it is impossible to attribute students’ grade of their work on the website, the projects on the website may last for a long period of time without a clear due date, and some educators find that there are some inappropriate cartoon violence and crude language for students, which are more restricted in GoAnimate for Schools, but still remain a little bit present. Also, GoAnimate is not free; the school has to pay 2$ per student per year for an unlimited number of HD videos. In my oponion, it  can be a good deal,  but it always depends on the number of students you have in your class and how many classes you have.

Overall, I recommend this platform for all teachers but especially ESL teachers. The platform makes learning a new language more interesting for students because of the different templates and options available on the website. For instance, the teacher can experiment different English accents to make the class more interesting. Thus, students will be more motivated to learn and to use the TL (target language). Finally, ESL teachers can really benefit from this website, especially from the tools available for the presentation of new units and subjects, and for the evaluation of students’ English skills development.