This week we were tasked to explore a new-to-us tool/app to showcase our progress! I decided to use Powtoon, a site that allows you to make simple, animated videos. I used the website to create a short lesson that includes some basic embroidery tips I’ve learned along the way.

My first impression of Powtoon was that it could be a great tool for presentations and an alternative to a simple Powerpoint presentation. The website offers a wide variety of templates which is very neatly organized by their purpose, such as knowledge sharing, remote learning, and templates for teachers. I appreciated this as it made finding a template for your specific needs easy. Some examples include a trivia template, a book report template, and a timeline template. These would all be great for fun lesson resources or for students to use as a way to present their learning. The downside of this was that almost all of the templates were for members, which requires you to pay for a membership. Teachers can get a very large discount and there is also a school board option.

Once I selected a template it was super easy to edit it to my needs. Powtoon includes a large amount of design freedom so you are able to create some very attention-grabbing presentations if you’re creative enough. However, another setback I encountered was the difficulty in importing your own videos and photos. Powtoon requires everything to be in MP4 format, seemingly not what an IPhone formats anything into. I was able to get 1 video uploaded but every other video was rejected. When uploading my pictures I had to send it to my computer, screenshot it off my computer, crop it, and then upload into Powtoon. It was very annoying and time consuming. I would absolutely not recommend Powtoon if your goal was to include video lessons. Another downside to Powtoon was that there are restrictions on exporting videos if you do not have the pro feature. I had to screenrecord my Powtoon, which removed the audio, and then upload it to Youtube.

This week I focused on perfecting some basic stitches as I worked through my Powtoon video. I had my sister draw me a design, which I used to showcase the tips in my video. I aim to use this piece as a way to master the basics so that in coming weeks I can attempt learning from sources I find more challenging, such as written instructions. I chose my stitches based off what I wanted to showcase in my video. This turned out to be a bit of a waste since Powtoon is very difficult to use if trying to include your own sources.

Overall I think Powtoon could be a really fun way of making small lessons that your students could access at any time. If you were teaching an online class or wanted to have certain things available for students to study from that aren’t notes, Powtoon could be very fun. I specifically like the idea of making timeline videos, trivia games, or tip videos for students to look back at throughout the semester. I also think it makes a great tool for students to make short presentations from. Students can add voiceovers as well. This would allow other students to go back and view these videos in a useful way, as they wouldn’t require a presentation from the original creator. I’d like to emphasize that the free version is not the greatest as it allows limited templates, limited time for videos, and limited sharing.

I think this tool would fall between Augmentation and Modification on SAMR model. I think it could be used to change the way lessons are taught in a way that allows students to go back and use them again and again. I also believe, if used in different ways, it could redesign the way students are able to showcase their learning. Most likely this tool would be difficult for younger students to navigate in an effective way, but it is a visually stimulating and exciting way for teachers to create learning games. I see this tool as a benefit to upper years students as a way to offer lessons other than notes or powerpoints. If you’d like to view my Powtoon you can see it here!