For this week’s assignment, we were required to choose a new tool to display our progress in our learning project. I decided to use Visme; an online platform that allows you to make an animated video. Visme is similar to PowerPoint and Canva, where you can edit multiple pages with animations and music to make a video. I believe Visme is a useful tool for the classroom and students.
There is a premium version of Visme, but you absolutely do not need to buy it. The only downside is that you cannot download the animated video to your device, but you can share it as a link. Visme can be used to have animated pictures, similar to Canva, or you can make an animated video with music. The best part of Visme is that you can choose a template for your project. After choosing a template, you can start playing with the controls.
Visme when working on a project
First, you want to edit each page, and have every piece on the page. This is easy to do as you can group elements on the page, and hide them from view so it is easier to work. There are hundreds of elements and shapes to choose from on the left side tab; you can add your own images as well as Visme’s images and shapes. After having all of your elements laid out on your page, you want to draw your attention to the timeline at the bottom. The timeline is where you can animate the elements, organize when each element will be on the page, and edit the music.
The Timeline and Animation Options
There are several animations to choose from, each element can have it’s own animation. The timeline is also where you can troubleshoot and view your video as your making it. I highly recommend doing this as you will most likely have to move your elements around while working on the timeline, so troubleshooting and re-checking as you go is a must. For the audio, you could add a song, or even a voice recording if it is a presentation.
I believe that Visme can be very useful in the classroom. Students can use Visme for projects and presentations, while educators can use it for fun lessons. On the SAMR Model, I think Visme would fall under the Augmentation and Modification category.
For students, Visme can be an excellent tool for presentations when the student is absent. If the student uses their own recorded voice for the audio, the student would not need to be there for presentations. Although it is very important for students to learn public speaking through in-class presentations, Visme can be used as a tool so that there does not have to be presentation class time. Instead, the time can be used for other classes.
For educators, Visme can be used when they will not be present. They can use their own audio to teach lessons without them being there, while making the presentation fun and exciting for students. For educators, Visme would fall under the Augmentation category of the SAMR Model because content made in Visme can be shared between educators as well.
Visme does have a few downsides, as a PowerPoint presentation does not take as long as a Visme presentation. If it is a longer presentation, it would be beneficial to use the easier and simpler platform. As well as for younger students, Visme may be too lengthy and complicated of a platform to use, but could be very beneficial to secondary students.
In conclusion, I enjoyed using Visme to document my progress in my learning project. Although it was a very lengthy process to learn how to use the platform. Below is my Visme link to my learning project documentation.
My Learning Project through Visme