Child's Play

Powtoon: Powtoon is a site dedicated for visual presentations.This tool definitely has the appeal for the younger crowd.  The features are very cartoony, kid friendly, and the tutorials use language that is less intimidating than crazy technical jargon.  Signing up allows for a more limited use of characters, gallery, background options than if you paid for any educational package.  On a frugal note, the packages aren’t that expensive, but that also depends on how much you use video presentation for your students to demonstrate understanding.

This is by no means your average presentation tool.  It’s original music selection, animation, and themes bring a fresh perspective to the world of powerpoint.  I would use this tool as a differentiation method for students who struggle with the Keynote/powerpoint method because of its less intimidating way of organizing a slide.  The animation of characters during my exploration makes me think this could be used as a summarizing activity.  Students can develop slides to mimic a storyline while doing a voiceover of more abstract ideas like characterization, theme, making connections, and drawing conclusions (to name a few).  However, I can see the students being limited by the smaller catalogue of the free sign up.

I’m actually surprised about the scoring of this tool. Perhaps it’s the kid in me, and I was distracted by the fun-ness in the tutorials. I expected all 4’s as I was slowly crashing from my euphoria of childhood bliss and gave it 3’s.  The major factor in this tool’s scoring is the limitations set by pricing.  If you like free things (which is as far as I’m taking it concerning this evaluation), and you need a tool to introduce students to video presentations in order to get them comfortable, this is the site for you.  

Communication Tool Rubric

	User Friendliness	Safety	Customization for Educators	Cross-Curricular Application	Cognitive Differentiation
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and would need modification in order to support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.
Additional notes