A Presentation using PowToon and Camtasia

My presentation is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Y1aceWLF1PRXIwT0RXRkRxMGc/view?usp=sharing.

I created this presentation using PowToon available at http://www.powtoon.com. I used the free version, which, however, has enough features to create good animated presentations. I learned to use PowerToon quickly, perhaps in a couple of hours.  I'm the trial-and-error type, who learns faster on a real and authentic task. However, if you’re a different kind of learner, who needs directions, there’s a lot of help available on YouTube. These are three examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRqO5MasiFk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFv8L0z-72c or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XokhlijAAI0.

PowToon, as most of the best technology (including Prezi and the interactive smart board), was created for the business community. However, if one follows simple guidelines, such as, using sans serif fonts, keeping words and pictures to an essential minimum, making the presentation accessible to all (even those who have hearing and visual impairments) and using animation to enhance the presentation (but not flashing or rotating images - which are uncomfortable for participants who suffer from travel sickness), one can create interesting educational presentations which are ADA/508 compliant.

I also used Camtasia from TechSmith to integrate the audio and video, to edit the presentation, and convert it to the mp4 format.

Learning objectives

I intend to use this video about the importance of dialogue in learning in my course on adult learners in the online medium. It has two main aims: (i) to introduce the students to the debate about dialogue in learning; and (ii) to trigger/stimulate a discussion based on the students’ own reflections and conclusions about their own learning process through dialogue.

Challenges

Using PowToon did not involve much of a learning curve. It’s animation features, even in the free version, can produce a very ‘professional’ looking presentations similar to the animated video presentations many students are used to on social media. Unfortunately, PowToon does not come with a voice-over feature. The voice over (or video, as in my presentation) must be added through a third-party software.

Recording myself and editing the presentation through Camtasia were the biggest challenges. I'm not good before the camera and had to make many takes for the end product to be 'acceptable' for viewing by others. I also was in difficulty when integrating the video with the PowToon presentation. I spent many anxious moments trying to synchronous both.