What is project-based learning?

Critical thinking, collaboration, teamwork, and presentations are key elements involved in project-based learning. Another way to view project-based learning is as a tool used to train students for the workforce through hands-on approaches. Project-based learning requires task oriented work which greatly differs from more traditional classroom models, but has proven to be extremely effective in the classroom.

When students are given tasks to demonstrate their knowledge through things like website creation, plays, experimentation, or presentations, they not only enjoy working with the subject matter, but they learn through implementation.

Benefits of project-based learning

1) Students learn to problem solve and think critically

2) Subject matter is understood and retained more through hands-on learning

3) Students learn to communicate by presenting research findings

4) Students are more engaged with the subject matter through project-based learning

5) Students learn how to conduct research, and how to explore all available resources

6) By taking charge of their own projects, presenting their findings in front of the class, or industry leaders, they become groomed for the workforce

Project based learning is becoming the norm for all students, starting with early childhood education. When young children are given real-world tasks, such as figuring out the procedure to fly to Brazil (as shown in the video above) they become engaged, excited, and put a maximum amount of effort into their projects.

Students of all ages benefit from project-based learning, and it is excellent training for when they enter the workforce. More and more frequently employees are faced with project oriented tasks where they are expected to create, research, implement, and present. Developing and honing these problem solving and critical thinking skills early on in a student’s education will arm them with tools to successfully navigate the workplace when they reach that stage.

When you ask your students to create presentations for their project based assignments don’t forget to tell them about Powtoon,​ which is a software that will enable them to learn, create, and have fun in the process! It’s a wonderful tool for both teachers and students, and is revolutionizing presentations in the classroom!

For information on our education packages click here!

The post Project-Based Learning: Why educators are revising lesson plans appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Welcome to a new and exciting way for you to create Powtoons and post them directly to your instructor’s classroom page. The first thing you will need to do is to click on the signup link that your teacher will send to you by email. Once you have created your own account, you are ready to have fun with Powtoon. Here’s How:

Once you are registered as a student, you will be directed to this main page. It is from here where you will start the journey of creating Powtoons. You just need to click the “start” button in order to begin your Powtoon masterpiece.

After you hit the start button, you will be prompted to create a name and description for your Powtoon. Below that you will see a dropdown menu where you can assign your Powtoon to a group, either under your teacher’s name or another group name that your teacher provides.

There are several educational templates that you can use to create Powtoons, but templates are discussed in another article. We are going to show you in this tutorial what to do once your Powtoon has been created.

After you have created your Powtoon and you wish to submit it to your teacher, click on the “save” icon at the top left of the screen.​

From here you will need to go back to your main student page and click on “My Powtoons,” in order to see your saved Powtoon list.

You can see that under the name of the Powtoon is the group you have chosen ​ — in this case it is the name of the teacher. Once you have reviewed your Powtoon and it is ready to submit, you simply click on the submit button and your assignment will automatically appear in your teacher’s list of Powtoons.

Check out some of our tutorials (http://www.powtoon.com/tutorials/)/ on how to create Powtoons before you get started.

Have fun with your new classroom experience using Powtoon!

About the Author

Janis Raisen is an experienced journalist with a diverse portfolio. Her published articles can be found in an array of publications and online platforms.

Connect with Janice on LinkedIn.

The post Working with Powtoon in the classroom (for students) appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Considering how many presentations we give and watch in our lives, you’d think good presentation design would be a common and easy skill. So how come most presenters use slides that look absolutely terrible?

Do you always use PowerPoint’s default templates? Do your keynote slides look like PowerPoint slides made ten years ago, complete with clunky transitions and bad sound effects? Do your Prezi shows make your audience get dizzy? Keep reading to find great tips for presentation design!

The NSA PowerPoint presentation – Smart people can’t design slides.

The alternative to boring PowerPoint slides

Presentation design is founded on 4 main principles:

• Contrast

• Repetition

• Alignment

• Proximity

(or CRAP, for the acronym-inclined)

Presentation Design Tip #1: Contrast

Contrast is the key to making your presentation slides look more professional and easier for your audience to see. Proper presentation design using contrast helps people understand what is significant and what is less so. When applying contrast to your presentations, for instance, you can emphasize main points with larger text. Larger graphics or objects contrasted with smaller objects also can have the same effect.

Presentation Design Tip #2: Repetition

​

Professionally designed slides are just as critical for conveying your ideas as well-written

content. Repetition in your slides using visual consistency, acts an anchor to guide your viewer and illustrates professionalism. Your audience will look for repetition in your visuals, which will help them to retain your message and stay focused.

Three ways to use repetition in your presentations

• Use the same size font and placement of titles on all of your slides

• Your title fonts should be placed at the end of each slide to tie your message together

• Repeat an image or logo on every slide, but change its size and location

Presentation Design Tip #3: Alignment

Text that is not aligned is uncomfortable for your viewers to read, since people’s eyes are inclined to look for objects in alignment. It is cumbersome to scan text that is not uniform. In most cases, using a left text alignment will create the desired outcome for your professional presentation and create a sense of familiarity. You can read more about alignment here.

Presentation Design Tip #4: Proximity

The closer that objects are placed to each other, the more we assume they are connected in some way. Grouping objects together to convey your message is important for supporting your idea. Try to place just one message on each slide to help to clarify your points. You can learn more about Proximity here.

Powtoon’s flexible tools and animated characters can help you to create an engaging presentation using these simple rules. But don’t take our word for it, give it a try!

The post Presentation Design – The PowerPoint alternative appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Why has flipping the classroom become so popular?

Technology is changing the dynamics of learning; how do you flip a classroom and engage your students?

The traditional teaching method of standing and lecturing at students and assigning homework based on lectures that students will only hear once, is becoming a thing of the past. ​ This one-dimensional approach may have worked for a small percentage of students, but the majority of students have higher levels of understanding and retention with the inverse of this method, called “flipping the classroom.” So now the latest buzz is focused on how to flip a classroom and how it will impact students.

With advanced technology available to both students and teachers, teachers are changing their lesson plans in the classroom to digital formats and methods, by creating digital lectures and placing them online for students. This avenue allows students to spend as much or as little time as they need on lectures; they can set their own pace. By “flipping the classroom” traditional homework is done in class, while listening to class lectures becomes the homework.

Benefits of a flipped classroom

1) Teachers can spend more one-on-one time with their students during a flipped classroom

2) Online lectures can be shared and discussed between teachers and improve flipped classroom techniques and strategies

3) Students can apply in class what they learned at home

4) Students who take longer to understand concepts can watch online lectures at home as many times as they want without feeling embarrassed

5) Students who are more advanced can breeze through the lectures, or skip to later lectures, yet still benefit from class time

How do teachers make the transition to a flipped classroom?

An organization and resource website has been created to help teachers transition to a flipped classroom setting. In this community, teachers can post videos and share information. http://flippedclassroom.org/

How do students make the transition to flipped classrooms?

Teachers may not realize that students also need to adjust to this new method of teaching, and need to understand why this trend is taking over. How will students react to a flipped classroom? Click on the image below to watch this movie about the flipped classroom

​

What kinds of online lectures will work for a flipped classroom?

All subjects, including math, science, languages and history, are suitable for online lectures for the flipped classroom model. ​ With more visuals possible through online lectures, instructors can also make the material more interesting and entertaining than in the traditional classroom setting.

Although there may be different kinds of online presentations, animated presentations are great options for both engaging and entertaining students. Our animation software at Powtoon is quickly growing in the educational sector and perfect for flipping the classroom.

Thanks to Janis Raisen for writing this article.

The post How To Flip a Classroom appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Should you hire an animator to create professional videos for your business? Or, should you make your own video using an online video editor? Master Powtoonist and Presentation designer Carl Kwan explains in this short animated video clip how to decide if you should create your own animated videos or hire a pro to make them for you.

In this video, Carl explains that you might want to make your own video with an online video maker like Powtoon if you have a solid video idea, you have a script you love, and you’re comfortable recording a voiceover. Creating a video yourself can be a cost-saver if you’re a small business on a budget and you’re comfortable watching a tutorial video or two and diving in. 

Using Powtoon’s video templates make it easy to create a high-quality video for your business or learning platform. The online video editing software is easy to use and designed for people with little or no experience making videos or presentations. Just by looking at some sample videos, going through the tutorials, and playing around with the software, you can easily make your own video.

Powtoon is a great tool for making animated videos, explainer videos, instructional video content, and Presentations if you’re not a video–making pro but you’re familiar with the basics of video creation. It’s easy to make your own videos with our simple video editor. Follow our tutorials and watch some of the Powtoon examples to get started making your own video.

A Professional Powtoonist is a great choice if you have some great video ideas and need your videos created quickly or if you just don’t have a good sense of animation, design, storytelling, or branding. If you don’t have the time to create your own video, you’ve tried making a video yourself and the finished product wasn’t what you were looking for, or you need a high-quality professional video fast, hiring a Powtoonist might be the way to go.

If your brand, image, and reputation are at stake and you need to focus on other business matters, hiring a Powtoonist to create your video is a good investment. They know how to create amazing videos to get your audience to take action.

See this example video made by Carl Kwan.

If you want to hire a Powtoonist. We have a couple to recommend here: http://www.powtoon.com/studio/

The post Should You Make Your Own Video or Hire an Animator? appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

In celebration of 500,000 Powtoons created​ landmark, we decided to give back to the community​ by​ donating 500,000 EDU accounts to to schools across America.

Powtoon is the latest and most intuitive cloud-based animated presentation tool available on the web. Teachers and students all over the globe are using it to reshape education as we speak!

Now it’s our turn to give back: We believe that every student should have access to the best educational technologies. So we are giving 500,000 Powtoon4EDU licenses to education associations across the globe.

The campaign, dubbed “Toon Up!” is designed so that educational organizations benefit by creating engaging content, and Powtoon benefits by creating brand awareness. ​ Participating educational organizations will receive a custom branded Powtoon e-book, which Powtoon encourages them to make available as a free book to all of their members/educators. A custom link for download can be made available as well.

Over 50 Associations have partnered up with Powtoon for this giveaway including:

Association​ of​ American Educators

Professional Educators of​ Tennessee

Aberdeenshire Schools

Upsala Area Schools

Pine Hill School District​ of NJ

Emerson Public Schools

Glenbrook High School District #225

Frenship ISD

Rockingham​ County Public Schools

Dover-Sherborn Public School​ District

University of Phoenix

Interested educators and educational organizations should visit www.powtoon.com to register their organization and to receive a branded “Cartoon Marketing In The Classroom” eBook along with a branded coupon code.

*This article was originally posted in August 2013. To always be in-the-know about upcoming EDU campaigns, we sure to join our newsletter at www.powtoon.com

The post Powtoon Celebrates 500,000 Presentations with a Nationwide Gift to Educators appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Example of video made using the Creanimate Comic Style​

What’s in the style?

This style is perfect for corporate grade videos. ​ Banks, Offices, B2B, Government or any kind of official setting.

*This article was originally posted in July 2013. To stay up-to-date with our latest features, check out Powtoon’s product updates here!

The post Presentation design: New Style added to Agency Users appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Well if you didn’t – take a closer look at the word “Secret”. ​ The​ embarrassing​ part? In the time it took to correct the error thousands of people downloaded the book.

But there is another side to the story: ​ only a few short hours later another reader sent this email:

“I want to share my experience with your platform and book.

I needed to create a short explainer few months ago and searched for possible options. Being a creative guy I love putting things together on my own but I need them to look great. ​ I remember logging in playing with the interface with different slides and coming to the conclusion that it will not help me get something great fast.

Months went by and I kept getting and mostly ignoring your emails until I saw that you want to teach with the book how to make great explainer toons. ​ I told myself I would click the link and if there is a PDF ill read it. If it is a form or a link to buy something I would close it. ​ I did not think that I would use your platform but thought I might learn something useful.

When I read the ebook I was blown away because I understood that I totally missed the workflow you had in mind. I suspect that most people will start editing slides like PowerPoint and will not get great results. The key as I now understand is the story. Obvious to you but I thought that clicking away will result in something useful.

I now realize that if you add a workflow wizard and make people record timing script and then add slides and shape them even filling the table you have in the book in the app you would give a solution and not just a graphic editor.

After reading the book and most people don’t read I have much more appreciation for the solution and can picture myself doing something cool with it. In fact last night I started on the script of one on about 10 explainers I need to do for various ventures.

Hope it helps.

Roy D.”

Roy Makes some great point. ​ Let us know what you think too! ​ Here is the link to the corrected version of the book:​ https://www.powtoon.com/cartoonmarketing/​

The post How embarrassing…. appeared first on Powtoon Blog.

Powtoon is​ continuously​ adding new style libraries so you can make ever​ awesomer animated videos or animated presentations. ​ Here is a sneak peak at some of what is already available to premium accounts.

Cartoon Style

Katie Davis Style

Shadow Style

Retro Style

Mini Town Style

Creanimate Style

*This article was originally posted in August 2013. To stay up-to-date with our latest features, check out Powtoon’s product updates here!

The post Premium Animation Style Libraries appeared first on Powtoon Blog.