PowToon Tutorial

PowToon is a tool to create free, dynamic, animate, interesting, and attractive online presentations and videos that includes different types of media: music, audio, images, animation, movement, text. It is free and can be used for a variety of purposes: either for business, education, marketing, et cetera. PowToon is easy to use and fun since you just drag objects and text and move them. However, it may require some time to make a good presentation.

PowToon is a tool that can effectively be used in education, for both teachers and students can profit from it. Teachers may use this tool for storytelling and to deliver presentations and explanatory videos on, for example, rules or topics, while students may profit form it and use it to present a video about a particular subject or review new learning, among others. Basically, Powtoon seems to help teachers and students to create great visually engaging content, and may also seem to be provide students with a fantastic medium to share their ideas.
 

Tutorial

Once you have created an account, you need to start using it. Here you have these steps that hopefully will help you!

1. Firstly, press the “create” button to begin with your own presentation.

2. Then, you have different options: you may choose to edit a ready-made Powtoon, in which case you modify an already existing presentation or you may decide to create your own from scratch (Dynamic presentations are not available yet).

3.  We will focus on the latter: presentations from scratch. There are several templates you can use; you can choose an existing style that provides you with a description of it, a video you may watch in advance and the possibility to begin your PowToon following that style. You may even get inspired by the different styles of the templates.

4. You can also start your own presentation in blank.  Give a name to your presentation – you can change the title later.

It is important to get familiarized with the different elements to PowToon has. You are always provided with 3 slides, and later you can add more or delete them.

There are different styles you can choose. According to the style, you will have different characters, props, backgrounds and markers. Click on the arrow to see them and select the one you want.

There are different backgrounds and transitions, too. You may select a distinct background for each slide and also add transitions between the slides.

The bar at the bottom of the page is very important because it represents time. There you select how long you want your slides, text and/or pictures to last and when exactly you want the last two to show up or disappear.

5. Now it is time to start. Move the pointer towards the slide and you will notice an arrow shows up. Click on it and you will see different layouts for the slides. Mind you: you may use these layouts or not; they offer you some help.

6. When you find a layout that you like, click on it and it will automatically appear on your slide. If you choose a layout, the effects of the text will be provided in advance. Still, you may click on the effect that you want and use that text instead of the one that is provided.

Double click on the text and write what you want, or click on the pencil that appears next to the text to also change the font, size and colour of the text.

Note: If you decide NOT to use the layouts, you just select the text effect and arrange the slide the way you want to.

 7. Control the amount of time the slide and the elements on it – text and pictures – will last by means of the bar at the bottom.

8. Once you finish your first slide, you may select a transition and then work on the next slides.

9. Once you finish your presentation, save it.

10. This Powtoon will now appear in your dashboard. You can edit it later. Once you do so, you can share or publish it. 

Here you have a link with a sample of a PowToon presentation: 

PowToon Presentation

See an Activity on PowToon

Bibliography

Using Pinterest for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2014, from http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/UsingPinterestforEducation.aspx