Powtoon is an online platform for creating short video presentations. Powtoon gives anyone the ability to create professional videos and presentations. You can select from royalty-free libraries of animation, live-action video, images, designed backgrounds, soundtracks, and moving graphics, or you can use your own visual content and voiceover.
Tool Snapshot
| Price |
Student ($4/month), Teacher ($8/month), and Institution Plans |
| Learning |
Constructionism |
| Ease of Use |
★★✩✩✩ |
| Privacy |
★★★✩✩ |
| Accessibility |
★✩✩✩✩ |
| Class Size |
One user per account |
| Login |
Yes |
| ISTE*S |
Creative Communicator & Global Collaborator |
COPPA/
FERPA |
Yes |
Powtoon Overview Video
Watch on YouTube
Powtoon & the SAMR Model
Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model offers a lens for examining how technology is adopted in a classroom. As you strive to incorporate online tools into your classroom, we encourage you to use this model as an analytic tool.
Here is an example of how Powtoon might fit the SAMR model:
- Substitution: Students use Powtoon to create a short, digital presentation (instead of giving an in-person presentation).
- Augmentation: Students create a multimodal video that presents their understanding and knowledge of a topic.
- Modification: Students have access to a library of royalty free music and objects to enhance their presentations.
- Redefinition: Students can create professional quality whiteboard animation video without any prior graphic design/animation knowledge or skills.
Learning Activities
Science
Students can create a Powtoon that takes you on a tour of a cell or walks you through the step-by-step process of a lab experiment.
English/Language Arts
Students can create a Powtoon as a book report.
Arts
Students can describe significant historical painters or musicians in their Powtoon.
Other
Students can introduce themselves to a new class by creating a Powtoon about them.
Resources
How to Use Powtoon
- Step 1: Script: Create a script that describes what will happen in every “scene”.
- Step 2: Voice-Over Guide / Background Music: Choose a background track for your music or record a voice-over guide. This means that you need an mp3 file of the TEXT PARTS of the script read out as they will appear in the Powtoon.
- Step 3: Dividing the Slides: Start creating slides according to the script. Each slide represents a scene and an idea as outlined in the script. Try to keep your slides short, this way you can put a lot of interesting visuals in your Powtoon.
- Step 4: Populate the Slides: Now it’s time to add graphics, background, props, images and characters to your slides.
- Step 5: Timing: Now you have to time it all. This is the last step and is actually one that can have a significant effect on the “professional” look and feel of your final result. The PowToon timeline is designed to allow you to easily adjust the appearance and timing of all the elements on the screen.
Research
Oktaviani, L., & Mandasari, B. (2020). Powtoon: A digital medium to optimize students’ cultural presentation in ELT classroom. Teknosastik, 18(1), 33-41.
Rioseco Pais, M. H., Nogués, F. P., & Muñoz, B. R. (2017). Incorporating powtoon as a learning activity into a course on technological innovations as didactic resources for pedagogy programs. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 12(6), 120.