PowToon

If you're sick of PowerPoint (and if you're not, you should be...'cause your kids are), check out PowToon. PowToon is an extremely easy-to-use presentation app that gives you only the coolest and most effective options from the presentation heavyweights like PowerPoint and Keynote and wraps them up into a nice tidy little package for you or your students to utilize quickly to create a sleek, visually appealing self-playing presentation. You even have the option to insert video.

You'll have to register with an email address, and you'll only be able to export five of your presentations to video before being cornered into choosing to purchase their premium services or not. Whatever. I guess we can make as many email addresses as we need.

How does it work in the classroom?

PowToon is a great way to introduce projects or even basic assignments because it allows you to create a self-playing presentation that can be viewed time and time again and paused on whatever content needs to be seen again for a longer period of time. You can create a presentation that outlines the steps to beginning a new project as well as a checklist of the items that are required to be completed by the first checkpoint and maybe even a rubric. Post that video in a place where your students can access it, and they'll be able to refer to that presentation throughout the duration of the project. If nothing else, it provides the students with a different method of getting that information than having to listen to you, the teacher, just preach it or by reading it from a sheet of paper.

Students can also create their own PowToon as a simple product for a project. The interface is so easy to use that kids will pick it up in no time, and the finished product looks so professional that it surely will wow anyone who views it.