Because I had to create a pre-recorded story time for my preschool class, I thought this assignment was a great opportunity to do so. I have used Zoom and Google Meet to teach virtually, and while both are user friendly, they don’t have many extra features. I’ve always liked using Prezi for presentations, so I decided to use their video presentation template. I found it easy to use and the readily available visuals, such as GIFs, stickers, creative commons photos, convenient It was also easy to add text, and while I’ve always disliked seeing myself on video, I think Prezi made it easy to create a more professional, engaging, and polished. I am now an even more avid fan of Prezi, and although the free account is pretty decent, this experience convinced me the $3 monthly subscription fee is a good deal.
Another video tool that I explored was Animoto. I really liked this tool as well, and I appreciate the free educator account. While I’ll still largely rely on Prezi for creating pre-recorded lectures and presentations, Animoto offers some neat templates with fresh purposes. I really liked their newsletter template, and I’ll definitely use this to replace traditional ans stale paper newsletters (and electronic versions of traditional newsletters). Their assignment instructions are handy, too!
The final tool I explored was Loom. I used Loom quite a bit while teaching virtually because it’s a handy way to walk students through complicated directions step-by-step. I like that you can have audio and screen without emphasizing the speaker in the video. Sometimes, I just needed to show my students how to use certain things in Google or how to access features in their online textbooks, and Loom was great for that. It was easy to show how to do something onscreen, narrate it, and post it somewhere kids and parents could go back to for help whenever needed.
I have never used Prezi and did not want to have to create an account but you may have inspired me to do so. Three dollars a month for the paid version is really cheap. I am curious to see if it is better than Animoto which I really liked. I used Loom a lot too last year and enjoyed it because it was so simple and easy to use. At least something was easy last year.
I too have never used Prezi but looks like it might be user friendly, even for me! I was able to navigate through Animoto pretty comfortably. I did hit a few obstacles so would love to compare it to Prezi. I’m going to try and use Loom for a project I have to turn in for another class. Nice to hear that you had a good experience with it. I agree with Cathy Summers, most of my assignments have been quite challenging! Glad to hear I’m not the only one!
I probably like Prezi because I don’t have technological instinct. I’m sure not as skilled with Animoto, but so far, I like it. I agree with you about Loom–it was nice to have something that was reliable and easy to learn during a very hectic year!