Andrea Duggan presented on four web tools for bringing lessons to life: Blabberize, Piktochart, Thinglink, and Powtoon. Blabberize allows adding voiceovers to images to make them talk. Piktochart is for creating infographics. Thinglink uses images with links to additional information. Powtoon is for creating animated videos and presentations. The presentation provided examples and ideas for using these tools in various classroom subjects and lessons.

1. Presenter: Andrea Duggan
SessionTitle
Making Lessons Cometo Life:
Easy lessons to launch your classroominto the 21st
century
50 word description:
These web tools that will energize your lessons and your students. Andrea
Duggan will sharefour tools, Blabberize, Piktochart, Thinglink, and Powtoon, each
of which has a unique way of making lessons cometo life. Useful in any
classroom, you don’tneed to be high tech to check them out.
Script:
Slide 1 (:40)
Image: Kraken
Text:Making Lessons Come to Life.
Script:
Hello, I’mAndrea Duggan and welcome to Making Lessons Come Alive. Just a
little bit about me beforeI go on. I currently teach journalismand creative writing
at Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax. I’mstudying to become a librarian and I
justcompleted a class in Production of InstructionalMaterials in which wewere
introduced to a wide variety of technology tools for usein the library and the
classroom. My goal here is to introduce a few of them to you as well.
Slide 2: (1:00)
Image: Space Launch
Text: Easy lessons to launch your classroom into the 21st
Century.
Script:
My subtitle, easy “Easy lessons to launch your classroominto the 21st
Century,” is
a reference to new goals for teacher and studentlearning that reference skills
related to technology. I want to point out that I am not a super-techy teacher. I
am not an early adopter. I say this because I wantyou to know that if I can figure
out this technology, it is not complicated. And if I can do it, you can do it. And
you’d better believe your kids can do it, too. So, the focus is on “easy,” yet still
moving forward into 21st
century skills.

2. To define 21st
century skills, I looked at the AASL document, The 21st
Century
Learner, which I’msureyou areall familiar with. The document broadens the
definition of information literacy.
Slide 3: (1:30)
Image: Book in notebook
Text:“Multiple literacies including digital, visual, textual, and technological have
now joined information literacy ascrucialskills for this century.”
Script:
“Multiple literacies including digital, visual, textual, and technological have now
joined information literacy as crucial skills for this century.” Crucial. Now, to a
non-techy person such as myself, these words can be intimidating. How am I
going to teach these crazy skills? But the beauty is that we don’t haveto teach a
specific technical skill, we justneed to keep putting versatile tools in frontof them
and let students learn by interacting with these tools and creating content.
Slide 4 (:30)
Image: Kate
Text:But that doesn’tmean it can’tbe fun
Script:
But that doesn’tmean it can’t be fun, right? So, I chose a few tools that I thought
were user friendly and open to lots of interpretations, and, as my theme suggests,
tools that will make your lessons comealive. I think each of these tools could be
easily integrated into existing lessons, so rather than having to reinvent the
wheel, we’rejustgoing to enhance it a bit, make it a little more fun.
Slide 5 (1:50)
Image: Screenshot of Blabberize screenwithlink topage.
Text:None except what’s already on screenshot We made you a Blabber. Make.
Browse. My Stuff.
Script: I’mgoing to start with Blabberize, which is extremely simple to use, and
fun to say, as well. Blabberize gives voice to images, and animates them so they
look like they are talking to you. But I’ll let this llama tell you a little more about
it.

3. [CLICK LINK AND LISTENTO THE FIRSTPARTOF THE LLAMA SPEECH, BEFORETHE
ADDED FEATURES.]
[VIDEO TEXT AS SPOKENBY LLAMA] Welcome to Blabberize.com, the only
internet site that you can upload a picture, select a mouth on that picture, and
then record some sound. And this where weget crazy, wemake that picture talk
to the sound. A talking picture. I’mnot kidding this is real. Ok? When we show it
to people for the firsttime they hear a boom inside their head, they are so
amazed. They are like, “Hey! I justheard a boominside my head.” And I’mlike,
“Yeah, that’s right buddy, that’s us blowing your mind, ok?” You better believe it.
Slide 6 (1:20)
Image: Cake
Text:Features
• Easy to Use
• No accountneeded
• Can use any image
• Imbed or convertvideos
• Add additionalmouths
• Switch back and forth between images
• No time limit
Script: Using this tool is a piece of proverbialcake. Ittakes only minutes. Just
download a picture, arrangethe mouth and record your text. Boom. Done. Kids
who were once very shy about getting up to present, are suddenly clamoring to
go firstbecause they wantto show you their awesomeBlabbers. You can create
without an account, but will need one in order to save. CHECK IF YOUNEED ONE
TO CONVERT. Can imbed or convert. You can create more than one mouth, so you
can have conversations, you can changeimages back and forth and have a
conversation that way. As far as I know, there is no time limit.
Slide 7 (1:00)
Image: ConfusedGuy
Text:Drawbacks
• Mouth takes some getting used to.

4. Script: The main drawback is that making the mouth look the way you want it to
can be a little difficult. I’veseen somethat are badly botched. Since I know
teacher time is precious, I’d hate to see you pass on this tool because you got
frustrated with the mouth. So, justa very brief note about the mouth.
Slide 8 (1:30)
Image: Examples of mouth.
Text:Standard mouth [ARROW POINTING TO EXAMPLE]. After changes[ARROW
POINTING TO EXAMPLE].
Script: When you upload your image, this mouth will appear on it. [POINT TO THE
FIRSTEXAMPLE] The one on the left is the standard mouth. The mostimportant
thing to know is that the large green dot on the bottom shows wherethe bottom
of the mouth will open to. You can manipulate all of the dots to more closely
match the shapeof the mouth, as I’vedone here, so it has a more realistic feel,
like I’vedonehere [POINTTO SECOND EXAMPLE]. PLAYSHORTEMBEDDED
VIDEO.
“Hey, what’s going on with my mouth? Phew, that’s better.”
Slide 9 (1:30)
Image: Library sign
Text:NO TEXT
Script: So, let’s make some projects comealive. I used Blabberize in class to
create a commercial for my 3D object, which was a rendering of the library road
sign. Since they couldn’t print everyone’s, wehad to makea shortadvertisement,
So I animated the road sign itself to give the pitch. [PRESS PLAY]. By the way, I
won.
Slide 10 (1:00)
Image: Martha Washington
Text:None
Script: This is a 6th
grade social studies projectthat my daughter did at school. An
added layer could be Blabberizing Martha to give her facts. This allows all
students to refer back to the Blabber to when studying to recall that facts, rather
than remembering the oral presentation.

5. Slide 11 (1:00)
Image: Ethan’s project
Text:None
Script: A projectfor my son’s 11th
gradeEnglish class required him to draw
pictures of characters fromreadings throughoutthe year, and include quotes
fromthe different texts. Why not Blabberize?
Slide 12 (1:20)
Image: Several animals looking in.
Text:BlabberizeIt!
• Instructions
• Vocabulary wordsand definitions
• Conversationsbetween charactersin a book
• A debate between importanthistoricalfigures
• Writing exercise for voice using animalsor inanimate objects.
• A public service announcementagainstdrug and alcoholuse
Script: Additional ideas for using blabber. You could havea Blabber give
instructions for you. Students could Blabberize their vocabulary words and
definitions or use them in sentences. English students could create conversations
between characters in a book. History teachers could have students debate in the
voices of important historical figures. I know in creative writing, one of the voice
lessons wedo is to have students write in the voice of an animal or an inanimate
object, so now they could go a step further and put that voice in the mouth of the
character. I know that in health classes, students often create pamphlets to
discouragedrug use, so Blabberizing could bring another layer to that assignment
as well.
Slide 13 (:30)
Image: Ad for Piktochart.
Text:[ON AD] Make your own infographics. Making information beautifulhas
never been easier. Startfor Free. Easy to use. Tell your story. Make it beautiful.
And share it. Our easy to use editor will show you how.

6. Script: The next tool I’d like to introduceis called Piktochart. Piktochartis an
infographics builder, so I used it to help me describethe features and drawbacks.
Slide 14 (1:30)
Image: My piktochart for Features
Text:Top Six Features. Awesome Templates. Easy Interface. Lotsof Icons. Great
for Visual Storytelling. MakesData More Interesting. IncludesPhotographs.
Script: Oneof the best features is, of course, the templates. But even if you’renot
using the templates, the “build your own” version makes it super simple. The
interface is intuitive; I rarely had to go looking for a way to do something I wanted
to do. They have an amazing bank of these icons for all occasions. Because
infographics is all about the visual, it is fantastic for visualstorytelling and
representing data in a way that is more memorable than a standard chart. And,
though the examples I’mgoing to show you are not photographic, someof the
templates are, and they have a bank of royalty free images available for use.
Slide 15 (2:40)
Image: My infographic.
Text:Drawbacks. AccountRequired. No admittance withoutemailaddress. Saving
automatically publishes. Long formatmakesprinting difficult.
Script: Drawbacks. An accountis required. I know this isn’t that big a problem for
high school, since moststudents have an email address, butin middle schoolit is
a toss-up and in elementary schoolit can be problematic. The problem with the
schoolgoogle accounts that I’verun into in the pastis that many of the sites, this
one included, requires you to verify your email. They send a link, you open it and
click on the link and then you’reofficial. But the Google accounts don’talways
receive those emails. I know it is for the safety of the students, but it can be
problematic in cases like these. That, and the emails for resetting passwords,
which I’msureyou know happens on a daily basis with students.
Another drawback is that saving a document automatically publishes it. Unlike
the restof the world, I’mnotalways anxious to shareeverything I do with
everyoneelse. Like I said, I’mnotan early adopter. Of course, publishing is also a
way to sharewith the class, so that’s great.
Finally, depending on the info you want to graphi-cize(I know, nota word), these
things can get long. Itcan be good, because you are not constrained by size, and

7. if it’s going on a website or a poster on the wall, who cares? But forget regular
printing on a lot of these.
Also, on a side note, when I downloaded this particular graphic fromthe site, it
kept cutting off the y on actually, even though it was showing on the web version.
So be careful to read over the saved jpgs for newly created typos. In this case,
because it wasn’tlengthy, I used a print screen to makea copy instead.
Slide 16 (1:00)
Image: Infographic for “What your contributionmeans”
Text:For civics service projects, studentscan create infographicsexplaining the
value of their chosen charity
Script: So, on to a few ideas. When I saw this graphic outlining the value of a
charitable donation, I immediately thoughtof our 8th
gradecivics classes, who do
a serviceproject. The infographics seemed like a perfect fit, especially if they can
be printed and used as part of their display at the end of the year.
Slide 17 (1:00)
Image: Eat More Bugs
Text:NONE OTHER THAN GRAPHIC
Script: Okay, I haveslightly rearranged the information here, becauseI couldn’t
keep that long formatand I wanted to sharethe whole thing with you. This one
takes information froma U.N. initiative encouraging people to consider eating
more bugs, and displays it graphically. This really lends itself to any data collected
for a report. Science classes looking into new technologies, civics classes debating
important currentissues, socialstudies classes comparing different historical
events. Debate teams. Model U.N. etc.
Slide 18 (1:30)
Image: SPACE
Text:Make posters for your classroom illustrating importantconcepts
Script: Again, I’verearranged the info here, but this is a great tool for creating
classroommaterials. Itcan be printed and put on the wall, or justposted on your
blackboard or web page. In this case, we havea pneumonic device for

8. remembering whatis needed when we are arguing a point. And this one had lots
and lots of requests fromclassroomteachers for copies to put in their rooms. I
teach journalism, so whatcomes to mind for me are the 5Ws and H, or the 7 kinds
of newsworthiness, or the4 important journalistic words. I know in the Library
we’vegot CRAP which is pneumonic for helping assess documents found on the
web. I remember my son learning long division with a cheeseburger method,
though I can’tremember each part of the meaning at the moment, I can already
visualizethe graphics.
Slide 19 (1:00)
Image: Ideas infographic
Text:Ideas. Synthesize. Explain. 2 sides. Persuasive. Process. Cause/Effect.
Script: So, in a nutshell, or another quick inforgraphic, I think this tool is great for
a variety of educational scenarios. Anything whereyou need to synthesizean
idea, explain how something works, or comparetwo things. Any projects that
require students to persuadepeople, describe a process, or consider causeand
effect. This tool can help students really get down to the meat of the information.
Slide 20 (:30)
Image: Thinglink Ad
Text:Thinglink. El poder de la imagen interactiva.
Script: Okay, my next tool is called Thinglink. Itallows you to usea picture as a
springboard to a nearly unlimited amountof information. As the name implies, it
provides links to things. So let’s look at a few examples.
Slide 21 (2:00)
Image: Rosie the Riveter.
Text:[NONE]
Script: Let’s say we’re studying the home frontduring World War II. Wecan use
this iconic image of Rosie the Riveter to explore in more detail the role of women
during this time. [LINK TO THE THINGLINK]. So herewe are on the Thinglink.
These little dots are the links. [POINTTO THE DOTS] and when you mouseover,
[MOUSEOVER] information pops up. So here, [MOVETO LINK ON ARM] you
could put information on the image and why it is important. [MOVETO LINK ON
COLLAR] Over here, we’vegot a video fromthe library of congress abouthow

9. Rosie came to be. [SHOW THATYOUCAN PLAY THE VIDEO, DON’TWATCH THE
WHOLETHING]. And up here, [MOVETO LINK ONHEADBAND] a link to another
Thinglink about Norman Rockwell’s original drawing.
Slide 22 (1:00)
Image: Coloredpencils
Text:Features
• Variety – link to anything
• Easily embedded in blog or web page
• App Available
• Studentscan have accountwithoutemail.
• Teacherscan create classrooms
Script: The main feature I love about this tool is the sheer variety of options. You
can link to virtually any kind of information through this program. Itlooks easy
enough to embed in a blog or a web page (though, apparently not in PowerPoint),
so students wouldn’t even haveto link to the Thinglink. I noticed that they do
have an App, though I haven’tyet explored that. Students can have an account
without an email, so that makes it easier. And within the website, teachers can
create classrooms wherestudents can post assignments.
Slide 23 (1:30)
Image: Lock on Gate
Text:Drawbacks
• Pushing Upgrades
• Full screen – notavailable
• Personalize links – notavailable
• Can only link YouTube and Brightcove videos
Script: The main drawback to useis that they are really trying hard to get you to
upgradeto the paid version. Now, the paid version looks great, don’t get me
wrong, and is probably well worth the $35 it would cost, but if you’relike me, you

10. don’t havea budget for that. I kept running into this message: Please upgrade. I
wanted to look at a full screen version. Not available. I wanted to change up the
icons. Not available. But, it is a small price to pay for so much functionality. Also,
as far as video content is concerned, you can only link to YouTube videos and
another one called Brightcove. So, for instance, if you have a Blabberize, or a
PowToon (our next tool), you couldn’tlink directly to that. But YouTube has so
much information, it is hard to complain. Plus, mostof those other things can
upload to YouTube as well.
Slide 24 (1:00)
Image: The Outsiders
Text:Ideas
• Before, during or after novelstudies, link students to contentthat
addsbackgroundknowledge or invitesfurther analysis.
Script: I know at Longfellow, the seventh graders read The Outsiders.[LINK TO
WEBQUEST] This example web questlinks students to S.E. Hinton’s
website,[WHILETALKING MOUSEOVERTHEFEATURES] music featured in the
book, information on Paul Newman, who, I believe is mentioned in the book (?).
So it’s really creating connections to the content.
Slide 25 (1:00)
Image: Plant Ecosystemand InterdependentRelationships Thinglink.
Text:NONE EXCEPTON IMAGE
Script: This one is designed as an interactive lesson on Interdependent
ecosystems. [LINK TO THINGLINK AND MOUSEOVERTHINGS TO SHOW
CONTENT.]. Here is information on photosynthesis for instance, followed by an
instruction to the students, and then more to explore throughout.
Slide 26 (1:00)
Image: Colonies map
Text:No text
Script: In this one, a student was asked to mark the different colonies, and
they’vegot a key up here, whereyou mouse over the different parts to see how
they are categorized.

11. Slide 27 (1:00)
Image: NasaExploration
• Text: Geography
• Languages
• Anatomy
• Partsof a Plant
• Partsof a Cell
• Webquests
• Terms for items on a newspaper page
• Text structures.
Script: Thinglink is all about exploration. I’msureyou don’t need my help seeing
how this could be useful in your classroom, but, justbecauseit’s so easy, here are
a few more ideas. In geography, havestudents tag the state capitals and
information on each state. In a language class have them tag items in an image
with the correctword for each item. In anatomy, havestudents identify the
different bones with information on each. Label the parts of a plant or the parts
of a cell, with mouseover definitions of each. Create webquests for student
directed learning. As I mentioned, I teach journalism, so I can see creating a
Thinglink defining the different parts of a newspaper page. When teaching text
structures, photograph thetext and add another layer. The possibilities are really
endless.
Slide 28 (:45)
Image: Powtoon ad
Text:PowToon bringsawesomenessto your presentation
Script: Okay, next up, PowToon. PowToon was firstbroughtto my attention by
my daughter who made one explaining 10 reasons why I should get her a cell
phone, and it nearly worked. Thetool helps you create shortanimated videos, so
you can integrate your messageusing sound, images, and text easily. Why do
this? Well, I’mgoing to let the PowToons professionals tellyou in one of their
presentations.
Slide 29 (3:00)

12. Image: Front of PowToon presentation. Embedded. NOTE- FORSOMEREASON
INTHE SCREENSHOTS SECTIONTHIS SHOWS UP AS A BLACK BOX, BUT WHEN
PRESENTING SHOWS ANIMAGEFROMTHE VIDEO.
Text:NONE
Script: JUST TEXT FROMVIDEO, TOO MUCH TO TRANSCRIBEHERE. VIDEO IS 2:58
SECONDS.
Slide 30 (1:30)
Image: Walking Gif
Text:Features
• Animation
• Templates
• Icons/Props
• Can Import
• Can add Voiceover
• User Friendly
• Has Royalty Free Music Options
Script: Okay, so hereare some bullet points, but I’veincluded this nice animated
gif to help you remember the features. There is justsomething about animation
that draws the eye, isn’t there? So, providing these simple yet effective
animations is, to borrow their advertising word, awesome. They have a variety of
templates, so not every screen looks the same. Their icons and props are
surprisingly robust, butif they don’t havewhat you need you can import your
own images and icons to use. Being able to add voiceover easily is great. In fact,
all of these features are very user friendly. And I always think the music tops it off
nicely. They do haveroyalty free music available for use, but if you haveaccess to
a database of music, like we do at Longfellow, you can upload a lot more options.
Slide 31 (1:00)
Image: Yin Yang
Text:Drawbacks
• Need an account
• Can’tget MP4 downloadswithoutupgrading
• Limited Text Flexibility

13. Script: So, here’s that old bugaboo again, you do need an account with an email
address. And yes, there is an upgradethat costs extra money. You can do most
of whatyou’ll want to with the free options available, except to download an MP4
of your own. The only other glitch I found while using it was that I couldn’t do as
much with the text as I wanted to. Even justchanging the shapeof the box was
awkward, and you can’tjustapply different effects easily, you have to create new
boxes and copy the text.
Slide 32 (2:00)
Image: Book Trailer Video
Text:NO TEXT
Script: So, I have used it a bit, as you’llsee. This video I did for a class. It’s a book
trailer for the book Some Assembly Required by Arin XXXXX. Itis a memoir
written by a transgender teen, so I created this trailer to try to help
“hypothetical” students feel somesortof connection with Arin in his journey.
Slide 33 (2:00)
Image: Powtoons VideoEmbedded
Text:NO TEXT
Script: I don’twant to inundate you with videos, but I made justone more with a
few ideas for ways to use this tool. I’lllet the video do the talking here.
Slide 34 (:30)
Image: Waving Shadows
Text:Have fun. Links to all of the web sites.
Script: Okay, thatabout wraps it up. I’veprovided the websites here, they are
links so you can get them fromthe PowerPointas well. Are there any Questions?
Slides 35-37 References