For our 2nd assessment task we had to create a digital artefact on an aspect of networking. I decided to make a Powtoon and Screencastify presentation for my digital artefact on ‘Using Twitter for beginners to establish a personal learning network’. It is posted on Youtube here (Silver, 2019).
Here is the Powtoon component:
and the Screencastify section:
The artefact was created to help educators establish and expand their personal learning networks, so that they may gain from knowledge networking. The instructional aspects were created in PowToon and Screencastify and access made available on the world wide web via YouTube so it may be accessed by more people. PowToon was chosen as the platform for the digital artefact for several reasons. It is attention grabbing with its use of cartoon animations, which are a non-threatening way of communicating and allow viewers to be receptive to information (Spitalnik, as cited in Martin & Martin, 2015, p. 46). There is the ability to import audio, image and video files to the presentation. It offers flexibility in placement of elements within slides such as when elements are introduced and length of slides. The combination of narration and graphics increases the viewer’s information retention, more than if solely graphics and texts were used (Mayer, as cited in Martin & Martin, 2015, p. 52).However, there were restrictions with using Powtoon for the artefact. A major limitation of the free account was the set time constraints – 20 seconds for voice recordings and a maximum of 3 minutes for the total presentation, which led to some flat spots in the audio and some text crowding.
Screencastify (a Chrome extension) proved relatively easy to use, although some features such as editing had to be googled and time had been taken to learn how to export it . It was used as a visual means of demonstrating how to use Twitter for those learners who are visual learners.
Difficulties were experienced in the creation of the artefact which impacted on its functionality. The initial design included a Screencastify clip demonstrating how to use Twitter on the desktop. However, the artefact was not able to be created as intended as PowToon required video to be in an MP4 format but the exportation of video in this format is not available on the free version of Screencastify. Although not ideal, this was addressed by adding links via YouTube to the Screencastify recording.
Other problems included the audio of the presentation lacking some clarity, which may have been rectified by the use of a plugin microphone rather than using the computer’s built in microphone. ‘Dead’ spots of audio are also visible in the middle of the presentation, I’m not sure why this is as each clip plays OK individually.
Hosting on YouTube enabled the artefact to be viewed by the general public. and contribute to global networking knowledge by demonstrating to educators how to use Twitter and build their PLN in the future.
References:
Martin, N. A. & Martin, R. (2015). Would you watch it? Creating effective and engaging video tutorials. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 9(1-2), 40-56. doi: 10.1080/1533290X.2014.946345.
Silver, T. (2019). Using Twitter for beginners to establish a personal learning network . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYDWAATW0VQ&rel=0