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Storytelling In eLearning: Tips and Tricks

5 awesome advantages of E-Learning

Why our brain loves animations for learning?

Excellent examples of how to use animations in E-learning

Using animation to enhance the learning experience

What is eLearning?

Up until the early 2000s education was in a classroom of students with a teacher who led the process, then the internet happened. Understanding eLearning is pretty simple. eLearning is learning utilizing electronic technologies to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom. In most cases, it refers to a course, program or degree delivered completely online.

By digitizing the learning experience, we are able to eliminate some of the barriers that previously stopped people from going to school. Stay-at-home parents, children who do not learn well in a classroom environment can take classes easily.

Why eLearning?

There are lots of good reasons to consider an online training program:

Online training is more affordable than traditional classroom training, with savings of 60% or more.

Online courses can be taken in multiple sittings and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Online training is as mobile as you are! Your training can take place on the road, in the café, or any other place you have an internet-accessible computer.

Ongoing access to resources. If you take a class in the real world and need a refresher, you better hope that you took good notes. That’s not the case with e-learning. Ideally, you continue to have access to the online content and resources to brush up on what you learned.

E-Learning personalizes the education experience. Because of the flexibility e-learning provides, users can also take the course in an environment more conducive to their learning style.

E-learning might be not suitable for all, but it is a critical tool for quality learning in today’s world.

Animation Facilitate Better Learning

Animated Learning transfers innovative results from animation pedagogies to reading education and pedagogies.

In recent years, animations have grown to be used in movies, videos and computer games and, therefore, it is extremely popular among children and young people.

Recently, animations are being used in advertisement, inter-cultural communication and education. In the near future, animated image sequences will constitute a growing part of the visual communication.

This means that animation should no longer be seen as a narrow motion picture technique, but as an effective language.

Plotagon Education allows you to turn writing into animated films for every educational subject.

So Why our brain loves animation for learning?

Did you know that according to “Human Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Manual” 70% of all our sensory receptors are in our eyes and almost 50% of our brain is involved in visual processing?

Animation directs attention: It’s much easier to direct learner attention using short animated videos and asking them to look at them.

Easy to understand: If eLearning videos make tough subjects easier to learn, animations are a great type of content for doing this. By animating something you’re immediately simplifying it which means that learners are far more likely to engage.

And who didn't find himself/herself mesmerised front of an animated movie. Yes the bright colours, simple lines and constant movement keeps us glued to the screen.

Using animations to harness creativity

A number of arts education professionals and scholars claim that teaching and learning styles that have naturally developed around the arts are conducive to supporting creativity.

The animations of Plotagon Education are useful in helping students grasp concepts that are difficult to explain using text alone. Illustrating characters from a novel helps students visualize descriptive written information, and recording narration to accompany animations for these characters helps students realize the importance of voice and perspective.

Using the Plotagon Education's animation is a brilliant and innovative new way to encourage children to communicate stories, ideas and concepts in a creative and original way. It can be particularly useful as a tool to encourage the creativity of students who find spelling and grammar a challenge, because it liberates them from the anxiety of always worrying about technicalities and enables them just to concentrate on the story instead.

Using the Plotagon Education with your students will give them some control over their learning.

How To Use Animations In e-Learning?

Encourage online learners to interact with the animations.

You can make the animated stories are more interactive and engaging by asking thought-provoking questions, inviting learners to click on trigger objects, or giving them control over the animated story to change it according to their needs. The key is to integrate tactile elements that encourage them to take a more active role in the e-Learning process.

Engage learners into a creative writing assignment

Divide the learners Individually or in pairs (if this is a first digital storytelling assignment, pairs is probably a better idea), students tell a particular type of creative story, per the assignment.

Assignments can include telling a story about a personal experience that they have had and embellishing it so it is nonfiction, or something completely fictional, final videos length should be: 2-4 minutes. This is also a good assignment for a language learning class, where the telling of the story itself is the goal, rather than the ideas that are contained within the story.

With Plotagon Education, students will be writing story, develop the script and the app will illustrate it.

History assignment

Let's jump from the personal narrative to illustrating some real stories from the past. Students can make a certain set of events from the history via digital storytelling.

Animations can be a highly effective way to teach history and retain student engagement in areas that may be traditionally low in terms of student interest.

Provoke learners to interact with the eLearning

Using videos are powerful, but they can be passive at times. Online learners simply have to sit back and watch as the story unfolds and the eLearning characters overcome obstacles.

Using animations can make your video more interactive and engaging, you can also provoke a reaction via asking questions, or inviting the learners to click on specific objects.

The power of pausing

Many of the online learners aren't going to have the time to sit through the entire animated online presentation or eLearning activity. So make sure to make it easy for them to stop, pause, rewind, and fast forward the eLearning animation at any point.

The ability to pause gives the learners a chance to take in their surroundings, give a feedback, check in with how they feel, to share and compare their notes with a other learners, and highlight important points.

Get Started with Plotagon Education

To begin with, go to our website (http://plotagoneducation.com) where we offer you a FREE TRIAL or purchase a teachers license. There are several different licenses for single teachers or for entire classrooms.

We offer you lesson plans for many subjects, age groups and languages on the website to get inspired.

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Youtube!

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حول نفسك إلى كرتون

This posts will show the Arabic community how to get started  in a few easy steps – we hope you will enjoy the experience

إن إنشاء الرسوم المُتحرّكة ليس بالأمر السهل وخاصة للمبتدئين ويحتاج لتعلّم وتدريب متواصل ولكن هناك أدوات سهلة للمبتدئين، ومنها تطبيق "Plotagon" الذي يحتوي على عدة قوالب ومؤثرات مُعدّة ومصممة مسبقا يُمكنك استخدامها في الفيلم الخاص بك.

إيمانا من شركة Plotagon بأهمية التعليم وزيادة المعرفة من أجل تمكين الشباب والفتيات، تم إنتاج التطبيق التعليمي Plotagon Education والذي يساعد الطلبة على التعبير عن أنفسهم، كما يساعد المدرسين والمدرسات على تقديم الدروس في العديد من المجالات في شكل تفاعلي وبطريقة مميزة لجذب الإنتباه.

يسمح لك التطبيق بتحويل نفسك، أصدقائك أو الشخصيات التاريخية إلى كرتون ثلاثي الأبعاد، حيث يمكن الاختيار بين شخصيات الرجال والنساء وبألوان مختلفة للبشرة مع بعض الإكسسوارات.

كما يسمح التطبيق لأي شخص أن يكتب قصة في دقائق لتتحول إلى فيلم للرسوم المتحركة، ما يجعل التطبيق التعليمي أداة لتعليم الكتابة وبناء القصة، تعليم اللغة الإنجليزية، المهارات الإجتماعية أو التوعية بالمشاكل المحيطة من خلال إنشاء أفلام قصيرة. كما أنه وسيلة لتشجيع الإبداع وخلق فرص للحوار بين الطلبة والمدرسين.

تسهم أفلام الكرتون في إثراء لغة ومعرفة الطلبة حيث تساعد في دعم قدرات الطفل التخيلية والتعبيرية على صعيد النمو اللغوي والذوقي، ومن منا لا يحب أفلام الكرتون.

تطبيق Plotagon Education الحاصل على عدة جوائز في مجال التعليم يسمح للطلبة والمدرسين/المدرسات على حد سواء بصنع أفلام الرسوم المتحركة بدقة عالية، فقط من خلال كتابة وتسجيل النص. البرنامج يتميز بسهولة الإستخدام وإمكانية تحويل الكتابة إلى مقاطع صوتية باللغة الإنجليزية مما يساعد الطلاب على إتقان نطق المفردات باللغة الإنجليزية بسهولة ويسر، إضافةً لخاصية تسجيل الصوت للاستفادة من البرنامج باللغة العربية.

في هذا المقال سوف نشرح لك كيف يمكنك البدء في بضع خطوات سهلة - ونتمنى أن تستمتعوا بالتجربة!

في البداية ندعوك لزيارة المتجر الإلكتروني حيث يمكنك التبضع وشراء رخصة بغرض الإستخدام التعليمي، أو التسجيل لتجربة التطبيق لفترة محدودة. إضغط على هذا الرابط http://plotagoneducation.com

بعد تسجيل الحساب، قم بتحميل التطبيق على الجهاز المفضل لديك، التطبيق متوفر على أجهزة الكمبيوتر لنظام الويندوز والماك، وكذلك على أجهزة الأندورويد والآبل المحمولة.

كيفية إنشاء شخصية كرتونية

قم بالنقر فوق “create new character” ثم إختار هوية الشخصية سواء ذكر أو أنثى “Male OR Female”. الآن يمكنك البدء في تحويل نفسك إلى كرتون أو تصميم الشخصية  الكارتونية الملائمة للحدث أو القصة الخاصة بك عبر إختيار شكل الوجه، لون البشرة، شكل الشعر ولونه، لون العين، كما يمكنك إضافة الإكسسوارات، وإختيار الملابس المناسبة للشخصية. بعد ذلك قم بإعطاء الشخصية إسم لها وإضغط على “Done”.

كيفية صنع فيلم أو Plot

يمكنك ملاحظة أن Plotagon يبدأ بصفحة فارغة، الغرض من ذلك هو إعطاء الطلاب فرصة للكتابة بحرية في أي موضوع يتخيلونه.

بعد إنشاء الشخصيات الخاصة بك، قم بالنقر على “Scene” لإختيار مكان الحدث. التطبيق يحتوي على عدد كبير من المشاهد التي يمكن إضافتها لخلق الفيلم.

بعد ذلك قم بإضافة شخصية أو شخصيتين حسب الحاجة، وذلك بالنقر على رابط "character" ووضع الشخصية في مكان الحادث. لتنتقل بعد ذلك إلى البدء في كتابة قصتك.

والخطوة التالية هي ببساطة البدء في كتابة القصة الخاصة بك. قم باختيار الشخصية التي سوف تبدأ بالحديث، وكتابة ما ستقوله. يمكنك بعد ذلك منح تلك الشخصية مشاعر الفرح، الغضب، أو الحزن على حسب الموقف.

أيا كان الحوار الذي تكتبه، سيقوم التطبيق بالتحدث تلقائيا باللغة الإنجليزية. إذا أردت أن تتحدث الشخصيات الخاصة بك باللغة العربية أو أية لغة أخرى، قم بكتابة النص، ثم إضغط على زر الميكروفون لتسجيل الحديث.

قم بإضافة المشاهد، والشخصيات بنفس الطريقة لرواية القصة التي تريدها. وفي النهاية يمكنك أيضا إضافة بعض اللمسات الخاصة بك، مثل المؤثرات الصوتية، أو الموسيقى التي ستلعب في خلفية المشهد.

نتمنى أن تقوم بتجربة وإختبار هذا التطبيق الممتع، ولا تنسوا أن تتابعونا على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعية الخاصة بنا.

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The Power Of Storytelling

Storytelling is what connects us to our humanity. It is what links us to our past, and provides a glimpse into our future.

The stories we hear as children shape our views when we grow up. Reading stories to children can show them far-flung places, extraordinary people and eye-opening situations to expand and enrich their world.

Storytellers learned early on that people like to hear stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. For instance researchers have found that the brain activity that occurs when we read fiction is very similar to experiencing that situation in real life, so reading about a situation helps kids and students work out how to solve real life situations

Why is storytelling important?

Key reasons we need storytellers:

To see ourselves in a story -- our profession, our position in life

To find friends in the characters we'd like to have as friends, and love in the characters we are attracted to and would long to love

To teach, educate and spread awareness

To teach a history of a culture

To inspire (as in innovation, social change, human rights, etc.)

To endow morals and principles on young people

To provoke a reaction

Students seem to be drawn to stories that have characters that look like them -- or at least share characteristics they can relate to. They also desire to be drawn into the storytelling, and enjoy when a story builds up to a thrilling climax, followed by a satisfying conclusion.

Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom…

Increase children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings

Encourage active participation

Encourage cooperation between students

Increase verbal proficiency

Encourage use of creativity and imagination

Enhance listening skills

Stories will stay with students much longer than facts or statistics

How can teachers include storytelling in schools?

Are you fed up with using the same old methods to introduce your lesson topic? How to WOW your students?

The traditional classroom setting, where teachers are standing in the front of the classroom lecturing to students as they take notes, is boring. Teachers need to start engaging learners, develop their ability and amplifying students' identities.

Using technology is what students live and breathe every day. If you want to make your class the most interesting class that everyone loves to go to, then you must incorporate some kind of technology.

So what about cartoons! – Animated characters are one of the greatest patterns Interrupts of modern society, and you can easily integrate animation into your lesson plan using Plotagon Education in your lessons. Learn more about how to create a lesson plan HERE.

Create characters and set the scene

launch the intuitive character creator and choose from range of clothing and accessories to design actors from real life, history or your students. Then place your charachters in one of Plotagon Education many inspiring scenes to make your movie.

Write your movie then press play

The Plotagon user experience centers around writing. You simply write what you want to say and add emotions, actions, sound effects and music. You can also record your own voice. This enables you to easily create a movie in any language.

Get Inspired and get the free trial

There are lesson plans for many subjects, age groups and languages on the website, Plotagoneducation.com .You can get the free trial today to animate your lessons and classroom.

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Youtube!

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Fight Cyberbullying With Plotagon Education

Cyber bullying refers to Internet bullying. Cyber bullying is a form of violence that can do lasting harm to people especially teens. Bullying statistics show that cyber bullying is a serious problem among teens. By being more aware of cyber bullying, teens and adults can help to fight it.

Cell phones and other mobile devices continue to be the most popular technology utilized by adolescents with the top four reported weekly activities involving their use. Facebook remains the most frequently cited social media platform used on a weekly basis, but Instagram and Snapchat are increasing in popularity.

The Cyberbullying Research Center surveyed over 15,000 middle and high school students in twelve different studies from over 98 different schools throughout the United States. On average, about 28% of the students who have been a part of the most recent 10 studies have said they have been the victim of cyberbullying at some point in their lifetime.

Cyber bullying can take many forms:

Sending mean messages or threats to a person’s email account or cell phone

Spreading rumors online or through texts

Posting hurtful or threatening messages on social networking sites

Stealing a person’s account information to break into their account and send damaging messages

Pretending to be someone else online to hurt another person

Taking unflattering pictures of a person and spreading them through cell phones

Sexting, or circulating sexually suggestive pictures or messages about a person

While most of these incidents occur at home, the problems spill over to the classroom, making cyberbullying an issue teachers can't ignore.

“Forbidding technology isn't the right solution.” say experts. Teaching kids what is right and what is wrong can be more help to stand up for all kinds of bullying.

As a teacher, you can be a powerful force in promoting a climate of respect. Educate yourself and be on the lookout for signs that cyberbullying is taking place, because you may be the trusted adult a student turns to for help.

Animation is a unique, creative way to give young people a strong, effective voice and to allow them express themselves. As a matter of fact, every student in the class probably enjoys animations in some form.

Animation can raise awareness and change the culture around bullying.

Plotagon Education is the best tool for storytelling. Students instantly create a story with little or no learning curve and teachers can approach any subject in a new and engaging way.

Why Plotagon Education?

It is very healthy for students to express themselves through art, writing, music, dancing and other activities! Self-expression can help students understand themselves and help others understand them too.

Some students are scared to put themselves out there as they feel exposed.

How can teachers help students to express themselves without fear?

By introducing the subject through animations — a format kids/adults love — teachers can really get students talk and think critically about what they can do to reduce bullying at school and in their social lives.

Here is an example of a "Lesson Plan" which highlights online abusive behaviour and how to handle it.

By creating movies of these situations – discussions can be held as a basis – or your class can create solutions or discussions about sexual abuse and online bullying.

Getting Started

To begin with, go to our website (http://plotagoneducation.com) where we offer you a FREE TRIAL or purchase a teachers license. There are several different licenses for single teachers or for entire classrooms.

When successfully logged in, you will have 3 tabs to choose from: Home, Create, and Settings.

Create a character by clicking the create tab and selecting ‘Characters’. Plotagon Education comes preloaded with a group of designed characters and scenes, but you can also create your own! 

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Youtube!

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Using Plotagon with Kahoot!

Kahoot is an edtech sensation that is sweeping the globe with its intuitive, colorful and versatile quiz engine, that makes it super easy to use. What could be better than combining it with the fastest, most fun way to create animation ever devised?

Lets take a look at how to create a Kahoot quiz using Plotagon movies created with Plotagon Education! Turn the classroom into a live gameshow!

When you create a Kahoot quiz, there is an option to add an image to your question, or a video. If you are creating short videos for your quiz, Plotagon Education is the perfect choice. 

There are many ways you can make your quiz more fun using Plotagon, and here we will show you just one example. We are going to make a quiz where the video is the key to answering the question. Depending on your subject, this can be used in many different ways. It can be social situations, where the students get to vote on how a situation should be resolved. It could be foreign language, where the Plotagon characters speak phrases in a recorded language, and the students get to guess which phrase was spoken. We’re going to use Plotagon to guess historical quotes. 

First, have your students select a quote from a historical person. There are a lot of great website resources for this, here’s one of the more popular: https://www.brainyquote.com

Next each group select a quote by a person that would be fun to make into a movie, said by a person they can create a version of in Plotagon. Next, the group should google the author of the quote to se what he or she looks like and create a version of them in the character creator. 

Now every student group can create a short movie where the character delivers the quote. Leave out any direct references to the identity of the characters, as the object of the Kahoot! is to have the students guess the author. Export the video to disk and upload it to YouTube.

Each student group submits a link to the film they created. Now it’s time to put together a Kahoot! based on the quotes. 

The question should lead to the movie. That means, do not write a hint to the identity of the person giving the quote in the text question. It is more fun if the students have to guess by watching the animated movie carefully.

For every question, write the correct name of the originator of the quote and select three alternatives. Try finding alternatives that are plausible, for instance, if the correct answer is one Union general, make sure to select three other Union generals as alternates. This way the quiz does not get too easy and keeps being fun and engaging.

That’s it! Have fun creating this Kahoot with Plotagon Education.

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Animate Your Language Skills

Why do we keep forcing kids to spend less time playing video games instead of making the games more educational for them?

Obviously, the classroom is primarily about learning, but engaging and motivating students can be a challenge. That’s why teachers should be open to adopt new tools because a bored student is far less likely to take in what the teacher is trying to teach.

For example, if you want to teach your students a new language such as Arabic, Spanish, Swedish, French or German etc. you can play the card game with them to build vocabulary and grammar.

A lot of English speaking people underestimate the importance of a second and third language because they assume that everybody speaks English nowadays. However, if you get your child to learn a foreign language from an early age then you are giving them a huge opportunity for the future.

Learning a foreign language should be encouraged. Becoming multilingual in an interlinked world will be increasingly important.

Innovative Learning Tools

As smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices become more integrated in classrooms, educators and students are looking for new ways to apply them to the learning process.

Using online cartoons provides a fantastic method of helping children to pick up a foreign language. Children love animations and cartoons. Mixing enjoyment and education is shown to give great results.

Instead of trying to find cartoons which have been specifically designed in order to help children learn a foreign language, what if you could create an animated movie yourself.

With Plotagon Education you can allow your students to create an animated lesson simply through writing. That will give your students the opportunity to get their minds working in a more creative way and It also ensures that they won’t switch off whilst watching the cartoon.

Challenges in Language Learning

Speaking a new language is hard. Students often wait till they’ve learned enough through self-paced or classroom instruction till they feel confident about speaking to a native speaker.

Memorizing can be slow and tedious.

No time to practice every day. Learning a language requires dedication more than anything else.

The only way to learn to speak a language is to speak the language. The sooner you are speaking the language in a social setting, with a native speaker, the better. Really, that is the first step and yet the hardest for most people.

Interactive Educational Apps

Animations and cartoons can make any subject engaging. Plotagon Education is the tool for both teachers and students of all ages to express themselves. Write a story and see it animated!

To begin with, go to our website (http://plotagoneducation.com) where we offer you a free 30 day trial or purchase a teachers license. There are several different licenses for single teachers or for entire classrooms.

When successfully logged in, you will have 3 tabs to choose from: Home, Create, and Settings.

Create a character by clicking the create tab and selecting ‘Characters’. Plotagon Education comes preloaded with a group of designed characters and scenes, but you can also create your own! So animate yourself or your students.

Text-to-speech instantly transforms written dialogue to spoken text. So you can simply tell a story just through writing a text in the dialogue field. Add music, sound effects, or interactions between actors.

Whatever dialogue you write, the computer will automatically speak, in English. But Plotagon Education also gives you the possibility to record your own voice in any language you wish just via clicking the microphone icon. The lips of the character will sync to whatever dialogue you record.

After showing your video, ask your students to work in groups, let them create characters in the character creator and select the scenes they want to use, then record the words and sentences they learned.

Make sure that everyone in your group contributes to the recording so they can practice on pronouncing the new vocabularies.

Learn more about how to use Plotagon in the classroom through the many inspiring lesson plans which were created by teachers from around the world. 

Lesson Plan By: Muriel Raes

Find more info on More info about Plotagon: http://Plotagoneducation.com

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HOLIDAY LESSON PLANS

It is a new year and it is already full of special days for everyone. Education World offers resources to help educators teach about all those special days.

Do your students celebrate Epiphany (Three Kings Day), Easter, Ramadan, Christmas, Hanukkah, or Thanksgiving?

Aren’t you tired of doing the same holiday project year after year?

Animations have the power to gain the attention of a person for hours together without boring them. And sometimes animations are extremely helpful, they help us show and generate interest in something which we otherwise would not entertain.

Animations also can be really positive and a great teaching aid for children with special needs. Many special educational needs schools already use animation as a method of teaching.

Traditional VS. Animations

Traditional ways of giving a lecture as using presentations, powerpoint or using text books and blackboards don’t really convey the complete gist of a lecture sometimes.

On the other hand, animations are interesting! They can be fun and informative at the same time. Animation today are not just confined to movies and video games; the areas of its application are boundless. And one of those areas is Education.

The Solution

Creating an animated video with Plotagon Education only takes a few minutes. Users simply choose some characters, select their scenes (school, beach, winter wonderland, etc.), type words for their characters to say, and press play to see a script performed as an animated story.

Plotagon Education includes many characters, but users can create their own characters as well, choosing from a wide variety of facial features, hair, clothing and accessories. Videos can be stylized by adding emotions, actions, music and sound effects via simple pull-down menus.

One of the reasons animations are now found so widely is that many people believe that animations can help learners come to understand complex ideas more easily. The process of teaching and learning gets a whole new experience when animations are used during the process. Both the teacher and the student as well find it more comfortable to explain or understand a topic; and believe me, no class will be boring.

Plotagon Education runs on iOS, Mac and PC and Android so teachers can use animated video clips to explain concepts. Animations make the concepts clear and help the students memorize them for a longer time.

Educators can also use Plotagon Education for writing assignments, reteaching subjects, debating controversial topics, creating flipped classrooms, poking fun at school life and more. Students have created animated videos to demonstrate the use of vocabulary words, explain science experiments, role-play debates, discuss the pros and cons of topical issues, practice English as a second language and write fiction—among other things.

So to begin with, go to our web store where you can purchase a teachers license for Plotagon, We offer several different licenses for single teachers or for entire classrooms. The license will give you a Plotagon user account you need to log in to the Plotagon application. If you don’t want to purchase a license yet, you can sign up for a free 30 day trial here.

For more LESSON PLANS, Click HERE!

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Plotagon: The winner of SIIA 2016

Plotagon Education is the winner of the 2016 Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Most Innovative award.

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) showcased some of the newest and most innovative products in the education technology market, and recognized the best among them as part of the Innovation Incubator program at the Education Business Forum on December 8, 2016 at the Princeton Club in New York.

The SIIA Award is a prestigious honor. We're grateful and super excited to win yet another award!.

The SIIA is the premier advocacy organization for software companies in the United States. The EBF conference brings together educational technology firms, publishers, investors, and others involved in the cutting edge of the world of learning.

Plotagon is a previous winner of the Red Dot Award for Communication Design in 2015, and a finalist for the 2014 Fast Company Innovation by Design.

Plotagon believes that animation encourages students to blend informational text, original writing, and illustration making it perfect for learning! Plotagon Education engages students with animated storytelling.

Animations will enliven any teacher’s lessons and assignments, and allow the students to create their own animations. It is easier for students to visually represent what they are studying, to reach a new understanding of the material and commit what they are learning to memory.

Plotagon's animations will offer the students a way to communicate what they have learned by sharing their animations with teachers, parents or peers.

Plotagon is an outstanding tool with a very easy-to-use interface for creating 3D-animated videos just by typing the manuscript.

___________

The Plotagon team consists of programmers, artists, animators, designers, musicians, marketers and storytellers are sending a huge thank you for all the support and we promise to work even harder to keep our clients happy.

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Coming To BETT

Coming to BETT - the world’s biggest educational technology event - to show Plotagon to educators and students from around the world is always a fantastic experience. Last year, we were voted ‘Event highlight’ by visiting students.

This year, we bring some exciting news to our stand - C158 at the Excel Arena in London, between January 25th to 28th. Come visit us and we will show you some exciting new things featuring your favorite magical typewriter.

Plotagon is an award winning app that lets you build animated videos in minutes.

The use for Plotagon in the classroom is endless. Use it to present any subject in a fun and engaging way, both for the teacher and for the students. Teachers around the world use Plotagon for flipped classroom, for creative writing, to present assignments or making an animated video to discuss.

The app is available to download on PC, Mac or iOS.

Here’s an early Christmas present, if you are an educator - we are extending our one-month trial of a Plotagon Education account. Sign up here!

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

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Animations Explain History Better!

Join The Revolution

The content in any field can be difficult and demanding. Part of the difficulty derives from what students believe about the course and whether they think it’s going to be hard. 

Currently, most students learn history as a set narrative.

Controlling a difficult topic isn’t hard. Where you find yourself as a teacher having difficulty with a class – you need to go back to first principles. 

The first principle of teaching is to start where students are at, and then taking them where you want to go. Start by talking about a related topic that students know about.

A teacher addressing problems is doing what any teacher should, and what every teacher has to.

The pioneering female pilot Jean Batten

Creative Learning and Animation

“Animare” means “to move” or to give life – and animation is a medium that is part of the culture of children and young people. Animation is also a means of communication which is gaining increasing importance in modern teaching and learning environments.

Students are sometimes not paying attention or are unengaged in the lesson, but a small change can make a difference. For example, if a class discussion isn’t working, instruct students to move into pairs or small groups to brainstorm or discuss. If students seem anxious about something, try to have them take some deep breaths. If a lesson isn’t working, ask students what you can do to help them get back on track.

Animation encourages students to blend informational text, original writing, and illustration making it perfect for learning! For example, students can use animation to recreate important moments in time, such as a famous speech, historical event, or an important discovery.

As students develop the story and script for an animation, students are naturally encouraged to write narratives that include descriptive details and clear event sequences. Storyboards are a necessary part of a successful animation and will help your students to understand and master sequencing, visualization, details, conflict, and narrative structure.

Creative Writing

Using creative writing activities can peak student interest. Challenge students to be creative while still conveying the facts they have learned.

Examples of creative writing techniques:

Have students respond creatively to images or art (i.e. they respond through animating themselves or someone else, choose a scene, write a dialogue based on what they see, turn the visual into a story, write what takes place next or before the visual, etc.)

Students can describe their experience as a soldier in the Battle of a historical event , an immigrant journeying over from Europe

Through the Plotagon Education product students can write stories, letters, journal entries, etc

The use of animation is endless. Students can imagine a particular moment in history never happened, or that something happened differently, and to write about this change’s effects.

In the end you can ask your students to process what they have learned through a creative writing assignment as a culminating activity.

Aims of the use of the animations of  Plotagon Education:

To explore the possibilities of animation as a method of learning to develop students' skills and competencies.

To acquire basic animation skills and learn the processes behind an animated film.

To obtain experience in the pedagogical uses of animation through placement in various events.

To widen the theoretical knowledge of educational and learning approaches.

Animation tops  the list of most of students. No wonder that they favorite it as an activity each year!

Here are some prepared lesson plans to help you get started made by Tim Elge, A High School Special Education Teacher. 

Learn more: http://plotagon.com/education/lessonplans

Here's an early Christmas present if you are an educator - we are extending our one-month trial of a Plotagon Education account. Sign up here!

Or send an email to education@plotagon.com with "Free Trial" in the subject heading, and include the following information in the body of the message:

Your Name

Your School, Company, or Affiliation

The email address that you would like to associate with the account

More info about Plotagon: http://plotagon.com/education

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

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LEARNING THROUGH STORYTELLING

Why do we love stories so much?

Once Upon a Time … For over 27,000 years, since the first man (woman) smeared red ochre animal shapes on a cave wall, we have learned from drama and animated storytelling and telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.

Why Do We Tell Stories?

Whether in caves or in cities, storytelling remains the most innate and important form of communication.

We love to share the story of our life, workplace gossip, the daily news.

Storytelling is the oldest form of teaching. It bonded the early human communities, giving children the answers to the biggest questions of creation, life, and the afterlife.

OHH YES a story can put your whole brain to work!

More Reasons...

Gaining Verbal Skills

Becoming verbally proficient can contribute to a student's ability to resolve interpersonal conflict nonviolently. Negotiation, discussion, and tact are peacemaking skills. Clear communication is the first step to being able to ask for help when it is needed.

Imagination

Both telling a story and listening to a well-told tale encourages students to use their imaginations. Developing the imagination can empower students to consider new and inventive ideas.

Passing On Wisdom

Storytelling based on traditional folktales is a gentle way to guide young people toward constructive personal values by presenting imaginative situation.

There are several different types of stories you could potentially tell in your classroom.

A true story from real life.

A true story from the life of someone known to the students, like a friend, family member, or neighbor.

A true story from the news or a current event.

A historical story

A fictional story, with made up characters or events.

Of course, there are also various genres and styles of storytelling, but the above list represents the essential variety that you might incorporate into the classroom.

How does storytelling work?

The essential components of a story are:

character(s);

a beginning, middle and end;

a challenge;

a choice;

then a resolution.

With Plotagon anyone can be an animator and storyteller.

Why you should be using Plotagon?

Plotagon products let you tell your story and see it acted out by animated characters. You get to add all aspects of your story and see it come alive.

With Plotagon you can create the characters and pick everything from their physical appearance to their voice. Then set up your plots by choosing the locations for the scenes and the characters involved

You can write out dialogue for your characters and have them act on each other, bring in nifty sound effects from thunder to screaming, and even add music to the scene for a romantic or suspenseful story. The possibilities are truly endless with the options in Plotagon.

Teachers may sign up for a free trial of Plotagon Education. Send an email to education@plotagon.com with "Free Trial" in the subject heading, and include the following information in the body of the message:

Your Name

Your School, Company, or Affiliation

The email address that you would like to associate with the account

More info about Plotagon: http://plotagon.com/education

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

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Animation in Advertising

Advertising, the art that calls attention to a specific product or service.

Why animation? Using animation will help you:

Grab attention

Keep audiences engaged

Communicate quickly and concisely

Gain understanding

Make commercial unique and interesting

Make a lasting impression

Animations are also used in advertisement to give a feeling of aliveness, help to explain the product or service and get to the point quickly.

Animation can also be used in awareness campaigns to spread information about health related issues or other educational events.

Spreading awareness about health related issues or education through animation is just as successful, as people find such videos entertaining to watch.

But what's Up With the Mustache and Fake Mustache Trend?

During Movember, many brands use humor and animations in videos, images, and marketing materials to add a welcoming nature to the cause.

What is Movember?

Bringing the word 'Mo' - meaning moustache - and 'November' together, the annual event aims to raise awareness of men's health issues.

Did you know that one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime? These are the kinds of stats that the Movember movement is spreading. Women can also support the Movember movement by participating in Mo Sista.

The aim of Movember, also known as "No Shave November", is for perfectly ordinary men to brave the task of growing a moustache to raise money for charities fighting prostate cancer, testicular and mental health issues such as despression.

On November 1st all men are asked to shave off their facial hair. And for the next 30 days they are supposed to let their moustache grow in accordance with Movember rules.

Since ladies aren't physically able to participate in the growing aspect of Movember, Plotagon would be fun to use to apply a mostach on your face.

Plotagon has released its Mustache T-Shirts to do the talking for you.

Whether you can grow a mo’ or not, Movember has not only sparked an international fundraising and awareness campaign for men’s health, but has certainly pushed a style trend. There are a lot of great Moustache-inspired accessories and products for mo’ season and beyond.

Movember has given people the opportunity to take pictures, hashtag, and spread their growing furry friends. It is unbelievable how many people take to sharing their more or less awkward mustaches! Even the ladies get in on the fun with fake mustaches. It is a humorous global marketing gem.

The advantage of using Plotagon animations is the ability to create environments and worlds that could be or could not be accessed in real life.

Stop men dying too young, join the movement this Movember and create some  awareness animated videos using plotagon and add the hashtag #PlotagonMovember.

Learn more about us and download the app: http://plotagon.com

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

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Fun Educational Halloween Activities

Halloween also known as All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October.

Halloween is one of the most fun holidays. Kids love the spooky monsters, sounds, music, dances, treats, traditions, haunted houses, and costumes that surround the holiday.

As a teacher, educator or parent, you can capitalize on this time to help kids learn while celebrating the holiday.

Use the holiday to inspire your students or kids writing spooky stories.

We suggest that you give Plotagon Education a try, enter the app which lets you tell your story and see it acted out by animated characters.

Creating an animation is as simple as writing a script. You start by choosing a scene and two characters that will interact with each other.

Plotagon is so simple anyone could be up and running and using it inside 10 to 15 minutes. The characters look great, the scenes look great and there's plenty of content to get you started.

How-to Halloween Writing

For younger kids, Halloween can be a great time to teach instructional or "how to" writing. Allow kids to write their stories while choosing the right costume, how to plan the best route for trick-or-treating and how to host the best Halloween party.

Sometimes writing can be tough, but when you have a list of great ideas to inspire your students, it is very often the writing experience begins to flow and becomes so much easier.

We promise you to have higher student interest levels and give yourself some new topics for those "same old" assignments.

Animation is difficult. 3D animation is horribly difficult especially for young students. But Plotagon offers an interesting shortcut, an easy way to build your own 3D animated movies, without requiring any technical knowledge or artistic ability at all.

Plotagon is the perfect place to express yourself in your own animated stories. Create your Halloween animated videos and charachters via our amazing app, learn more: http://plotagon.com/education

Stay up to speed with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

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Plotagon 3D animations at Skolforum

Skolforum is a meeting place for teachers where they can meet on site to broaden and deepen together the picture of what it is like to be a teacher. On 31 October -1 November 2016, we want to meet you!

Plotagon will show teachers and students how to use animation in the classroom. See you there?

October 28 is International Animation Day (IDA). It's a day to recognize and celebrate the artists, the scientists and the technicians behind animated art including animated movies.

Since the birth of stop-frame animation onto film at the beginning of the 19th century it has played a vital role in engaging and educating audiences. Animation is able to simplify messages and support them in creative ways where reality sometimes cannot.

Young people are fascinated by animation and they enjoy the opportunity to create their own. Children in particular, are said to learn best and most when they enjoy what they are doing.

It is your opportunity to learn more about the endless use of animation. With Plotagon, you can create 3D-animated videos just by typing the manuscript. The use of Plotagon in teaching and learning appears to be more appropriate and effective in young students.

The theme of this year's attendance at the Skolforum is to work with teachers to create lesson plans that concretely shows how Plotagon is used in various subjects. Since Plotagon is so easy to use, there are already examples of how it is used in all ages to teach drama, language, history, mathematics, social studies, science studies. Plotagon today used successfully for everything from children with autism spectrum disorders to business students at Berlin University.

Plotagon will be in place during Skolforum offering a free trial for 30 days for all teachers who want to explore how animation can be used in their teaching.

Teachers who will help with a lesson plan at the School Forum or through http://plotagon.com/education/lessonplans will be offered a one-year Plotagon teaching license for themselves or a colleague. Offer is valid from the Skolforum October 31 to November 30.

Plotagon is available for individual teachers and entire classrooms at http://store.education.plotagon.com

Animation, certainly, provides a sure means to capture and maintain students’ interest in the classroom, given that many people grew up watching animations on television and in movies.

Plotagon is an award winning application for PC, Mac and iOS that currently used by thousands of teachers and students worldwide. The program has a unique user interface that focuses on a written script, where the user creates his film by writing, adding emotion, animations and sound effects. Because the program is so easy to use it is very popular among teachers, both to themselves and create materials for creating and together with students of all ages.

More info about Plotagon: http://plotagon.com/education

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Animations For Education

There is no doubt that teachers play a critical role in kid’s life. Spending around seven or eight hours a day and five days a week with students, a teacher is of course the most influential person in our children’s life.

Technology is helping teachers to expand beyond linear, text-based learning and to engage students who learn in other ways.

Technology now is a learning tool that could change how we demonstrate concepts, assign projects and asses progress.

How do animations influence learning?

From simply being seen on television and movies in the past, animations have recently become a common tool in classroom teaching and learning. The book, Learning with Animation (2007), notes that it can actually increase interest and motivation in learning. A module brochure of VIA University College in Denmark, entitled “Animation as a Learning Tool”, further promotes the use of animation as a fun and effective tool to encourage learning among children. 

It says that by using animation, “children develop skills and competences in storytelling, visual communication, cognition, emotional ethic and aesthetic aspects, observation and sensitive aspects, concentration, and problem-solving and innovative aspects.”

Animations can make the process of learning more interactive and interesting. Animations are used for a variety of reasons across a whole range of topics, and many people believe that animations can help learners come to understand complex ideas more easily.

Powerpoint presentations kill critical thoughts, that’s why many teachers are banning it from lectures.

Animations will enliven any teacher’s lessons and assignments, and allow the students to create their own animations. It is more easier for students to visually represent what they are studying, to reach a new understanding of the material and commit what they are learning to memory.

Animations will also offer the students a way to communicate what they have learned by sharing their animations with teachers, parents or peers.

Find the right solution for you!

There are many platforms and apps are booming the ed-tech industry, but finding the right animation app can be a chore if you don’t know where to start.

What if we told you making 3D-animated videos can happen just by typing the manuscript.

YES! Plotagon is the world’s easiest 3D animation application. EVER!

Plotagon was created to make it possible for anyone to create an animated movie, with no knowledge of filmmaking.

“Plotagon is a wonderful teaching tool for me. I got so much more speech and conversation out of my students by using the app because they just loved the whole experience.” Said Lindsey Padgett, Speech-Language Pathologist

The use of Plotagon in the classroom can be endless and will help to engage and inspire students and teachers alike.

For more info about the use of Plotagon in the school, university or classroom, please visit our website: http://plotagon.com/education

You can also visit us and talk to the team at the Skolforum on 31 October - 1 november, from 08.30 to 17.00, more info here: http://bit.ly/2eKhj5j

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Using animation to enhance the learning experience

The traditional pen and paper essay-writing format isn’t for every student.

Self-expression for many students can be a huge challenge, and traditional methods of art such as drawing and painting - while hugely enjoyable for some - can feel difficult and worrying for those who don’t necessarily have a huge amount of natural artistic talent.

The beauty of animation is that students can find the ready-made characters and use them or customize them according to their needs then place these characters into any scene.

Animation brings the creative experience to another level. Making animation videos is a brilliant and innovative new way to encourage students to communicate stories, ideas and concepts in a creative and original way.

The other brilliant thing about animation is that it provides an exciting and dynamic platform to encourage students to give interesting, engaging class presentations.

Animation is a great way to encourage students to put greater effort into their presentations, making videos, visual explanations of concepts and really visually connecting with their audience, a great skill for the future.

Plotagon is a great animation app to encourage students to get started, as it allows students and teachers to simply choose some characters, select their scenes, type words for their characters to say, and press play to see a script performed as an animated story.

Take advantage of our animation tool, download the app now: http://plotagon.com/education

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ANIMATION TO RAISE AWARENESS

“Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.” – Walt Disney

Provoking thoughts and actions on pressing global concerns, such as humanitarian, environmental and health issues can be challenging; but animation could offer the key.

Using animation to engage audiences across many mediums is not a new thing. Animation can help to explain things in a more simple and engaging way.

Spreading awareness about health related issues or education through animation is just as successful, as people find such videos entertaining to watch. Nowadays, the aim isn’t just to inform people about a specific issue, but to capture their attention effectively and in a way that will encourage them to tell other people about it.

Almost anything is possible with animation. You can change the way people perceive and respond to an important issue by approaching them in a well thought out way, so it’s time to get your creative juices flowing. Animation has the power to form a bond with your audience as long as they are effectively targeted, so try exploring the different methods and styles out there.

This month Plotagon is using animation to raise awareness about several topics:

- Raising awareness can save a life. Plotagon used its customized characters to raise awareness about Breast Cancer.

- As Plotagon believes that education allows each person to gain power and create opportunities and because education matters, we celebrate the teachers and future teachers out there on "WORLD TEACHERS' DAY".

- On International Day of the Girl, Plotagon celebrated the power of girls and highlighted the barriers they face through animated photos and videos.

Plotagon has endless uses. Use it to present any subject in a fun and engaging way.

Follow us on our social media platforms to learn more:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Plotagon

Instagram: www.instagram.com/plotagonapp

Twitter: twitter.com/Plotagon