Thinglink VS. Adobe Sparknote Video

I had the privilege of making a Thinglink presentation and an Adobe Sparknote narrated video with images.  In this blog post, I’m going to be quite honest about my feelings on both of these presentation websites in ways of the ease of use, my final product, and whether or not I believe elementary students would be able to use either of these applications with success.

When I created my Thinglink, I found the website to be a little confusing at times.  When I started working with the tools, I noticed that many of them needed me to upgrade and pay in order to use them within my presentation.  I wasn’t a huge fan of this; however, I used tools that were free and I thought my presentation turned out well.  The dots are a neat feature, but I would’ve liked to do a voice-over in order to intrigue my students to read each one of the points about two-dimensional shapes.  I thought the colors that I used and the background image were attractive.  I think that I would use this as a whole group or small group presentation and most likely not independent work for my third-grade students.  I would want to make sure they hit on each bullet point I wrote and go in the order in which I presented the content.

My Adobe Sparknote video was extremely easy to create and narrate!  I loved making this video because I was able to pick a template, add music, and create a voice-over with ease.  I was also able to complete my voice-overs on each slide as many times as I needed to make it perfect. My students could refer to this tutorial during station time and could replay it as often as needed.

I believe these are two very different types of presentations that I created which could be implemented with elementary-age students.  I could see myself using the Adobe Sparknote video feature due to it being very kid-friendly.  I had an easy time navigating the site and uploading my images and narration.  

My students are currently working on researching a body system for Health.  The project consists of the students finding information on their particular body system and then creating a Google Slideshow to present their findings.  I think it would be more powerful to use Adobe Sparknote video because they will be able to add images, voice-overs, and have fluid transitions to capture their audience’s attention.  I would be able to assess their content and I could also use a presentation rubric to assess how they narrated their information. Students would be able to get their presentation finished in the allotted time provided as we have access to iPad carts, Macbook carts, and our own classroom Chromebooks.  I look forward to trying this out with my third graders to see how their presentations turn out!