Discovering Something New

This week I am checking out three tools that I have not ever used. Spoiler Alert: two of them I really like and one of them bombed.

Evaluate:

	Cost	Ipads/ chromebooks?	Sign Up?	Ads?	Ease of Use
ABCYa Animate	Free* Limited free access on web, iPad app requires a purchased subscription	Both – web version and app:	Yes	Yes	simple to use
BeFunky	Basic version is free	Web only; there is an app – but not for presentations, only for photo editing.	Yes	Yes	Simple to Medium Learning curve; Froze a lot in chrome browser
Storyboard That	free	Web Version only, but works on iPad in a browser.	Yes	No	Simple to Medium – small learning curve

ABCya Animate:

This is an ideal tool for elementary use. It is simple to use. On the web, no log in is required when using a computer.  iPad use, does require a sign when accessing from the web. In addition, there is an app, but it requires a sign up. on laptop, prompted for log in on ipad and required to sign in for paid subscription. Even, when trying to access the website, via a browser, it requires a log in.

I created a sample project that includes the many features available:
Apparently, I forgot to hit the save button, as it is supposed to save the project as a GIF, but I couldn’t locate it. Luckily, I saved screen shots of my project: 

On the last screen you can see the different tools available to use. 

Storyboard That: 

This a step up from ABCya animate. It has more options for font type and size, speech bubbles, You do need to sign in and can create two for free, free account also limited in the number of slides they can have. The minimum is 3 and max is 6.  You can create on both iPad (without app) and laptop. I created a similar project to the ABCya one to show the features:

From an educational perspective ABCya Animate and StoryboardThat are two tools that would be great options in the schools to provide students with another way to share what they know. Being able to save the projects means that they can be shared via different platforms. I can see using ABCya with the lower elementary and StoryboradThat with upper elementary students.

BeFunky Designer:
The last tool I reviewed was BeFunky. It can be compared to Canva in its purpose. It is a tool that is used to create online posters. I have to admit, this tool frustrated me. It kept freezing in the Chrome browser and when selecting items to move or delete, randomly selected a nearby object. If I was frustrated, I can only imagine hwo impatient my students would be.

It has limited free options. I do think that it would be frustrating for kids to see all of the options available for purchase.  There are ads on screen, which can be distracting. As for the functions, there are many fonts and sizes available. You can upload pics from facebook, or pixabay and unsplash.

Another area that made it hard to use was that it was small on the screen. While you can zoom it, It only zoomed to the middle of the screen. I wasn’t able to find a way to scroll. You can share to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, as well as download an image to your computer.

Here is a sample project I created:

Overall, I would not consider using this in my classroom. I feel that Canva is more user friendly and has much more options available for free.