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Plotagon Education
Grades
3–12
Subjects & Skills
English Language Arts, Communication & Collaboration, Character & SEL
Great for
With Plotagon Education, students can create animated movies, make characters, and write plots about any subject matter. The website provides a plethora of ideas for any class, from language arts to social studies to math and even social skills. Students can create a movie re-enacting a scene from a time in history, showing how to solve a math problem, or with two characters debating a topic -- the list goes on! Teachers can have students work collaboratively on their movies: One student can write the script and another can work on the animations. Students can then export their movie as an MP4 file to submit it to their teacher. Overall, it's a great tool that gives students opportunities to work on their writing and creativity skills.
Caution should be given when students choose actions between characters, however. Some of the actions include kissing and caressing that may not be considered appropriate for a class project. Also, since the computer voices available can seem unnatural, it might be good to consider having students record their own voices instead.
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Take Classroom Video to the Next Level
Cheat Sheet: Getting the Most out of VideoEditor's Note: Plotagon Education is no longer available; however, the consumer and higher-ed version of the app still exists.
Plotagon Education is a website that provides students with a tool to create animated movies. Students can create characters and write scripts, as well as give their characters emotions and actions. When creating a character, students can customize the head shape, hair, facial hair, eyes, and clothes and choose whether or not to give the character glasses. When writing a script (called "creating a new plot"), students start by adding a scene; they can write dialogue and choose from a long list of actions for each character. Characters can also perform actions on another character. Students can choose to keep the character's voice as it is or record their own voice. Music and sound effects are available too.
Plotagon Education movies can be exported as MP4 files and saved on the computer. Plotagon Education is also available on Chromebooks through the Google Play store. The website provides teachers with lesson plan ideas for many subjects.
The best part of Plotagon Education is how much you can customize your character. The program comes with Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton already created. However, you can take any person in history and create their look in Plotagon with all of the different facial and body features available.
Plotagon Education is a great tool that students can use to show their understanding of any topic in any subject matter. Instead of a written report, poster, or even PowerPoint presentation, students have the opportunity to create a movie as a more creative way to show mastery. It's a great way for students to learn a unique form of writing as they create their dialogues and full scripts, and students can also practice communicating social and emotional skills by focusing on verbal and nonverbal cues.
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