Moovly for classroom presentations

When I first saw Moovly I knew it was a tool that could be used in education for creating animated videos and interactive presentations on condition that you are really interested in technologies because the tool is not the easiest of those I have tried.

What slowed me down was the process of adding animation to my slides. For a non-professional user, it is rather challenging. Had I persisted, I may have come to some result but luckily I had an idea of asking my students to test the tool. So, in a few days the video was ready. It was made by a 15 year old student Raitis who is good at English and brilliant at computers.

We had recently studied the topic of environment and he used this theme in his presentation. See what you can come up with using the Moovly tool.

Earth Hour 2011

I find it awesome that at 8.30 PM on Saturday 26 March 2011, lights will be switched off around the globe for Earth Hour. The campaign is organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Just imagine all the lights as seen in this satellite image of Europe, Middle East and North Africa going out one by one until this part of the globe lies in the dark... Incredible!
I wish I could see it from space!



Apart from experiencing emotionally beautiful moment, we can use this action to teach the students some facts about this campaign or attract their attention to protecting and saving the planet which is our home.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and more than 2,000 businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating.
(Quoted from the Earth Hour website. Visit the site to read on.)

my lantern

Younger students can go to the Earth Hour website and create a virtual lantern which will float around the virtual globe and  serve as a symbol of their care and devotion.
              

Download an excellent resource pack for primary students here (pdf). 
Do an online exercise here.

Finally you can watch the official Earth Hour video and it will speak for itself.

An online task about the protection of environment

I have made quite a lot of online tasks.
You may use them in your lessons when you get access to the computers. All the tasks include online activities that engage students in class work and give some free time to the teacher.

TASK 1
The task on environmental problems (rainforests) with Prince Charles and other famous people on the video.