LIS 568 - Powtoon

 New Tech Tool: Powtoon

Kaitlyn Casper

LIS 568 Week 5: 6/23 - 6/29

    

    This week, I decided to explore Powtoon since we are required to use it for creating our Digital Citizenship website! I had not heard of Powtoon before using it for this assignment, but I found the concept super interesting! When I saw that someone had reviewed it and called it "the Canva of video making," I knew I was probably going to like it.

First Impressions

    When I first signed up for Powtoon, I will admit that I was slightly intimidated by the business of the homepage. However, I found it really helpful that they offered some free templates for me to use to make my first video. I decided to use a template and started clicking around to explore the different features and mechanics. It took a little bit of exploring to get the hang of it, but once I did, it was fairly easy to use. I really like the flexibility of Powtoon, as it lets you customize text, use "props," and lengthen sections of your video.

Free vs. Paid

    One of the first things I noticed about Powtoon was that it seems pretty limited with what you can do for free. You can use the software and all of its basic functions for free, but there were some things that were behind a paywall that I wish I could have used. Most of the customization features, like the item props, characters, overlays, and special features, were behind a paywall. It wasn't too terrible since, as I mentioned, most of the free features allow you do use Powtoon and make a decent-looking video. Some generic characters and props are available for free use. It is definitely enough to get you by for a video or two, but if you wanted to use Powtoon regularly, it might be worth it to weigh the subscription prices.

    The subscription system that Powtoon uses is interesting. You can pay monthly or yearly to ear credits, which can be used to buy props, characters, and other special features. I did discover that, when you first create a Powtoon account, they allow you to use "Pro" and "Edu" props for free for a few days, where they would normally require a subscription. They offered three different price points, which I did find to be a bit pricey. Within levels that provide different access to their features, they price a subscription at $15/month, $70/month, and $125/month. These prices are very high, especially considering that they are billed yearly. I don't think that I would spend the money to subscribe unless I was making Powtoon videos for the majority of my lessons, which I probably wouldn't do.

Final Verdict

    Ultimately, I think Powtoon can be a useful tool in a school library, but I'm not able to support their subscription prices. To put it in perspective, Canva offers a $120 yearly subscription that gives you access to pretty much all of their tools and features. This is already $60 cheaper than the cheapest Powtoon subscription, and that only lets you access some of their Pro features. However, I would consider using Powtoon again with the free version if I wanted to create a custom video for a class or for the school library website.

Powtoon main page.