Xtranormal: Creating Animated Videos from Text
What is Xtranormal?
Xtranormal is a video creation tool that uses text-to-speech technology. Users can create a video by choosing characters, a background, and then typing the dialogue to be read aloud by the computer program. Animations and sound effects can be easily dragged and dropped into the text boxes to add to the dialogue.
The site easily allows for videos to be shared to popular social media sites, provides embed codes and a link directly to your video, and it also is easy to publish your completed videos directly to YouTube from the site.
There are both free and paid plans available for this video creation tool. There are even education plans available for teachers and students. The main difference between the paid and free plans are the number of choices for story settings and characters.
This post, Xtranormal Intro, is a great resource for learning how to get started with Xtranormal.
Give me an example.
One way I have used Xtranormal in the classroom is by creating videos to introduce my students to new topics and content in a more engaging way. Here is an example of how I introduced narrative essays.
The site easily allows for videos to be shared to popular social media sites, provides embed codes and a link directly to your video, and it also is easy to publish your completed videos directly to YouTube from the site.
There are both free and paid plans available for this video creation tool. There are even education plans available for teachers and students. The main difference between the paid and free plans are the number of choices for story settings and characters.
This post, Xtranormal Intro, is a great resource for learning how to get started with Xtranormal.
Give me an example.
One way I have used Xtranormal in the classroom is by creating videos to introduce my students to new topics and content in a more engaging way. Here is an example of how I introduced narrative essays.
Students could easily use Xtranormal to create narrative stories, recreate scenes from a novel being read in class, or they could use it for reflective learning to share what they have learned. One very unexpected, but useful aspect is punctuation affects the way the characters read the lines. Students will find it useful to use proper grammar and punctuation in order to have the characters correctly say what is intended. Users will quickly realize if sentences are not punctuated correctly, the meaning can be easily lost. Yay for hidden literacy lessons!
Want more ideas?
Students could use Xtranormal in so many ways! Videos could be created to introduce themselves to the class, present information they learned on a certain subject, explain a concept, learn the importance of dialogue, show character traits of from a characters in a novel, give a summary... the possibilities are endless!
THIS SITE has even more great ideas on how to incorporate Xtranormal into the classroom; there are even ideas for multiple subject areas. And because Xtranormal videos can be created with languages other than English, it would be perfect for foreign language learning!
Resources:
Free Technology for Teachers - "Xtra Normal: Type to Create a Movie"
ICTAcross Curriculum 2012 Wiki - "Xtranormal"
ICTAcross Curriculum 2012 Wiki - "Xtranormal"
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