ZIMMER TWINS

WHAT IS ZIMMER TWINS
It is a tool in which users can create cartoon animation through the animation clip provided. The students could start their movies from scratch or use the movie starters provided and just create the ending for it.  There are three characters available; the twins (Edgar and Eva) and a black cat named 13. In the making the animation, the users could choose from different talk bubble, close up and star.

AGE AND LEVEL OF LEARNERS
# Age of learners - Thirteen to seventeen (older students might find this boring since this tool is just making a short and simple animation)
# Level of learners - All level of students ( I assume that even low level learner can use this since it requires the students to include just a simple and short sentences in making the movie)


HOW TO USE ZIMMER TWINS

# Go to Zimmer Twins website, click HERE and then click 'make a movie'. 

# Click pick your starter OR if you don't want to choose starter, simply click on 'make movie from scratch'

# Then you can start choosing your movie strip based on your preference.
# You can make some editing and changing in you animation (the changes and editor button could be found in the pink hilighted below)

# You need to sign up in order to save/publish your movie. You also can send your movie to others
# Full tutorial on how to use Zimmer Twins, click HERE

EXAMPLE OF ZIMMER TWINS
# This is a link of a movie that I have made: Edgar and his cat


SUGGESTION OF ACTIVITIES

1. Teacher can use it to teach grammar points. For example, teacher teach about present tense in the classroom. Teacher would few example of present tense sentences. Then, as for the practise for the students, in pairs, they need to use Zimmer Twins to make a movie and at the same time, they need to include sentences which contain form of present tense.
2. Another example of activity could be used for making comparison between present tense and past tense. For example, the teacher taught both about past tense and present tense. Then the teacher divide the students in two groups; one group need to use Zimmer Twin and make a movie in which the sentence contain present tense form and the other group need to make a movie with the sentence contain past tense form. They need to do it in pairs. Then, once they finish with their movie, they need to work in groups of four. The pairs who make movie using present tense form will combine with the pairs whom make movie using past tense form. In the groups of four, each pairs will explain about their movie and the use of tense form in the movie. This type of activity will involves information gap and collaboration among the students.

*This tool is very powerful for the students who likes to learn using visual because the cartoon animation in Zimmer Twin could be an attraction for the students.* 

*I would prefer the students to work in pairs when they do the activity because I believe that this would lead to collaborative learning and scaffolding. To ensure that it works, I will pair up the weak students with the strong students. When they work in pairs, the strong students can help the weak students.* 

*Using Zimmer Twins can help the students improve their speaking and writing skills. This is because, when they use this tool, they need to write sentences and as it involves working in pairs and group, they would need to speak in order to express their ideas, combine their ideas or even give some comments*

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT ZIMMER TWIN

1. It is FREE
2. Students build their English input while doing their video
3. Can send your movies to others
4. Allow personalisation - students can choose how they want to make their movie by choosing any scene that they want
5. Enhance the students' creativity

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

1. No audio speech. Simply bubbles with words.
2. Can't embed your movie
3. Once students have published their animation, they can't edit it anymore. 
4. There is possibility for some students to use inappropriate language in their animation (Teacher and parents need to monitor it) 

DVOLVER MOVIE MAKER

WHAT IS DVOLVER MOVIE MAKER
It is an online short movie making tool which could be used by the teachers and students to create animated movie scenes by using colouful cartoon style and characters. The dialogue for the scene will appear in bubbles.


AGE AND LEVEL OF LEARNERS
# Age - Twelve and above (as long as students know how to use computer)
# Level of students - All levels include lower, intermediate and advanced (It depends on how the teacher use this tool for teaching. If the task provided is too easy, the advanced students might feel bored).

HOW TO CREATE A MOVIE
Well it is quite easy to use it. This is the movie maker web page: Dvolver Moviemaker 

Picture 1: Dvolver Moviemaker page

Few steps to do the Dvolver Movie Maker are:
#  Select the background and sky
#  Select the plot
#  Choose the character(s)
#  Type in the characters line. The limit is three speech bubbles per-character perscene
#  Choose background music
#  Finally, you can choose to add new scene or finish and preview your mini movie!
# For full tutorial of using Dvolver, you can click on this link: Dvolver Moviemaker Tutorial



EXAMPLE OF FILM MADE USING DVOLVER




SUGGESTION OF ACTIVITIES

1. The teacher could use this tool for post-reading activity which is writing a summary for a reading text. After the while-reading activity, the teacher asks the students to summarise the article and use Dvolver to present their summary. The teacher could explain to the students that they make the summary in a conversation form using Dvolver. Then, once they have finished, they they will engage in pair work. In pairs, they would need to have a look at each others' work and see whether they have the same points or not and discuss the points that they have. 
2. The teacher could also use Dvolver for teaching grammar form such as modal verbs (example of modal verbs are: could, would, shall, may must). The teacher herself make a movie and include the modal verbs form in it. Then, the teacher present it to the class and at the same time, the teacher explain about that grammar form. The students can do the traditional practises such as drilling or filling the gaps activity. Then, as the homework, the students could be asked to use Dvolver Movie Maker and make their own cartoon animation and they need to include about the modal verbs that they have learnt.
3. Could also make a fun competition among students where the teacher divide the students in pairs or groups of three. The teacher gives few topics (such as weather, food, subject that they learn, holiday, etc) and the students can choose the topic based on their preference. Then, students make their own movie based on the topic that they have chosen and present it in front of the class. All the students in the class will become the judges. The teacher will prepare an evaluation form which includes criteria of what a good movie should have (for example - it should link to the topic that they have chosen) and the students need to rank it.

*Using Dvolver could be an alternative way for a fun language learning. In learning grammar, the students does not need to engage in drilling or memorising anymore. They can learn the grammatical form by constructing the form in a fun way which is by using cartoon animation*  

*It is highly recommended for students who are more into visual intelligence. Those students could maximise their potential for learning.*

*In addition, this tool also could leads to collaborative learning. This is because, some of the activities that I have suggested would need the students to work in groups and have some discussion.*

WHY USE IT

1. It is an easy way to do the digital story telling in the classroom. 
2. It is user friendly. The users just need to click on the option given and follow the steps and finally, the movie is done!
3. It is free and users do not have to create an account or sign up. 
4. Variety for learning in the classroom. Instead of watching a movie or using whiteboard, the students get the chance to do something different which is creating a mini movie. 
5. Students can express their creativity. They can do they movie based on what they want as long as they can fulfill the requirement of the task given by the teacher. 
6. Would be an advantage for the students who have visual intelligence -  the teacher can cover this type of intelligence during the lesson - can engage those students and vary the teaching style. 
7. Th students can save their time. It will just take few minutes to do a simple movie. 
8. The students are given various options with regards to setting, characters and background music. In addition, they can also choose on how the characters interact in the movie. 
9. Students can freely write whatever dialogue that they want. They are given total freedom. 
10. When they finished the movie, they can e-mail it to their friends to share or post it to their website or blog. 
11. It would be fun and entertaining for the students normally, children like animation and cartoon.  

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

1. Some of the characters are not suitable to be used by the students. For example, the character of Hottie whom a bit sexy. 
2. As the students can freely write what they want, thus they might have the tendency to write inappropriate words. 
3.  The end product is just the moving characters whom communicate through text inside speech bubbles. Thus, people cannot hear the characters speak. 
4. The skills need to create the movie is minimal in which it only involves choosing the scene, choosing the characters and writing the text. The students who are advanced in technology might find this a bit boring and not exciting. 
5. There are limited numbers of maximum characters which can be chosen - only two.  
6. There are limited plots to write - The students can only do three scenes in the movie. . 
7. The characters navigation are limited - the movie has fixed the way the characters move. Therefore, the users cannot navigate the characters in any way they choose. In addition, the characters' non-verbal communication will also be limited. 
8. Once the movie is published, it cannot be edited anymore. As the consequence, if the students want to improvise their mini movie, they would need to make a new one.