​Plotagon Education enables students and educators to create animated videos just by writing

Stockholm, Sweden—July 28, 2015—Few challenges are as universal for educators as motivating students to write. A new application called Plotagon Education is changing that with its one-of-a-kind technology that can turn text into animated videos—instantly. Students simply choose some characters, select their scenes (restaurant, school, airport, etc.), type words for the characters to say, and press play to see their words come to life. Students can get even more creative by adding emotions, actions, music and sound effects. It is available for iPad, iPhone, Mac and PC.

Plotagon Education was developed at the request of teachers who were already using Plotagon’s popular consumer app in their classrooms. The app was a finalist in the Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards in fall 2014, just a few months after its debut. Edtech evangelists embraced Plotagon because they could quickly create animated videos to present assignments, cover controversial topics, re-teach lessons (in a new way), and create flipped classrooms.

More importantly, those educators discovered that students are inspired to think, write and share while using Plotagon. Students have created animated videos to explain science experiments, discuss the pros and cons of topical issues, practice English as a second language, and write fiction. Students who are shy or have special needs often say they feel like they have a voice for the first time ever when they can “talk” and share via Plotagon.

“What I like about Plotagon is it focuses more on writing than any other app I’ve seen. That, to me, is very powerful,” says Jon Smith, also known as @TheiPodTeacher. Smith is a technology integration specialist for Alliance City Schools who also teaches graduate classes in education technologies.

Plotagon Education includes a private, digital classroom where students can share their work and comment on videos by classmates, all of which is monitored by their teacher. Every character and scene in Plotagon’s library comes standard in Plotagon Education (with new ones added all the time) along with a Character Creator that allows users to build characters by choosing facial features, hair, clothing and more. Students can create themselves, famous people, or anyone they dream up—and change them any time.

Teachers may sign up for a free trial of Plotagon Education. The yearly licensing fee is $99 USD per class with volume licensing available for schools and districts. The consumer Plotagon app (which includes a handful of characters and scenes) is free for anyone, but animated videos from that version are posted publicly on the Internet and additional characters and scenes may require in-app purchases (per user).

Plotagon was started in 2011. It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Plotagon Education is available on Twitter (@PlotagonEdu) and Google+ to provide information, ideas and support to educators.

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North America press contact:
Carri Bugbee, Big Deal Digital
503-297-4043 or cbugbee@bigdealdigital.com

Sweden and Europe press contact:
Mia Crilley, Plotagon Education
+46-70-6559404 or mia.crilley@plotagon.com