Zimmer Twins
Another simplistic yet versatile moviemaking website devoted to creative storytelling. Originally developed from the Canadian cartoon network, Zimmer Twins allows learners to create endings for movies by choosing actions, backgrounds and props. Learners also could add their own dialogues or on-screen text for movie narration. Alternatively, they could start creating movies from scratch and let their creativity runs wild!
Zimmer Twins - The Nuts and Bolts
In this section, I'll point out several rules or basic working aspects for using the Zimmer Twins.
1. Zimmer Twins account is a MUST:
One thing that users need to know before using this tool is that you need to have a Zimmer Twins account in order to save all your work.
Figure 1: Go to the left column of the homepage and click 'Join Zimmer Twins'. You'll be directed to the sign up form.
2. Recreate your username and password:
Signing up could be a tricky thing for this tool (at least for me) because you need to first sign up and fill in the form using parental email and confirm it first by verifying the link the website sent you, and later, go back to the sign up page and create your own student username and password. Then, again you have to verify the link sent and finally you'll be able to have a full access to the website as a free user. I lost my work (3 times!) due to this password confusion and ended up feeling all annoyed before I figured things out 20 minutes later. It's imperative for me to highlight this point at the very beginning of our discussion because I don't want you to be trapped with the same problem over and over. So first thing first, sign up for your Zimmer Twins account before you start creating your movie strips.
3. Start story telling - Pick a starter or start from scratch:
Click Make A Movie and you'll be directed to the menu page. Users can choose to create endings for the starters or you can be creative instead and make a new one.
4.Customization - Choose characters, props, settings and actions:
Movie editing comes handy with the Zimmer Twins. There are a wide range of props, settings and actions to choose from and they are all effortlessly easy to be changed. Other editing features include the delete button where you can just click on the slide in your movie line and remove it right away. Users can also drag back the slides into the props/settings/actions/characters box if they decided to change or remove them.
Figure 3: The main editing functions are circled in red.
5. Previewing feature:
Akin to Dvolver and the Microsoft Movie Maker, Zimmer Twins allows for a view function which is essential for final editing process before movies are saved. Editing is made possible during the viewing by just clicking the Stop button to pause and directly change the slide without having to wait till the preview ends. You can save your work once you're done.
6. Feedback section:
Because Zimmer Twins is primarily designed for language development purpose, it comes with Comments, Rating and Favourite functions which are crucial for providing users with feedback on how they could improve their movie animation. This tool also allows users to share their movie links which helps them to gain wider viewers for their artful work.
Figure 4: Zimmer Twins and language development element.
Click to view the full version of A Narrow Escape movie: Nako90
Other Plus Points:
Cautions!
- Visually appealing for learning!
- Sets a purpose and motivation for classroom learning.
- A tool for personalized artwork: students can get creative by creating their movies individually.
- Background sound effects to replace the voiceless animation.
- Free (albeit the signing up process could be a tedious one).
Cautions!
- Limited words for bubbles.
- Total of 53 animation strips per movie.
- Poor sharing capabilities: manual copy-paste-link-in-sites needed. Users can't directly embed their work in blogs.
- Once published, movies are no longer editable.
- If movies are shared via emails, the recipient must have Zimmer Twins account in order to view the animations.
- Limited actions, props and characters. Membership upgrade's needed for more options.
Ideas for Using The Zimmer Twins in Classrooms? Here are some!
Creative story telling:
Teacher starts the story and ask students to work in pairs or individually to create their own ending. The story may begin with a prompt using action clips or dialogues between the characters.
Chained story writing:
Suitable for classrooms with limited computers or laptops for students. Teachers only requires a computer and a projector for this activity. Similar to the creative story telling, the teacher starts the story and ask students in pairs to come up to the computer and continue the story. The fact that students have to adopt and alter their imagination to fit the plot requires a higher order thinking and more creativity as compared to the previous activity. Chained story writing could be cognitively challenging and fun for learning.
Getting students to talk:
Besides writing, this tool could be exploited for speaking tasks such as predicting the ending of the story. Teacher will show the animation prompt to the class and have students to work in pairs and exchange their predictions of the ending.
Rating on Zimmer Twins's Usefulness:
3 1/2
