XtranormalProsCons

While there are some great possibilities when using Xtranormal, there are also some pitfalls. Both of these elements need to be addressed when considering whether or not to use this technology in the classroom.

//Positives//
 * Quick to make
 * Text-to-speech technology brings movies to life, this can be engaging
 * Characters lip-sync to the words
 * The site and the product look professional
 * The FREE version has an adequate number of characters and backgrounds
 * The FREE version is sufficient for most school uses
 * When you finish a movie you can: publish it on the site, embed it in a wiki or blog, link it to other social media (such as Facebook)
 * The site has a 'Tips & Tricks' section in the forum
 * There is a lot of content in the forum
 * Everyone can log in under the same account and the teacher can do the sign-up in their name
 * More than one user can be logged in at once under the same login details, each working on their own individual movies
 * Everyone can view everyone else's movies
 * Students have the opportunity to edit videos even after they've been wrapped up
 * It's a perfect medium for integrating language and literacy and ICT
 * Students can access their videos from anywhere they have internet access
 * Students have to be very careful with punctuation (if they do not put a space after a full stop, their character will not pause and say 'point' instead)

//Negatives//
 * Sequence previews take a while to load even on a fast computer
 * The UPGRADE for better features costs money
 * The desktop version STATE is more powerful and flexible, but is far more complicated to use
 * STATE doesn't have as much free content as the internet version
 * All the themes are American: Presidents, the White House, Sarah Palin, American historical figures
 * You can access other Xtranormal videos on the site which can't be filtered, meaning students can access inappropriate material
 * There are no controls about who can make an Xtranormal video and post it to the site
 * Students can alter other student's videos without their permission
 * You are limited to 2 characters per movie
 * There are limited characters and senarios
 * There is some questionable content, eg. leather clad teddies
 * Some words are not recognised by the program (however there are ways around this- students can spell the word phonetically)
 * Students will be required to choose a central character for this activity, which limits the other characters and backdrops to the ones available in that character's specific pack.