TEL·A·VISION is just that-Tell A Vision-in a movie. It seems to be popular with students and they have many examples of teachers using it in the classroom, sorted by topic. The idea is to think up 10 goals that you, the world, or anyone else, would like to achieve.

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Jennifer Bolton is married with two boys, both special needs. She is the owner of the Special Needs in Homeschooling. Jennifer uses free resources for teaching whenever she can, to keep her boys’ interests and to tailor their learning experiences to their individual learning styles and special needs.

Name of Product: TEL·A·VISION

Link to Product/website: http://telavision.tv/

“Watch. Listen. See the Possibilities.”

Jennifer’s Description of Product: TEL·A·VISION is just that-Tell A Vision-in a movie. It seems to be popular with students and they have many examples of teachers using it in the classroom, sorted by topic. The idea is to think up 10 goals that you, the world, or anyone else, would like to achieve. Write each goal in the present tense, like it is achieved already. The fun part is finding photographs and images that match your goals, which can be done through url, photobucket, flickr, your own upload, or from their stock content (requires sign up). TEL·A·VISION has a premium service that offers more, which is great if I was going to use the site often or if I had many children utilizing it–like a group homeschool project. But since I just have my two boys, the free version offers more than enough for us!

When your photos are uploaded, you are ready to spruce up your video with special effects (and there are a LOT of special effects). They show the premium items first, so keep scrolling in the drop down menus to see everything offered for free. Each image can have a different special effect too. For example, if one image is snowboarding as your goal, then you can add the winter effect of snow (which is listed under Christmas) and if the next image is cooking, then the snow effect would be silly but you can change it to Sparkles. However, you don’t have to have any special effects, as these are optional.

Afterward, choose a soundtrack that you enjoy or find inspirational, and then make your video! You can add up to three songs per video! The song list they provide is quite extensive and neatly sorted by category. They also allow you to listen to samples before adding to your video! I did find adding music a little confusing. For instance, when I clicked on music, I got an auto-generated sample soundtrack. In order to change that to something else, I had to click on the words ’sample soundtrack.’ I was looking for a link that said ‘music’ or ‘change song’ or something like that. Once I figured it out though, I had fun picking out the songs!

Once your video is finished, you can grab the url and email it out to share with others. They provide codes so you can post it to MySpace, BabyCenter, Blogger, LiveJournal, or eBay. If you prefer, an HTML link is provided that includes a thumbnail image of your video, which can be posted directly to a web page.

Homeschool Uses: As we started 2009, I wondered if my boys would be willing to make goals. They are both visual spatial learners and abstract thinkers. Finding real goals, the kind that do not include getting a specific game coming out soon, is difficult for them. This site allows children that are visual in their thinking to put abstract thoughts into imagery. If a child’s vision is to become more kind, then a picture of someone helping someone puts that thought into an image. Also, I think the site is great for special needs. Finding images that match emotions and making different videos on being happy, angry, or sad is a great way to help match abstract emotions into imagery. Taking pictures of a field trip and making a video with special effects and music is quite fun too! In the words of TEL·A·VISION, it “easily integrates into curriculum. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of creating Vision Videos, TEL·A·VISION can be applied to a variety of subjects, including social studies, health, media, English, history, etc.”

Content and Safety: From what I can tell, there are no email addresses exchanged and no real names used anywhere. I do have pictures of my boys in the video, but that is optional. As I stated above, you can use any images you would like! Parents can visit the site’s privacy page to learn more about how they ensure safety and use registration information.

Jennifer’s Experience Using the Product: I found it can be used for so much more! I made a basic video of my boys over the last year and now I have a keepsake video to post to our online journal!

As stated earlier, my boys are abstract visual spatial learners! My youngest son decided he had one goal this year, to learn about animals. He discovered the fireworks for special effects and I’m not sure about his choice of song (It is funny!):

Tutorial or Promotional Video of the Product: You can find tutorials for using this tool on their site at following pages: Tel.A.Vision Tutorials and Tel.A.Vision How To Video.

Summary: The boys and I really enjoyed this website. I’m not sure it will be something we will go back to repetitively. We certainly enjoyed playing around and learning what other people had for their visions! TEL·A·VISION has a neat feature; their goal is ‘to bring people together’ and they have a created an events page, which includes a contest. Be sure to check it out.

If you try TEL·A·VISION, then leave us a comment on what you have done with this tool!

Editor’s Note: Read these FREE Image Reviews:
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