dvolver

dvolver is one of the easiest tools you could introduce to your students in the classroom.  It's a simple movie-making website which you don't have to register with or log on to.  You choose from a range of settings, select two characters and a (very) simple plot, some music, a title and then start dialogue building in the speech balloons. Once done, you need to e-mail it to someone if you want to see it again, or embed it in a blog or website.  The choices are not infinite and the dialogues quite short so I thought it would be ideal at the end of a lesson where your students are practising functional or situational language (asking for/giving directions, inviting/accepting, etc).  Students could have quite a lot of fun after oral work, choosing (suitable or unsuitable)characters and settings and then having a whole class film show.  Errors can be corrected and language polished up while students are working on the dialogues before publishing them.  If your students feel fairly confident using this tool they could compose a dialogue at home and e-mail it to you for homework.

So, it's great if you have younger learners with five minutes' concentration spans.  If they are working in pairs, they will be motivated to negotiate as they compose their movies. In addition, the issue of choosing the right language becomes much more important if there is a 'polished' product and a performance at the end of it. 

However...
The backgrounds, scenes, plot lines are limited and it would be nice if they kept expanding them.  Don't be tempted to overuse this tool.  To continue to be motivating it must used where it works best.   Finally, if you have everyone doing this in the classroom, the noise will drive you crackers once they have selected the background music.  Suggest the mute button, until the final performance.   

http://www.dvolver.com/