Ahh, spring is in the air and my thoughts are turning to golf as I see more and more grass appearing around me. But alas, its still technically winter and school's still in... so must snap out of it and get back to work!
My Web 2.0 world continues to expand with this week topic: Multimedia sharing sites. Animoto and VoiceThread are popular examples of multimedia or "mash up" tools that combine two or more sources (i.e pictures, text, music, and video) and integrate them into one entirely new source of information. Both tools are quite new but I do see potential uses in the classroom for both of them.
The Learning Process
My introduction to multimedia sharing started with the Trailfire entries put together by my instructor Joanne. Commoncraft put together a great video explaining the concept behind Social Media. WIthin the Animoto site itself, the "Learn More in 60 sec" video offered a fabulous summary of what Animoto can do and what one can use it for.
As Animoto is fairly new to the Web 2.0 world, there has been very little written about it (by academics anyway), however, Keith McPherson's article "mashing literacy" (2008) is a great article on Animoto mashing that provides a short introduction to Animoto, pros & cons of using this tool, and potential uses in the classroom.
Other sources of information included Andrew Marcinek's blog post in which he outlines a variety of uses he has found for using Animoto in the classroom. I was also fortunate is take part in an Elluminate session called "Web tools survey: Animoto and Glogster", which was conducted by a teacher from his classroom. This teacher talked about potential uses for Animoto as well as his reasons for wanting to use this tool, but the best part was that students took part in this session as well. A number of students spoke about why they liked Animoto and their particular Animoto creations played on the screen while they spoke. Very powerful stuff!
The last part of the learning process (and the most fun) was creating my very own video with Animoto. The process was quick and easy which I think will make this tool even more popular with the masses. Here is a look at a video I created for my daughters.
My Personal Learning
I never heard of Animoto before this week, but it made an immediate impression on me. After watching the introductory video, I wanted to make my own immediately. I'm not entirely sure what the "hook" was but it is there and it is strong. My daughter also had the same feeling and she has gone Animoto crazy making several short videos in the past three days. Even my retired, non-tech mother was impressed (she used the word cool...).
The great thing about Animoto is that I can easily post my videos to Facebook and twitter, which are both great ways to share my creations with a wider audience. I am often hesitant to post to these social networking sites as I don't want to post about mundane things; I feel that I should post something that people will really enjoy. A video certainly fits the bill in this regard and I see myself posting more often two these two sites because of Animoto.
Another positive is that Animoto is improving my daughters' technical skills. SInce she has chosen to create with Animoto, her computing skills have improved as she searches for photos, uploads them, chooses music, tweaks the layout and shares her finished product with her friends.
I can see Animoto videos replacing email to some regard for both of us. Email is easy and useful (yet boring when compared to a video) but a 30 second video can provide the same message and so much more! I plan to use this tool on a regular basis and have applied for an education account. If I wasn't a teacher, I would shell out the $30/year to get access to full length videos without any hesitation.
Teaching and Learning With Animoto
In this section of my post, I will share with you what I think the pros and cons of using Animoto prior to discussing potential uses in the classroom. I'll start with the positives:
1. It's free or fairly inexpensive for individual users. If you are OK with 30 second videos then there is no cost to you. If you want to make full length videos then it will cost you $30/year which is still reasonable.
2. It's SO easy. I couldn't believe how easy it was to make my first video. You supply or find the photos, choose the music and Animoto does the rest. No matter how poor someones computing skills are, they can work with Animoto.
3. The videos are engaging. This is a new buzz word in the education world and Animoto will definitely engage students in the classroom. I still remember when MTV and MuchMusic started out and they are still going strong; this is a testament to the popularity of these types of videos.
4. These videos are great for auditory, visual , and textual learners (McPherson, 2008).
5. There are numerous ways to shares these videos: email, facebook, twitter, YouTube, post to a blog, burn to CD/DVD, and download. So many more people can see ones creation! (McPherson, 2008).
6. Animoto is a web based application; all you need is a computer connected to the internet.
7. If you don't have a camera, you can use flickr or creativecommons.org to get photos for your video.
There are a few negatives:
1. Animoto is dependent on Flash, which uses up a lot of bandwidth. If you don't have a reliable high-speed internet connection you will have issues. (McPherson, 2008)
2. I'm not sure what the education account provides for the money (still waiting to hear from the people at Animoto) but if a school had to pay $30 per computer, that could get pricey if the school has several computer labs. (McPherson, 2008)
3. Animoto is very new, thus there has been very little scholarly research done on the impact of its use. As well, there are few sources outlining curricular integration of this tool. Most articles and blog posts written to date of are the how-to genre. (McPherson, 2008)
4. Animoto is so basic and simple to use that there aren't any tools available to tweak the presentation. I fear some people may get bored with cookie-cutter videos.
Although Animoto is fairly new, several uses have been identified by educators already. Some of them include:
1. Pointing out important themes or ideas of a novel, unit, presentation etc.
2. Creating a "movie trailer" type video to introduce a course, unit or lesson.
3. Vocabulary development. Words can be defined, used in a sentence, and explained as a part of speech.
4. Introduce a formula or a problem.
5. Compare and contrast ideas.
6. Act as an alternative to a collage or a poster (definitely will save some trees!)
7. A great way to advertise an athletic event or promote a team.
8. A great way to create a promotional video for Open House or Meet the Teacher events.
9. Share aspects of a field trip with parents and other students/staff.
10. Within Physical Education classes, students could make a short video demonstrating and breaking down a specific skill (i.e. serving a volleyball, heading a soccer ball).
A Word About VoiceThread
The majority of my time this week was spent with Animoto but I still created a VoiceThread, just so that I could be able to use it again in the future without having to learn it from scratch. Check out my VoiceThread here. I have to apologize as it is very basic and I'm the only one that has made comments so far although I have sent comment requests to my daughter and my wife!
When I viewed my first VoiceThread during the Trailfire posts, I found it to be very similar to a podcast although multiple people usually take part in Voicethreads. I was very impressed with the ease of use and the quick learning curve, much like with Animoto.
Conclusion
I can see myself using Animoto regularly with my classes in the future. It's easy to use, very engaging for users and viewers, and the resulting videos can be quickly shared with others in several different ways. As Animoto uses video, sound, and text, many different learning styles can be covered with this one tool. I believe students will enjoy this new and exciting way of sharing their knowledge with others as well. I hope teachers and administrators will see the merit of using Animoto in the classroom so that it may become a regular contributor to the teaching and learning process.
VoiceThread is also a useful tool that is great for sharing but also collaborating since multiple people can add their thoughts to the topic at hand. Although I found VoiceThread to be a bit more difficult to work with than Animoto (it was slower creating a voicethread when compared to creating with Animoto), I believe it will also have some use in the teaching and learning environment. How popular these two tools will become is anyone's guess but certainly the potential is strong.
References
Animoto case studies retrieved from http://animoto.com/education/case_studies
Commoncraft video: Social Media in Plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia
Marcinek, Andrew. (2009) Hello Animoto. Retrieved from http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/hello-animoto
McPherson, Keith. (2008) mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian. Vol. 35, Iss. 5, p.73-75
Web tools survey: Animoto and Glogster. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/participateMSP2
Wylie, Jonathan. (2009) Creating Free Online Slideshows with Animoto in the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/reviews/57062.aspx
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