I introduced Animoto to my students last year, although I had never used it. Some of them chose to use it to present various topics and had a lot of fun. So I thought I would try it out! I made this video as a short introduction to Laurentian Environmental Center. This video could be used to spark their interest! We do not go to Laurentian until May, so there is always a lot of anticipation and this would be great to show them before our meetings to help them make some visual connections with what we talk about.
The free version of Animoto only allows you to make a 30 second video with about 8 pictures. When I first learned about Animoto, I thought this piece was going to limit what my students were able to create. Although it does limit some exercises, there are many positives to it as well. Some ideas that I have had to incorporate this in my classroom include:
- Introductory videos to share with the class
- Illustrate their writing
- Show student findings for research projects
- Summarize a story (This was an idea shared at a conference I attended. The person mentioned that the 30 second piece would really require students to be very specific with their ideas. Great idea!)
- Explain the elements of a story
- Use it to introduce a new concept, it would be able to spark their interest
Make your own slideshow at Animoto.
This is a great video, and you did well analyzing how you could use this tool in the classroom. I will be excited to see what you come up with for this year!
ReplyDeleteYou have motivated me to give this a try even though I didn't think I would find much purpose for it.
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