Animoto.com .... Stepping Past PowerPoint?

Hey gang!

I SHOULD be grading but a brake is definitely in order. Today, I used Animoto.com with my class. Now I have yet another web 2.0 obsession. The level of engagement by my students was spot on (although I heard my name called entirely too many times). 

Animoto is a service that allows students to "create stunning video's" with any level of computer and literacy skills. Animoto is an alternative to PowerPoint that limit's a person's ability to clutter the slide with lots of text. It forces the producer to carefully craft the text as it limits the number of characters per slide (think twitter). Additionally, the free account (I LOVE FREE) limits the video to 30 seconds and prevents that darling student that likes to go on and on from going on and on! Besides, our kids (and me the teacher) are a product of the MTV era and want information QUICK!

Student Samples

Sample from one of my kiddo's today :)

 

And another :).

Obviously, animoto.com has it's place just like anything because of it's limitations. I wouldn't want to over use it or use it as a culminating activity for a month long research project.

I thought perhaps taking a peek at my lesson plan (FYI not in my district's format) will help you to understand my lesson :).

I just logged into my animoto to pull today's samples and saw that TWO students created video clips just for fun :) Yay! Learning is FUN! 

Lesson Plan

Using the web 2.0 service Animoto.com, students will be able to create an 8 slide video with pictures, sound and text with a rubric score of 3 (or higher) on the animoto rubric.

Instructional Procedure

Mini-Lesson (In classroom)- teacher will model creating a video and students will observe and take notes

                Questions to ask:

·         Why use images to convey a message?

·         Why use text to convey a message?

·         How do we evaluate images?

·         What kind of words do we use when writing our text?

·         What is the purpose of creating a book review?

Independent Work (In computer room)- students will create a video based on the assignment and rubric found on the bottom of: http://sites.google.com/site/mrspaich/web-2-0/animoto 

Work Samples: http://sites.google.com/site/mrspaich/web-2-0/animoto student work samples will be uploaded to this link tonight J

Follow up question: How can I transfer the skills of creating an animoto video to creating a powerpoint or poster?

Next Lesson on Animoto.com: Students will create a animoto video based on the Essential Question:

·         Why did parents from the Midwest during the early 1900’s want to adopt children?  

Note: In planning this lesson, I started off with wanting to jump right into the EQ based on our read aloud and UBD on Inferencing/Eve Bunting. However, in my experience with introducing technology to my class is that I need to give them an opportunity to test it out and play with the features though a lighter objective. Otherwise, the EQ is lost because the kids want to see how “cool” it is. This way encourages critical thinking and does not overwhelm the students.