Comment on Teaching Unit: Creating short movies with animoto.com
Description of the teaching unit
When you want to create movies in your class to present the content of a book for example, it is useful to do this with the help of a tool called animoto. The students are asked to present the content of “Romeo and Juliet” in this exemplary teaching unit. It is really simple to do this with the animoto program and you can save a lot of time. Furthermore, you have got lots of advantages like saving the product on one computer, publish it on YouTube or another webpage or to send a link of it to other persons. But now let me explain how to work with it.
First of all, it is to say that you as the teacher have to create a basic account which does not cost anything. You just have to click on http://www.animoto.com/education, name your school and create a teacher account. Then it is possible that you and up to 50 students have 6 months access to this web tool. The students can use the so called Dummy-Account-System and have also access to it. Therefore the following link is helpful:
http://help.animoto.com/entries/104077-how-do-i-set-up-accounts-for-my-students
After creating an account, the students can begin to create a video about the content of “Romeo and Juliet”. They have to work with a partner and have one week time for collecting video and image material. During the lessons, they have to work on their texts which should be included in the video at the end.
You as a teacher have to explain the three steps to your students how to create a video with animoto.com. First of all, they upload all their material. That can be files from their computer, from animoto or from the internet. It is possible to highlight certain images or to include some text passages. The second step includes the choice of background music. It is possible to get some music files from animoto, but the students can also use their own music files and upload them. In the last step, they have to write a title for their movie and a short description of it. After doing all this, the program starts to create your own movie. This process lasts a short period of time, but after that it is finished and you can store your movie.
Comment on the teaching unit
I think it is very good to let your students present the content of a book for example in a movie, because then they have to tackle the content and understand it better. They are more motivated to understand Shakespeare’s difficult language when they have to present it in a movie and can be creative, than when they just read it and do not understand everything. Furthermore, it is good for the social behaviour of the students, because they have to work together and everyone has to include his or her ideas and has to look for material to use. Because of the fact that no one works on his or her own, the motivation is also higher, because no one wants to be responsible for the failure of the whole group. Moreover, it is to say that it is useful for the students to get to know as many new internet tools as possible, because in today’s society the web tools are more and more upcoming. The students have to learn to cope with these things as early and often as possible in my point of view. That is not only useful in school, but also for their future everyday work.
The tool itself is also useful to include in school lessons, because it offers a lot of opportunities for the students to work. They can create their movies with their own video and music material for example. That is much more interesting for them, than having files on the webpage which they have to use. Furthermore, they have a lot of freedom in creating the movie, because they can add texts and photos whenever they like. Another big advantage is the fact that it is easy to save the end product and that you have lots of opportunities to publish it. Moreover, it is to say that it is good that up to 50 students can get access to this program with the teacher account. This facilitates the process of exchanging the different files.
You have to admit that there are also some disadvantages. It is not easy to control everything the students do. You as a teacher have to go around and always check if your students are really work on their movies and not doing something else in the internet. Furthermore, it is to say that some students have not much knowledge about web tools and are not able to work with it and understand the program. Then it is your turn to help them.
All in all, I am of the opinion that this teaching unit will be fun for most of the students, because it is something new and interesting than always doing the same boring stuff like just reading a book in school. I appeal to all teachers to invest the time to get to know new web tolls and to include them into your lessons.
It's worth it!
When you want to create movies in your class to present the content of a book for example, it is useful to do this with the help of a tool called animoto. The students are asked to present the content of “Romeo and Juliet” in this exemplary teaching unit. It is really simple to do this with the animoto program and you can save a lot of time. Furthermore, you have got lots of advantages like saving the product on one computer, publish it on YouTube or another webpage or to send a link of it to other persons. But now let me explain how to work with it.
First of all, it is to say that you as the teacher have to create a basic account which does not cost anything. You just have to click on http://www.animoto.com/education, name your school and create a teacher account. Then it is possible that you and up to 50 students have 6 months access to this web tool. The students can use the so called Dummy-Account-System and have also access to it. Therefore the following link is helpful:
http://help.animoto.com/entries/104077-how-do-i-set-up-accounts-for-my-students
After creating an account, the students can begin to create a video about the content of “Romeo and Juliet”. They have to work with a partner and have one week time for collecting video and image material. During the lessons, they have to work on their texts which should be included in the video at the end.
You as a teacher have to explain the three steps to your students how to create a video with animoto.com. First of all, they upload all their material. That can be files from their computer, from animoto or from the internet. It is possible to highlight certain images or to include some text passages. The second step includes the choice of background music. It is possible to get some music files from animoto, but the students can also use their own music files and upload them. In the last step, they have to write a title for their movie and a short description of it. After doing all this, the program starts to create your own movie. This process lasts a short period of time, but after that it is finished and you can store your movie.
Comment on the teaching unit
I think it is very good to let your students present the content of a book for example in a movie, because then they have to tackle the content and understand it better. They are more motivated to understand Shakespeare’s difficult language when they have to present it in a movie and can be creative, than when they just read it and do not understand everything. Furthermore, it is good for the social behaviour of the students, because they have to work together and everyone has to include his or her ideas and has to look for material to use. Because of the fact that no one works on his or her own, the motivation is also higher, because no one wants to be responsible for the failure of the whole group. Moreover, it is to say that it is useful for the students to get to know as many new internet tools as possible, because in today’s society the web tools are more and more upcoming. The students have to learn to cope with these things as early and often as possible in my point of view. That is not only useful in school, but also for their future everyday work.
The tool itself is also useful to include in school lessons, because it offers a lot of opportunities for the students to work. They can create their movies with their own video and music material for example. That is much more interesting for them, than having files on the webpage which they have to use. Furthermore, they have a lot of freedom in creating the movie, because they can add texts and photos whenever they like. Another big advantage is the fact that it is easy to save the end product and that you have lots of opportunities to publish it. Moreover, it is to say that it is good that up to 50 students can get access to this program with the teacher account. This facilitates the process of exchanging the different files.
You have to admit that there are also some disadvantages. It is not easy to control everything the students do. You as a teacher have to go around and always check if your students are really work on their movies and not doing something else in the internet. Furthermore, it is to say that some students have not much knowledge about web tools and are not able to work with it and understand the program. Then it is your turn to help them.
All in all, I am of the opinion that this teaching unit will be fun for most of the students, because it is something new and interesting than always doing the same boring stuff like just reading a book in school. I appeal to all teachers to invest the time to get to know new web tolls and to include them into your lessons.
It's worth it!
