Digital Storytelling with Animoto

We loved Animoto! mainly because it was fun and easy! However, we also saw that we could use Animoto in all kinds of ways as a digital storytelling tool. See examples below created by teachers enrolled in TED 650 during Summer 2011, and then read the directions about how to get started.

·         View pictures about key events that describe The Great Depression to provide background knowledge for students who are going to read The Gardener by Sarah Stewart at http://animoto.com/play/K0K0IsY4yi7jd0ykinTlgQ – used

·         Animoto was a great year for this teacher and her students to use pictures and events throughout the school year to reflect on things they learned and remembered: http://animoto.com/play/DT1aJI0iAVjOrDxOu1UtvQ

·         A first grade teacher used Animoto to help teach the short vowel sounds in the middle of CVC words. Her example to help the students practice this concept is called What's in the middle? It can be viewed at http://animoto.com/play/t810FB6onRO0wcJTufRDJQ

·         A middle school Language Arts teacher decided that Animoto would motivate his students to do a better job on showing what they are learning about plot, setting, characters, including the protagonist and  antagonist, rising action, conflict, theme, etc by using Animoto. See his example about the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad at http://animoto.com/play/zgkbt1lDQYQUJ40pJE7tfg

·         This Animoto is designed to review for teachers what they have learned during their  professional development on sessions about formative assessment:  http://animoto.com/play/pIsRKDX7lOw7Rho7UUXsiA?utm_content=main_link

·         Another teacher thought Animoto would be a great tool for revciewing what students saw on a fieldtrip. This example fits the bill following a visit to the Natural Sciernce Center after 1^st grade students had studies animals and their habitats. See her model at http://animoto.com/play/iX9cQBk8DCcWxJf0mJTcZQ

·         A third grade teacher thought Animoto would be good way to help her students connect pictures and words to create/review similes and metaphors. Here is here example called The Simile Boy: http://animoto.com/play/bT4Ve7JGpBNE2fy0mthptA. Her only frustration was not taking advantage of the free educator version that allows teachers to create Animoto’s longer that the 30-second trial version shown here.

Special Note: Animoto is $30 per year for an unlimited account, but as a teacher you can apply for a free account you can use with your students at http://animoto.com/education. It may take a few days  to hear back about this, but you can get started right away with the free trial version.

Here are Directions for getting started with Animoto today:

·          If you are taking video clips with a Flip Camera you can edit them in Animoto and select what you want. However, if you want stills, let the video run about 3 seconds. You will get an error message id the video is less than that time.

·         Load your images and/or video clips to the computer you are working on. Do this first!

·         Then go to http://animoto.com and click the blue Sign up button and complete the form. Once you have an account you will sign in with your email and password to use Animoto, so you should write those down to remember.

·         Click on Choose Your Video Type.

·         HINT: It doesn’t really matter which one you choose, but we suggest The Animoto Original where your images and video clips will be orchestrated to the soundtrack you choose. 

·         Click on Make a 30 second video for FREE. Do not select Purchase video.

·         Step 1  Let’s Get Your Imagery – Upload or retrieve your images.

·         HINT: When you upload your images or video clips you can select all or add them one at a time by using the Add More button. We recommend selecting your images and uploading them all at once. And, a realistic limit for a 30-second show is 10-12 images. If you do not have any images of your own you can select from their collection or from other sites like Flickr, Facebook, Picassa, etc.

·         HINT: If you are using video, you will be asked to choose 3-5 second clips of the videos you upload. If you want more than 5 seconds from one video, you can duplicate the video as many times as you want to get 5 different seconds from each duplicate.

·         HINT: When your images are uploaded you can slide the images around to arrange them, and you can also use the editing tools to Spotlight an image, add Text, Shuffle, etc. You can do this now or you can do it later.

·         Click on Done when you are ready to add music.

·         Step 2 – Select your Music.

·         HINT:  We suggest selecting from the library of songs available on Animoto, which you can listen to by clicking on the Play button. If you want to go back use the blue arrow in the bottom left corner. Once you decide click on Select. No need to change the speed at this point

·         Step 3 – Finalize your Video by giving it a brief title, a description, and then click on Create Video.

·         HINT: It will take a few minutes for Animoto to process, analyze, and render your video. You can be patient and wait to see it play, but you can also try another one. Animoto will also email you when you video is completed and ready to play.

Animoto Features:

·         Cinematic artificial intelligence- Animoto automatically analyzes the music, photos and video clips that you choose, and orchestrates a custom video leaving you and your students free to focus on the content and narrative of their videos.

·         Include text- Mix relevant messaging, statistics and quotes among the pictures your videos to educate your audience and inspire them to action. HINT: You can go back and do this anytime.

·         Remix- No two Animoto videos are ever the same, and our Remix button lets you quickly remix your videos to create a completely new video. Use our one-click remix to instantly create a new video, or do a complete remix with new photos and music.

·         Spotlight- Spotlight lets you give specific image added prominence and screen time in your video.

·         Share and download- Animoto makes it easy to share your videos via e-mail, on a blog/website, exported to YouTube, or downloaded to a computer for use in presentations.

Here are some more ideas for topics that would be suited to creating Animoto video collages to help students learn about:

·         Angles – right, acute, obtuse, straignt

·         Shapes – solids in the environment

·         Weather

·         Adjectives – Verbs – Proper Nouns

·         Emotions

·         Translucent, transparent, and opaque objects

·         Solid, liquids, and gases

·         Plants of all types

·         Erosion

·         Ecosystems

·         Habitats

·         Communities – types of communities, community helpers

·         Patterns in nature, patterns in math

·         Transportation

·         Food groups

·         Volume and surface area

·         Economics – consumers and producers, wants and needs, interdependence

·         5 themes of geography – relative location, place, human and environmental interaction, regions,  movement