Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Animoto in the Classroom

I have created a video using Animoto.  I found that Animoto is a very user-friendly tool.  It could be used in any K-12 classroom.  Students in kindergarten through second grade may need assistance, but older students will be able to create Animoto videos independently. 


Where do the pictures come from?  It would be ideal for students to use pictures that they have taken themselves.  However, if this is too time consuming, pictures can be found online through www.flickr.com.  Be sure to search for pictures that can be used freely under the Creative Commons license.  This second option is how I found the pictures for the video I created as my sample.  I have a list of references for the pictures used.  Please contact me if you would like to see the URL list.


How can Animoto be used in the classroom?  There are endless possibilities for using Animoto in the classroom.  A few of my ideas include: student introductions, photography club, persuasive advertisements for novels, explaining math problems, Treasures (reading program) theme projects, field trip memories, end-of-year highlights, etc. 


I created my sample video with telecollaboration in mind.  Animoto could be used to create videos about your school, city, state, or country.  These videos can be shared with other schools around the world, and they could make their own videos to send back.  This activity could be part of a telecollaborative project that helps students learn about different cultures. 

ISTE Technology Standards: When students use Animoto to create videos, they will meet standards 1 (creativity and innovation), 2 (communication and collaboration), and 6 (technology operations and concepts).  Students will compile pictures and videos in a new and creative way.  Also, they can collaborate with each other in groups to make their videos.  Then they can communicate with students in other schools to learn about various cultures.  Students will show that they understand how to use the technology effectively by creating their videos. 

Here is my sample video about my state: Maryland.  Enjoy!!




Please comment if you have used Animoto in your classroom, or you have other ideas of how it could be used in the classroom.  Thanks for reading!

~Mollie~

1 comment:

  1. I have heard about this site but never took the time to check it out. Thanks for putting together such a nice video! I can see this being used in so many different lessons and it is something that can probably be even done with a partner. I might decide to do my first project with this to create a video about our first few weeks in school to show parents at Back-To-School Night.

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