This week, we used a lot of Internet websites to create animation movies. Greg suggested the educational value was significant for students and teachers alike. Most of the websites that we were shown in today’s workshop were simple and easy to use. I just became frustrated when I was rushed through them just as I was beginning to enjoy experimenting with them! I found all of the animation websites to be very useful and I feel most students would be engaged and interact with them in a classroom setting. As this blog is turning into an epic, I will briefly list the websites below and give a sentence or two describing what I liked or didn’t like about each animation website. Where I can, I will also provide snapshot pictures.
http://zimmertwins.com This website allowed for the most basic ICT user to create a movie storyboard from scratch. The concept was simple but could be expanded upon to make the animation as simple or as complex as the user is capable. As my first introductory lesson to animation, I found this website to be a good starting point. If used appropriately, I think many students and teenagers would enjoy this website.
http://xtranormal.com I didn’t get to use this website but I was told it was great for providing excellent lip synching in movie animations. The online tutorial suggests this website would be ideal for creating; school presentations, literacy news report, talk shows, soap drama or a music video. It seems the ideas are endless. I think there is a lot of opportunity to explore the use of this website for the purpose of student assessment across the many streams of the curriculum (Arts, Literacy, Science, Mathematics etc). It appeals to the different learning styles and abilities of the students.
http://www.sketchswap.com/ I particularly liked this website the most. I could sit there for hours and sketch and swap drawings. However, as much as it is fun and addictive, other then from a visual Arts perspective (where I would be assuming students would be set the task of drawing a particular way? E.g. line, shape, texture etc), I am unclear as to what the educational purpose of using this website is? I think it is a good tool for engaging and encouraging students to sketch however, as Greg pointed out, you never know what image you will receive back and also if you are not monitoring students closely, they are likely to misuse the website. For example, I sketched a dog and received back a picture of Batman (see pictures).
http://www.reasonablyclever.com/ I like the concept of using leggo to make animation. I found this to be a similar process to Claymation and the kids at my primary school loved that! I think the younger students would definitely relate to creating animation in this way. Using real life materials is engaging and at some stage in their life every person; child and adult has played with leggo. I would definitely try and use this concept and website in my classroom.
http://www.storygames.com/TeachmanPF/Rebus.html I have used this kind of activity whilst on teaching rounds and it works particularly well especially, with the younger age groups (Prep/1) as they explore the concepts of does it sound right? Does it look right? Rebus activities helps to build upon students basic English skills and teaches them the difference between; “two”, “to” and “too” and it is a great exercise for visual learners. I think it is an excellent idea and many more teachers should include this kind of activity in their teaching. The students find it fun and engaging and it helps them to begin to understand the meaning of words. It is also a great idea to have students create a Rebus of their own! Greg pointed out, that students can do this by creating their story in a word document, then import gif picture images (from any website) and when they have finished writing, spellchecking and inserting pictures, they can save the file as a webpage so that the gif pictures move. (To do this click file, save us, other format, webpage). See picture for example. 
http://catchmentdetox.net.au/ Interesting website has great potential. The website would work well in conjunction with studying a unit on Water wise or environmental sustainability.
http://www.dfilm.com This website is not recommended for children. An example of what you can do can be found in the previous blog posting!
That is all for me, I hope you enjoyed reading Blondie’s Blog!!!
http://zimmertwins.com This website allowed for the most basic ICT user to create a movie storyboard from scratch. The concept was simple but could be expanded upon to make the animation as simple or as complex as the user is capable. As my first introductory lesson to animation, I found this website to be a good starting point. If used appropriately, I think many students and teenagers would enjoy this website.
http://xtranormal.com I didn’t get to use this website but I was told it was great for providing excellent lip synching in movie animations. The online tutorial suggests this website would be ideal for creating; school presentations, literacy news report, talk shows, soap drama or a music video. It seems the ideas are endless. I think there is a lot of opportunity to explore the use of this website for the purpose of student assessment across the many streams of the curriculum (Arts, Literacy, Science, Mathematics etc). It appeals to the different learning styles and abilities of the students.
http://www.sketchswap.com/ I particularly liked this website the most. I could sit there for hours and sketch and swap drawings. However, as much as it is fun and addictive, other then from a visual Arts perspective (where I would be assuming students would be set the task of drawing a particular way? E.g. line, shape, texture etc), I am unclear as to what the educational purpose of using this website is? I think it is a good tool for engaging and encouraging students to sketch however, as Greg pointed out, you never know what image you will receive back and also if you are not monitoring students closely, they are likely to misuse the website. For example, I sketched a dog and received back a picture of Batman (see pictures).
http://www.reasonablyclever.com/ I like the concept of using leggo to make animation. I found this to be a similar process to Claymation and the kids at my primary school loved that! I think the younger students would definitely relate to creating animation in this way. Using real life materials is engaging and at some stage in their life every person; child and adult has played with leggo. I would definitely try and use this concept and website in my classroom.
http://www.storygames.com/TeachmanPF/Rebus.html I have used this kind of activity whilst on teaching rounds and it works particularly well especially, with the younger age groups (Prep/1) as they explore the concepts of does it sound right? Does it look right? Rebus activities helps to build upon students basic English skills and teaches them the difference between; “two”, “to” and “too” and it is a great exercise for visual learners. I think it is an excellent idea and many more teachers should include this kind of activity in their teaching. The students find it fun and engaging and it helps them to begin to understand the meaning of words. It is also a great idea to have students create a Rebus of their own! Greg pointed out, that students can do this by creating their story in a word document, then import gif picture images (from any website) and when they have finished writing, spellchecking and inserting pictures, they can save the file as a webpage so that the gif pictures move. (To do this click file, save us, other format, webpage). See picture for example. 
http://catchmentdetox.net.au/ Interesting website has great potential. The website would work well in conjunction with studying a unit on Water wise or environmental sustainability.
http://www.dfilm.com This website is not recommended for children. An example of what you can do can be found in the previous blog posting!
That is all for me, I hope you enjoyed reading Blondie’s Blog!!!
Heidi Smith 20/08/2010 ©
