Animoto - Create Videos (From Jaki Braidwood)

In a recent discussion on the Comox Valley Teacher's Network, Jaki Braidwood was asked which Web 2.0 tool that she is using is one of the most useful and powerful with her students. Below is her response and a link to an example of a video she and her students created (Provided here with her permission).

If I had to recommend one web-based tool that can really add to your classroom ... to start with ... I'd have to recommend Animoto and it probably isn't for the reason you think.

I believe foremost to teaching with technology or teaching at all for that matter, we need to focus on developing community within our classrooms. Feeling like you belong and are valued can inspire students well beyond any crazy new program I show them and for me, Animoto gave my students another way to connect with each other and strengthen their bond together.

What is Animoto? It is a program that helps you use digital photos to create slide show videos that look heads and tails above anything most of us could create from scratch.

Our Animoto creations showcase special events and general life in our classroom. I also use it for curricular content and the students use it to create their own, but it's the ones about us interacting and having fun together that the kids enjoy the most and look forward to. It's really helping to create a memorable year. Ultimately, we post many of our Animoto movies to our blogs, but we also play them (usually multiple times) in class in their first moments after being published.

Here is one we created earlier in the year so you can get a sense of what you can create. http://animoto.com/play/oPuhv9EUtWgJYslWyY8BHg?utm_source=&utm_medium=player&utm_campaign=player

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Skills you need to be successful with it - knowing how to get images off of your digital camera onto your computer and how to access them from there, and a little creative ingenuity.

Animoto walks you through 3 easy steps:
(1) Upload images, rearrange them by dragging and dropping, add text pages (you are limited in character space so you really have to figure out what you want to say), and spotlight certain pictures you want highlighted
(2) Choose music to go along with the images - it automatically synchs the picture transitions to the music tempo for added effect. Animoto has a great selection of different music genres to use. You can upload your own as well, but copyright is in effect
(3) Choose your speed of image transitions (hint: I always choose the slowest) and publish

It takes about 15-20 minutes to render before it's available to you, but you don't have to wait because it's attached to your account and web-based.

When you sign up, the free version includes the ability to make 30 second videos. By applying to the Animoto - Education version with a school district email, you are upgraded to the paid version for free so you can make full-length ones. The privilege lasts for 6 months at a time, but you can keep reapplying.

I should add that we have one Animoto account that we use as a class account. I've had 28 students logged into it at once creating their own projects without any problems. I like that I'm able to monitor what my 6's and 7's are using it for. I think in all the times we've used it, we only had one issue with someone not bothering to check if they were really opening their own to work on - we had been using a pool of images for Remembrance Day so it wasn't as clear cut as making your own original one. To be able to work on and save multiple concurrent projects in one account has been a bonus.