Sharinganimation

Reflection on action

Reflection on action

There's nothing like experiencing the real thing to comment on it.
After a few moments behaving like a kid I managed to produce a tiny little film.How do I think our students might feel about GoAnimate?
I believe younger students will probably love it and the tool will be quite suitable for them as long as the task doesn't require a lot of writing.
As to the older ones, well, I had fun while doing it and Isabel's students also seem to have enjoyed it but I fear some of my older students might find the tool a little bit childish.
Another problem is that the amount of text that you can produce is quite limited (speech bubbles) and therefore some students might feel that this is not a very challenging task.

Some advantages of the tool (2)

Advantages of this tool:
Students can:

1. use their own voice, their favourite music and even images and thus make it more personal;
2. use the Anime characters that they seem to be so fond of (I've noticed that there are so many animations of that kind available)- this will be very motivating for them;
3. write and have fun at the same time they try to persuade, inform, amuse, ... the others(it will be less boring, lonely and difficult - no writer's block);
4. share the (final) task with their mates and teacher quite easily by:
- sending an e-mail,
- embedding it in a post in our blog,
- going to the blog and showing it in class while presenting/ evaluating the (final) task;
5. listen, read, speak and write (in English) in order to obtain the final task (you can make sure that they will have to activate all these skills, through carefully planned guidelines);
4. activate and develop both language and learning skills (TICs, group work, ....

Quarta-feira, Novembro 26, 2008

Just another "masterpiece"

Not everything that glitters...

Watching the “demo” for Go!Animate, you might think a dream has come true. Now you will be able to create all these situations/ backgrounds / scenarios that you need so much to make a certain activity fit into your perfect lesson. In addition, students will put their creativity to the test and have fun while they practise their English.

In fact, Go!Animate has a lot of potential for the ELT classroom. However, not everything that glitters is gold and you should be aware of the following drawbacks before you get too enthusiastic about it: Go! Animate offers:

- a reduced number of backgrounds – of course you can add your own, but still...

- a limited number and type of props;

- a limited number of themes and choice of characters within those themes.

When you are defining your characters,

- you cannot combine two actions in the same character in the same frame.

- the choice of movements and actions on offer is also very limited.

- they tend to look very mechanical and silly as a result of very mechanical and repeated movements.

Nevertheless, don’t let all these drawbacks put you off. The advantages this tool presents far outweigh its drawbacks.

Further thoughts on the advantages of Go!Animate

In my opinion, Go!Animate has three main assets: it helps us promote learner autonomy in an enjoyable way, the four main communicative skills can be naturally integrated, and both the production of animation films and their use in class for further work are suitable for mixed-ability classes.

An animated film could provide an opportunity for a learning cycle while promoting cooperation between students. In the same class, groups could prepare animation films for other groups to work on, complete or comment on. Through the multiple sharing possibilities of Go!Animate, a wider community of students could be invited to work on other students’ or groups production. Thus, an animation film could be both a final task for a group/for students and a starting one for another group or student.

Many students don’t feel confident speaking English, either because it is their character or because of their level of learning. As Go!Animate provides a certain number of backgrounds for scenes, shyer students can benefit from this tool by recreating communicative situations like in a role-play. Besides, the complexity of plot and text would depend on the student’s personal level of learning. As Go!Animate introduces an element of innovation+fun, some students might feel motivated to go beyond their level.