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.

Sharinganimation: Original Materpieces

By Luisa

Original Materpieces

Here's my Goanimate 'masterpiece' . It might work with students, It took me about 30 minutes.




mcastro(margaridaccastro@gmail.com) wants to show you an animation on GoAnimate! Click here to view it:



By Margarida

video interessante

Let´s watch a video on http://goanimate.com/go/movie/54025

Saber mais e mais

Jun

06Go!Animate - Create online animations easily
Reviews, Web 2.0, internet
Written by: Pascal Roy
Add comments Once again, I have to write about a web 2.0 application that I came across. But this one is very entertaining. I am pretty far from being the creative/artistic type so I usually don’t spend a lot of time on applications like this, but I found myself playing around on this one much more than I should have. At least I have something to show after wasting 30 minutes on that site, contrary to wasting 30 minutes on Facebook.

Go!Animate in their own words: “We are a bunch of guys who love animation and want to share our passion with the world! The problem is that animation requires very specific skills. Animators need to learn Flash or other advanced software before being able to create anything. They also need to know how to draw. That’s why we created GoAnimate, a platform that allows people to express themselves through animation without having to learn to draw or install any software.“

The tools found on Go!Animate are pretty efficient to get you started in no time. Very easy to use and if you just watch the tutorial, you should be able to create a little something right away. I did find that some things were missing, but I’m sure they will get added as time goes by. For instance, I wanted to add a credits screen at the end of my animation. There is only one credits screen available but it is not editable.

Tools are divided into different categories such as characters, speech bubbles, scenes (backgrounds), props, music and visual effects. You can use the ones that are supplied by Go!Animate or upload your own. There are also community supplied assets, meaning there should be more and more things available as the community grows.

Once your animation is complete, you can save it to your account as a private or public animation. Public animations are viewable to everyone on the site and you have the possibility of sharing via email or an embedded link, just like I used here on this site. I had to resize the player to fit my blog, (that’s why the Go!Animate text doesn’t quite fit) but it’s basically like youtube videos. You can also share directly on Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Reddit, Del.Icio.Us and Stumbleupon.

If you want an easy way to create and share animation online, without having to learn Flash and similar tools, Go!Animate offers a great way to get started and let the world know about your incredible animation skills.

Here is the animation I created while testing the service:

Edit: for some reason, many people seem to have a problem viewing the embedded version, so here’s a link to the actual page: http://goanimate.com/go/movie/54025

Sites para aprender mais

http://goanimate.com
http://www.techforlunch.com/goanimate-create-online-animations-easily/



Educational Uses:
The above example is an introductory video to a unit of work - videos can be used to give students a start point for a new subject
Easy to use and online so students can create their own videos
Can be used by students to discuss ideas or give their own version historical accounts

Vantagens

Vantagens da mesma:

- podem usar a sua própria voz, música, imagem, e personalizar personagens e contexto;
- podem, inclusive usar os seus personagens de anime (tenho alunas a aprender japonês por causa dessa série, ...) pois vi muitas animações desse tipo na pesquisa que fiz (será altamente motivador...);

- podem escrever e divertir-se ao mesmo tempo que tentam persuadir os outros, pois a ferramenta é extremamente lúdica
- podem apresentar a tarefa aos pares com muita facilidade
. podem enviar aos colegas um email
. podem colocar o endereço no nosso blog
. podem aceder ao blog na aula de apresentação/avaliação do produto final/da tarefa
-vão ter de ouvir, ler, falar (e escrever) em Inglês para obter este produto final (podemos dar linhas de orientação por forma a que a obtenção da animação implique o recurso aos vários domínios)
- vão activar ao mesmo tempo competências de língua e de aprendizagem (TICs)
- ...

Sharing...

How to share this tool with students