It’s officially spring break. Many teachers are migrating south to find some much needed warmth and sunshine. Not me. It’s was my second day off I still got up at 6 am to go get firewood. I wonder, do we really need to stay warm this badly? Needless to say, this seems to be my life right now…busy. I actually enjoy it but part of me wishes I was in on a beach in Mexico right now.
Since I didn’t take an extravagant holiday I decided today to make a short digital story. After watching Alan Levigne’s session I was curious to try Animoto, one of the tools with features for teachers he was referring to in his 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story.
Animoto promises a simple and fun way to make a video. This can be accomplished by inserting photos or video, customizing your style then watching and sharing. I found this to be true, however, the free version only allows for limited themes to be chosen and 30 seconds worth of video. If you want more options including longer videos and HD resolution there are a few ranging in price from $3 to $45 depending on the plan. I chose to start with the free plan.
A few things I noted when creating this short video using the free version:
- Very user friendly. Easy to add pictures, videos and text.
- Limited number of themes.
- It’s not always easy to create something so short. You have to strategically choose the photos to use. This could potentially be a good skill to teach.
- Adding text takes up space that could be used for a photo.
- Other skills could be incorporated into this creating a video. For example, I used photo and editing skills, how to take a screen shot and converting word documents).
- Free is great! However, it could be quite costly if purchasing a plan for an entire class:(
After I made the video I was impressed with how professional the final video looked. Although I was not sure how much the audience would have understood about my week just from my photos. I would have preferred to have created a video as long as I had wanted. Using it in the classroom it would also be nice to have this option depending on the project.
Check it out.