The return of animation

To be honest, I wasn't absolutely taken by the two animation websites, Zimmer Twins and Dfilms, that we used in the last tutorial. I would, quite honestly, prefer something a little more open-ended - something that is less restrictive and would allow students' creative instincts full licence. It would almost be nice to have an activity where an animation was linked to a prior written or storyboarded concept or story - you can't really do that with Zimmer Twins and Dfilms. Not that those two websites aren't useful in their own way, of course... I'm just looking for something more.

I know that many schools these days use a program called Kahootz, or Kahoots, or something. I am not acquainted with it, but it seems to be in wide use so maybe it's what I'm looking for. However, for now, I'm going to take a look at a couple of websites a fellow Education friend has linked me to.

Firstly, let's take a look at Sketch Swap, which you can find by following this linky. Sketch swap is just, basically, a piece of paper and a pen on the internet. Not really what I'm looking for, but a useful tool to keep in mind for the future, never-the-less. Also, it's not all that good for writing accurately. It should primarily be used for a drawing tool in the classroom - however, you cannot change the colour of the pen.

Next, I'm going to have a look at a website called Build Your Wild Self, which you can find by following this linky. Basically, on this website you create a portrait of yourself and then replace body parts with animal limbs, like so...

Sure it's a bit of Art/ICT fun - but could students actually learn anything from this? I don't know - unless there was a discussion about animals and animal body parts and it was part of a larger unit on animals, I doubt it.

I'm beginning to think that these links my friend has sent me have less to do with animation and more to do with potriature. And I can see a link to 'create yourself as a lego person thing' coming up, so maybe I should just leave this blog post here and give Kahootz a try.

So, I came with the promise of animation and discovered potriature instead. Oh well. Doesn't matter. Until next time....

The week animation came to town

Today we're starting off by looking at a website called Zimmer Twins. You can find it by clicking this linky. Zimmer Twins is a fun, interactive website that allows you to create your own animations. Now, this is a superb tool, and I'm sure we could all imagine so many students being drawn to and engrossed with such an activity. What a tremendous and easy way for students to take story writing, story recounts, journal writing or whatever into an exciting new field using ICT. Here's a still from when I just created a little movie.

As you can see the interface is very easy for students to use, with big clear buttons and tabs. Also, there is an easy-to-follow introductory video provided by the website to help you get started creating your creations.

I really do like the ease with which one could use this application. I have mentioned a couple of times on the blog how concerned I am that there are not as many good internet or general ICT resources that are suitable for lower primary. This animation creation website could be used by most - not all, but mose lower primary students, I could imagine. Alternatively, it is also appropriate for higher levels. I really do like that.

After the Zimmer Twins we moved onto a website called Dfilms - linky. Dfilms is another easy to use animation creation website. The only problem with Dfilms is that I'm not entirely convinced that all the content on the website would be suitable for an under-18 audience - I don't know. However, if we don't consider that, Dfilms would be suitable for a more upper primary audience as it introduces vocabulary such as rendezvous and soliloquoy - while introducing concepts of plot/character/genre, etc..

Here's the animation I made. It's a work of art. I'd be pretty massively surprised if I didn't pick up an Oscar for this gem. Anyways, that's it for this week. Bye!

And on and on to the cyber bullying issue

And we begin this week by reading this article from The Age. Linky.

Here is a cyber bullying-related picture.

Firstly, the first paragraph of that article from The Age is absolute rubbish. It heartened me to see this line following it: "With respect to the archbishop, that attitude is so last century." Good.

Um. So there is no doubt that young people today interact with eachother through internet-based social networks to an increasingly massive extent. I think it disingenuous to claim that when we use these social networks we expose ourselves to only the festering underbelly of the worst of human nature. What we do expose ourselves to is the the best and worst of people - in whatever context they come to us. We can, in fact, choose who to interact with on the internet. I think the problem comes when we frequent websites and social networks, online, that allow for anonymity. When one is able to cover themselves with the cloak of anonymity, let's be honest, there is the possibility of them acting out knowing that their identity is safe and therefore they are safe from repercussions.

However, it is also the case that online environments are not as well policed as those in the real-world and bullying taking place at school can continue online. Such online bullying is harder for the teacher to deal with because it can take place at home, with consequences arising also in the schoolyard. What to do? I don't know. There are no shortage of experts in this field trying to answer that question.

For their possible downsides, social networking does improve our technology and communication (yes, it's true) skills, boosts our creativity, exposes us to new and different world views, provides us with a cheap and easy way of keeping in contact with friends and family (whether they're in just the next room, or half a world away). It also teaches us to design and edit content and to share and engage in creative works - poetry, art, photography, and video content. This is all from a study conducted by the University of Minnesota. The study also found that students who frequent social networking sites do better in exams. True!

Perhaps the key to letting exposing the students to the benefits of social networking, while shielding them from the dangers is just, simply, education - and that's something we'll have to do as teachers, and with students from an early age, right through until they leave us behind for high school. There are now a range of interactive websites to help us with this - and it is a big field - we must cover everything from "don't give out your address to strangers", to cyber-bullying.

Let's be honest, social networking is here to stay, for at least the visible future. The benefits of social networking are now becoming clear - we need to make sure students can acess these benefits while being safe. However, nonsense being spouted by people with no qualification to speak in the area - like the archbishop at the beginning of The Age's article - does not help us. It just doesn't. Let's be logical, rational and thoughtful on this issue, and every issue, and not just utterly useless reactionaries, please!

Here's a cute dog.
Bye for now.