Animoto: Education

By: Melinda Walsh Presenting to: Rockdale County Public Schools

What is Animoto? Animoto is a Web 2.0 tool that allows the user to compile images, text, and music to create their own music video.

Pricing
Animoto comes with several different prices -The Lite Version- free, allows user to create unlimited amounts of 30 second videos -Plus Version- $30/year or $5/month- allows user to create unlimited feature-length videos that you can download to Computer/DVD -Pro Version-$249/year or $39/month-allows user to create unlimited feature-length videos, White label option available

However
Animoto offers a special for Educators. If you are able to provide a school email address, Animoto allows educators to use the Plus version of Animoto for free for 6 months.

Educational Benefits

NETS Standards Animoto Covers:

1-Creativity and Innovation Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. -Students will be creating products themselves using Animoto to show their knowledge

NETS Standards
2. Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. -Students can collaborate between themselves working to create videos, along with sharing their videos with others.

NETS Standards
5. Digital Citizenship Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. -Students will be participating online and collaborating with each other thus teaching them the importance of ethical and legal behavior.

Types of Activities that Can be Used/Correlated with Standards

Kindergarten- Alphabet video with pictures of different letters (ELAKR3) 1st- Number video of numerals to 100 (MKN1) 2nd-Video of the lifecycle of frogs (S2L1) 3rd-Video of the different geographical features in America (SS3G1) Many, Many more!

Research
In the article, The End of Slideshows: Animoto in English Language Education a study found that using Animoto in the classroom helped to reach the English Language Learners by allowing them to connect to the things that interest them.

Digital Storytelling
In Digital Storytelling, the teachers allowed students to create stories on Animoto. The study found that the students were more connected to the project and took more ownership in their learning.

Using Animoto
In Using Animoto in the Classroom a teacher let her students use Animoto to create presentations of characters who went on journeys (Christopher Columbus, Paul Revere, etc). The teacher found the students really enjoyed using the software and it taught them to be more concise with details.

In Summary
Animoto is a Web 2.0 tool that allows students to create music videos based off of images and music It is free for educators for up to 6 months Students and Teachers can use to create presentation based on content Many educators have found that usage of Animoto has led to increased student engagement.

References
Irgin, P., & Yildiz, T. The end of slideshows: Animoto in english language education. Hargis, J., & Yee. K. (2012). Digital storytelling: Kizoa, animoto, and photo story 3. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. 13(1), 12-14. Using Technology In the Classroom http://kamloopsedtech.blogspot.com/2011/06/di gital-learning-using-animoto.html