Me and My Animoto

Animoto is a great web tool that produces an animated video with text, pictures and short video clips that plays along with music. It is an easy application to use if you are looking for simplicity in its use and its presentation. Animoto can be used by the teacher to present information on a topic or to present an example of an assignment they want their students to perform.

Animoto does not take much to complete besides signing in, having pictures and short video clips ready to download as well as a song to go along with it. Or you can use Animoto’s library of video, pictures and music. With a drag and a drop you can produce a video in a matter of minutes if using the preexisting library. If you are importing your own files, be aware it may take you a little to a lot longer.  

These are my opinions on the ease and difficulties of using Animoto. 

The ease about Animoto (Free Version) is; 

• Drag and drop timeline to place your text, pictures and video in. 
• Able to do some manipulation to the audio such as shortening the length of the song, or increasing/decreasing the volume. 
• Easy to add pictures and videos to the timeline
• Does not allow you to go over the music timeline – the program only allows you to put in the right amount of text, video, or pictures without going over time. 
• Text box does have spell check and is very easy to use.
• Templates – there is a large selection of templates to use. 
• Easy for students to learn and use.

The difficulties of Animoto (Free Version) are; 

• Timeline is very limited as to what you can do with it. You cannot manipulate the pictures to hit certain parts of the song
• You have to click on “Produce Video” in order to view your piece – this takes awhile for production because you have to wait until it loads to view it and then go back and make corrections
• There is limited word count for the text input. There are two lines, one has 25 letters and the second line only allows 30 letters. Also you cannot change the font size, shape, position, or color. You get what you get for placement within the video. 
• Templates – you cannot change anything about the templates such as the color, text placement, and/or effects. 
• Would take more than one class period to complete an assignment using Animoto. 

With that being said, you can still produce a very entertaining video. I had produced my video for the Early Childhood Development course I teach. The video is Dorothy Law Nolte’s poem, Children Learn What They Live. The video is used as an introduction to an assignment. After viewing the video, students will have to come up with their own poem, story, or piece that reflects their individual thoughts and attitudes about children. Students will be able to use their choice of presentation tool such as Animoto, iMovie, and/or Wordle.   Here is my Animoto Video – Children Learn What They Live. (This video took me 3.5 hours to complete, from gathering pictures, to editing several times, to completion.)

                pictures on video courtesy of Google

Also view these other Animoto Videos; 


Felicia's
http://missheducation584.blogspot.com/2012/02/incorporating-animoto-in-english.html


Rubi's
http://rk14.blogspot.com/2012/02/first-animoto.html


Christina's
http://integratingtech584.blogspot.com/2012/02/animoto-video-on-order-of-operations.html

What are your thoughts on my video? What are your thoughts on how I am incorporating this video into my curriculum? How can you use Animoto in your curriculum? Have you used Animoto? -  In your classroom? - With your students? What hindrances have you encountered if any? What other choices for a video presentation can you give your students besides the use of Animoto?