A Library Provides an Opportunity

1.  Can be accessed from any computer with Internet access.

2.  Although it won’t take video, it creatively displays photos, so you don’t even notice.

3.  Only allows small amount of text per slide. (Typically, students like to create glorified Powerpoint slides – so this keeps them from loading a slide with a ton of text.)

4.  Provides music – and actually pretty good music.  According to our students, the selection is much better than what we have found from other royalty free sites – less synthesizers for sure.

5.  Transition provided.

6.  Easy to finalize and share. 

7.  Seamless way to set up an educational account and get students on the site with all-access.  See education information before creating a log on. 

For Africa Studies project, classes used Animoto for the first time.  First, students located information about serious issues affecting the countries of Africa.  Then, students searched for organizations that attempt to impact those issues positively.  Students reviewed their notes and determined how to communicate those ideas in Animoto. 

To find images, students could access unitedstreaming.com or the provided public domain images links.  Many students also emailed the organizations and asked for permission to use their images.  (That was probably the most eye-opening moment for many -  an organization could refuse to give permission.  Thankfully, many organizations did respond positively.  One organization was so impressed by the final product that they asked to post the video on their website.)

Handout for Animoto

Example Animoto (For complete class list of examples, go to the following wiki.)