Video: Who is Afiwa

FYI: The Double U porject – Ukraine (Black Sea Petro Mohyla University) and US (Monterey Institute of International Studies) who are participating in a collaboration project aimed at promoting use of technology in education.

One of my students recently brought in a baby name book in order to select meaningful character names for a story she is writing. The students were playing around with the book looking up their own name meanings when a flash of an idea hit me. Let’s make word clouds and videos about our names! So we headed to the library so that each child could have a computer to use.

Wordle made by Kaylie

On Animoto, students can make a 30 second video for free. The trouble I ran into at one of my schools was the Flash player wasn’t updated. Our good ole librarian came to the rescue and helped us update. To allow students to have an account on Animoto, the student used my gmail account by adding a plus sign and then their own name. That way I get the email about the video they created and they get free use of the site.

I will share two name videos with you. One was made using PowerPoint.

Open

And another used Animoto:

Vannisa's One of a kind Name.

Tara at A Teaching Life is hosting Poetry Friday.

animoto 360p from Year4 on Vimeo.

Photography Club 2 from Year4 on Vimeo.

Photography Club 3 from Year4 on Vimeo.

Photography Club 4 from Year4 on Vimeo.

Photography Club 5 from Year4 on Vimeo.

Photography Club 6 from Year4 on Vimeo.

Found this great infograph on Bloom’s taxonomy and iPad apps. Its important to remember that simply using technology does not increase rigor but what the students are doing with it.

My students used iMovie for the first time before Christmas Break to create iMovies about the Constitution. Ended up being a lesson very high on the Bloom’s scaled that many of the students really enjoyed. Will try and post some of the better videos later.

Anyone have any apps to add to this?? Let me know!

 Plot

Cinder is about a teen who lives in a world where there is a kind called “Lunar”. They are aliens that come from the moon ruling under Queen Levana, who threatens to destroy the Earth if Prince Kai of New Beijing doesn’t marry her. For a living, Cinder is a talented mechanic, but she’s only good at fixing things because she’s a cyborg! Doomed to life with her cruel and harsh step-mother and step-sisters, she’s forced to do whatever work her step-mother wants her to do otherwise she will be thrown on the streets. A deadly plague looms on the streets of Beijing and threatens to take the life of Cinder’s only step-sister who doesn’t care that she’s part robot. Cinder finds out that she is immune to the plague, so she is helping the research team find a cure so she can help save her step-sister, Peony. The Lunars have powers to make them look beautiful than they actually are. Their true beauty can only be seen by a mirror and a Lunar. Cinder meets the handsome, kind Prince Kai when he needs Cinder’s services to fix an android. They begin to warm up to each other finding friendship in hard times. Cinder’s past before she became a cyborg remains a mystery to her. Throughout the book, Cinder begins to learn more about her past and who she once was. And how to answer the question of her future.

My Thoughts

Cinder is an amazing read and I really enjoyed reading it and can’t wait for the second book “Scarlet” to come out in Febuary. I also, liked how the author foreshadowed about Cinder’s past throughout the book, letting the readers putting the pieces together about Cinder for themselves. Also, the emotional attachment was PERFECT in this book and made me cry so don’t worry if a tear or two drops out while reading this book! It was a very entertaining twist on the famous Cinderella story we all know and love.

Ratings:

I give “Cinder’ an exceeding 5/5 stars!! ^o^ It is definitely on the must read  list.

 
©Life’s Ingredients, 2013
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Life’s Ingredients specific direction to the original content.

Review of the book “Cinder” written by Vaidehee

When you start using their service first you can choose a style/theme for your video. They have quite a few even for free users. Being a free user means you have a time limit of 30 seconds for your videos and can not change the background song (wonder where all this awful picture slide with terrible background music videos come from? Yes.) You can upload your content (video, pictures, music) from your hard drive, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug or Photobucket and create a video for yourself, your fans, the youtube world or your grandparents birthday just by sorting the content in an easy to use web-interface. Last but not least you can write some text and or headline to play at some point in the video and you are good to go. Preview done, Upload to Youtube or SmugMug done… User happy.

Downside is, if you are not an proud owner of an paid upgrade, you won’t be able to download your video to your PC.

Here is an easy little way to get your videos done in Animoto on your hard drive without paying for the upgrade just by downloading it from youtube.

Enjoy:

Videos can play in several styles with unique affects music library provides multiple genres to song. Animoto is web-based application it can access on both pc and Mac systems. It supports the browsers like Firefox, Google chrome, safari+, internet explorer 8 or 9 and enabled with adobe flash player latest version.

The registered users can make videos as monthly subscription. 30 seconds video plan for free with limited styles and music tracks. Full length videos plan for monthly 2.50 dollars with limited styles and music tracks downloadable. Free HD full length videos for monthly 20.75 dollars make unbranded videos, all plans get online support.

However, as we all know, as educators (administrators and teachers) we sometimes don’t even have “that” much time.  For instance, last Friday, our school had a Family Noisy Reading event to honour the upcoming Family Literacy Day. I wanted to share the photos of this event on our school Success Blog for all our families to enjoy. Usually, I just post some of the photos on the blog, but I really wanted to share most of the photos of this event.  To do this, I thought of using Animoto.  This is a great Web2.0 tool which allows you to upload the photos to the Animoto website and then it automates the video, based on which theme and music you choose. You can also add text to the pages. It is really effective and super easy to use.  The thought of taking all the photos off my iPad, however, made me cringe a bit.  So, I thought I would try the Animoto app on my iPad to see if it worked.

To my amazement, it worked wonderfully!  Not only did it work, but it allowed me to sign in to my education account (which lets you make longer movies).  It was so easy! This is all I did:

1. I opened the app and signed in to my Animoto account.

2. I clicked on the photos I wanted included from my iPad camera roll (you can include up to 300 photos using the free Education version of the app). When finished selecting, click on “use”.

3. Click on the up arrow on the bottom right (it is beside “Video Tools”). This is where you can easily change the style (theme), songs, add more photos or video, ans add text.

4. Once you have finished tinkering with these video editing tools, click Preview on the top right of the page. This will show you a preview of your video. If you want to change anything, just click on “Resume Edit”.  If you are satisfied with the video, add a title and description of the video, and click on Save Video (top right).

5. Now just wait while it produces the video.

6.  Time to share!  You can share this video at an assembly (not sure how the quality will look on a big screen using this mobile version), share it on your school website (making sure all students have media release first, of course), or share it with individua; teachers/families.  You can tweet out the video easily to your school Twitter feed (again, remembering all families must have media release). It can be shared via email and via text.  There are so many options!

I created this Animoto video using my iPad, the photos from our Family Literacy event on my iPad, and the Education version of Animoto is less than 10 minutes (maybe even less than 5)!  You really can’t beat that!

iMovie is a great app if you have a bit of time to customize a video to make something truly special and unique.  It has a great deal more power and countless options for video creation and editing. Animoto also creates great videos, a little less customized (there are only so many themes), but in a fraction of the time!

I’d love to see some of the videos you (or your students) create!

1. Animoto – this is a great way for students to create a presentation video. You need to upload a series of images, enter any text and choose or upload a soundtrack. There is a strict limit on characters for the text which forces students to think about what they want to say (and avoids the page of text read out which is often seen with powerpoint.)

As a teacher, you can use animoto in a huge number of ways. You should also register for an education account (you will need to use your school e-mail) – this gives you the chance to create unlimited length videos and download them too. It also gives you an education code to give your students so they can register and full access too.

Videos are web-based so can be shared easily by copying the web address (into Moodle for example). Please share any great examples (you or the students create) here and I’ll add them to this blog post.

2. Prezi – a fabulous tool to work with (again, you will need to register as an educator with your school email to get the best access but it is free). The whole interface has recently be overhauled dramatically since I first showed it to staff last year. Presentations do take longer than powerpoints to create but they are much more engaging for the students and the students are more creative when putting a presentation together in this way. The best way to learn how to use it is to just have a play around creating and inserting images. You can search for existing prezis on the site that other users have created. You can also download copies of your presentations in flash format and save onto your computer or memory stick to use offline. Otherwise you will need an internet connection to access your presentations. You cannot edit your presentations offline (this is a paid-for feature.) For beginners, there are a set of tutorials here. An example of a presentation is below – I used this about 18 months ago to introduce some new ideas to staff – many of which you will be familiar with.

3. Stupeflix – this is an alternative to animoto which has some interesting extra features. Again, it is fee to register for the basic package and like Animoto, there is an Education option. This is more advanced than Animoto and gives you the ability to access student accounts – a detailed guide is here.

4. Google presentation – this is particularly useful (and easy) for students to use when working together on a presentation outside of the lesson – if they have Google accounts, they can sign in, set up and share a presentation. Because it is web-based, there is no need to email files or share memory sticks – they just need a Google account and an internet connection. This also means that there are no excuses  (I’ve lost my memory stick) when it comes to presenting the next lesson.

5. Helloslide - is an interesting alternative to powerpoint. Visually it is great. You can upload a pdf file and it turns it into a presentation. What is completely different to the other alternatives above is that you overlay the slides with text of your choice but when the presentation is run, the text becomes an audio commentary instead. The voiceover is far better than I thought it would be. Useful for independent learning if the students have headphones or are working from home.

• creating an infographic
• designing a prezi
• making a video
• composing a TED talk
• writing a newspaper article
• building a website
• producing a facebook page
• drawing a comic
• formulating an animation
• using animoto
• constructing  a game
• erecting a model
• 

I’m not quite sure what I got myself into just yet All I know is that 1) I have learned a great deal through my Twitter PLN last three years, 2) I do a lot of daily online learning, and 3) today is a good day to begin my massive  open online course — with a huge class.

Here we go! Here’s my intro vid!

Happy  learning!

Up next: Massive lipdub!!

~Yoon

PS: made it in a hurry since I’m so late to the party. I used Animoto. If you’re an educator, get a free edu account here. Folks there are great for allowing teachers to use this cool app for teachers and students. I also used my pictures from Flickr and some slides from my Keynote. Song: “Closer to the Edge” 30 Seconds to Mars.

10 Apps & Sites for Digital Storytelling & more!

Have your Students Tell their Stories Digitally!

What is digital storytelling?

Students can tell their story in a digital manner the same as they would orally or on paper. Digital storytelling is simply applying one’s creative ideas in a manner that allows him or her to add multimedia (video, images, and audio) to their voice.

Why use digital storytelling?

Using technology can be engaging. We use a variety of mediums to tell stories in our class. Many of our stories start out as oral rehearsals. We tend to incorporate a variety of webs, outlines, fold-able templates, and graphic organizers to start our planning process. Sometimes I use MindMaple and Popplet to brainstorm ideas. Then we begin drafting our story using pencils and paper. However, Google Docs and Storybird are a great way to have students draft their stories on the computer. When we share our work, students enjoy the choice of creative outlet to express their learning. This is where we use a variety of tech tools to support our publishing efforts.

Which tools are best?

Personally, I like tools that are free and easy to use. If a tool is great, I don’t mind spending the money to access the paid version. However, I’ve found that there are too many free sites and apps that are just as wonderful as many of the paid versions that do similar tasks.

I often get asked if I prefer iPads or laptops. My answer is always the same… it depends on the comfort level of the teacher, what the device will be primarily used for, and the age group that will be using the device. In general, I’ve found that mobile devices (ie: iPads) work best for younger children. The touch feature and size of the device is a benefit for primary aged learners. As students get older, I do believe there are limitations with mobile devices. Regardless of device, there are fantastic sites and apps available for each system.

Read the rest at her original post and see which apps and sites she recommends:

http://www.kleinspiration.com/2012/11/10-apps-sites-for-digital-storytelling.html?m=0

Make sure to follow her on twitter too @KleinErin.

Animoto Final Project

Xtranormal Activity

Visit me at: www.facebook.com/authorvictoriabarrow

[[Images (C) respective owners, via google images and pinterest. I DO NOT OWN images. NO COPYRIGHT CLAIM INTENDED.

Cover art by Skylar Faith . http://truenotdreams.weebly.com/

Music (C) The Moon & the Nightspirit. I own nothing but intellectual property!
Created at www.animoto.com]]

I’m sad I don’t actually own these images, but it made an awesome book trailer nonetheless.

I decided to go for a multimedia offering. I thought that:

• images and brief text fragments will convey the message most efficiently and expressively
• it will be fun (and useful) to try out new tools to create such presentations
• digital storytelling is trending – important to get some skills in there!
• with many digital storytelling tools out there which require very low tech skills, and allow for easy sharing of the product, such multimedia presentations are an excellent choice for the orientation/ice-breaking activities online (and offline) courses!
• I believe in enabling learners’/teachers’ online DIY by using low-threshold technology – this was a chance to test some out!

In prep for the post I have combed through a number of other etmooc introductions (hello everybody!) – and picked up a great list of tools which can be used for introductory activities – I compiled a public list on Diigo with some very brief annotations. Thanks everybody for sharing (special thanks to Erin Luong, Lyn Hilt, Joanna Sanders, Monika, Glenn Hervieux, Shira Leibowitz whose posts directly contributed to my list). I am sure there is much more out there and the list will grow in the future.

It was hard to pick but I went with Animoto because:

• I have never used it before
• It is an online tool so I did not need to download and install anything and worry about PC/Mac compatibility
• I liked that it looked ‘professional’ and polished, yet fun whether used by complete beginners or more experienced users
• It allowed for combination of video, text, audio and images + had some quite decent musical tracks to choose from (you can upload your own if you wish – NB copyright!)
• The free version allows only for 30 sec videos and v. limited text – this forces a wonderful brevity and distillation of message so important in the online world, suffering from a chronic attention deficit (I tend to ramble so a fantastic way to improve my own skills here;)
• It allowed publication to YouTube – important for me as a Word Press user as WP does not allow embedding of Animoto videos but works for YouTube (for security reasons).

How I did it.

I decided to include video I took with my phone alongside some CC licensed images from Flickr. This turned out to be quite a distraction (mainly due to the fact that Animoto video editing itself is very limited and only allows for clipping the ends and muting of soundtrack)  – but a productive one!

As using Animoto itself is very intuitive and including images very simple, I will talk about the editing of video itself, before I included it in my production.

I needed to clip, flip and crop my .3gb video.

My computer is running Windows XP which unfortunately does not have an inbuilt video editor. I did not want to download and install anything on it – it’s been running slowly so I want to avoid cluttering it up any further. And certainly did not want to pay for anything or such a small project. I also wanted to avoid using YouTube’s own editing suite (I do not like putting all my eggs in one basket).

I looked for a simple free online video editing tool and found this very useful compilation of some recent offerings from makeuseof blogs. I was most impressed with the ones which allow for collaborative editing and creation of social networks – definitely something to keep in mind for later use (assuming they survive – the turnaround is very rapid in these start ups) !

Unfortunately, I did not manage to find anything which would do all three things for me.

First, I used Pixorial to rotate and cut the video to size I wanted (the tool has some other ). Then, I took the output (Pixorial converts your video to .mp4 so if you do not want to lose quality it may not be an optimal option) and used Video Tool Box to crop it to focus on the part of the video I wanted (Video Tool Box preserves the video format – and gives you an option of converting it if you wish).

Both of the tools have size limits on the files you can upload in their free versions (Pixorial is more generous), and require a decent speed internet connection for download/upload so not really suitable for larger video processing but ideal for these snippets from your phone’s camera.

Overall, I think I will go back to both Animoto as well as Pixorial and Video Tool Box. I would also like to try my hand at WeVideo and FileLab Video Editor and try out their more complex editing options and effects. They are both much more sophisticated than YouTube editing options!

Price: Free/Premium option ($5 per month)
The free version of Animoto limits the user to 30 second videos. However, usually within a month of signing up for Animoto, you will receive a free promotion to create one video with no time limit.

Format: Web/App
-www.animoto.com
-https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/animoto-videos/id459248037?mt=8

Difficulty: Easy
For teachers looking to delve into the world of BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology), Animoto is a great starting point. It is a simple tool that students may use in web or app format, and the videos created can be easily shared via direct links.

Email Required: Yes

Description:
Animoto is a simple tool for creating short, fun videos with pictures and text. Students first must choose from 32 different themes. The theme determines the look and feel of the video. After choosing a theme, students may add text, videos, or pictures. The pictures can come from the internet or as a direct upload from the computer. If a student is using their device, their picture(s) can be uploaded from their photo library. Students then add text to their video. Each text block is limited to a total of 90 characters, 40 for a title and 50 for a subtitle, but students may have numerous text blocks. This limit on the amount of text, coupled with the 30 second time limit on the free versions, teaches students how to be precise and to the point, a skill surprisingly lacking in most students.

The last step to creating an Animoto video is to add music. This is where Animoto really shines, and the number one reason my students enjoy the tool so much. Animoto has a large, free, collection of music ready to be inserted into videos. The music types range from jazz to rock to classical, and the students love getting to find the perfect song for their video. The ability to add music to the video provides the teacher with a built-in incentive program: if a student shows me a complete and correct video, they can begin adding music. I do not allow my students to add their own music to the video, but there is an option to upload your own songs. 

Teacher Examples:

The following were the videos I showed my students when introducing an activity that had them using Animoto to create a video on either PEMDAS or one-step equations. 

• http://animoto.com/play/xQpN6wlYdEw5cqx6oV5mhg
• http://animoto.com/play/GaemxlwbJ9PErxZ8Jcc6Dw

Student examples: 

• http://animoto.com/play/MKZwngB553MNmoeFafdIiw
• http://animoto.com/play/RT1w2bTWAcIChzg6pKQoRQ
• http://animoto.com/play/PcZ0poNm6mIO1Oa3FQe1pQ
• http://animoto.com/play/UKYZtNVqWs0snN11RW1WVQ

Summary:
Animoto is a wonderful tool for simple assignments. However, with the limited time frame and text options, teachers should not use Animoto for large projects. Enrichment activities, or short (one day/half day) activities are best when using Animoto. 

The site is updated regularly with new features, and it even has its own mobile app for iOS and Android. Best of all, Animoto has a free account for Educators. Today, they relaunched their site with a great new look and a new logo too, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to take another look at how useful this tool can be in the classroom.

Making an Animoto video is a very simple process. You start by choosing a style for your video. There are plenty to choose from, and each will add its own personality to your finished product. Next, choose some music. You can upload music of your own that you or your students created in something like Garageband, or you can browse through the library of songs that are built-in to the Animoto editor. Photos and videos can be uploaded directly to the site, or imported from a variety of social media sites. Lastly, you can add text slides, to help tell your story and give context to your media.

At this point, if you wanted, you could render your video and download or share it with others. However, there are a number of tweaks you can make to enhance your video. For instance, the spotlight tool will give more prominence to images you deem worthy of it. You can duplicate slides, rotate them, and change the order of them by dragging and dropping them. You can choose a starting point for your music, and pace your slides to the length of music you chose. After you are done with all the tweaking, you can preview the video to see if it is all that you hoped it would be. If not, simply return to the editing screen and change your style, music, or media until it is perfect. Videos can be downloaded, embedded and shared on social media sites.

So, if you have not tried Animoto recently, or at all, you should definitely take a look to see what is there. Just be sure to sign up for the educator account (a $30 value) because this will remove the 30 second video limit you get with the free accounts. Once signed up, you will be given a class code that you can share with students. When students register for an account, they use this code to get the upgraded education edition of Animoto. Want to create your own student accounts? Animoto has a solution for that too.

Do you use Animoto in your classroom? What do you (or your students) like about it? Feel free to leave a comment below with your experiences.

In spite of the plate seeming like a platter right now, (and my impending burn-out forecasted by my well-meaning boss), I am over-the-top excited about each and every one of these things. It’s a perk of being an over-achiever, apparently. And not needing much sleep. So, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to participate in this #etmooc opportunity. (I love everything about it- self-directed, open, technology & media, connecting with a planet of people on topics most important to what I do? What’s not to love?!) When I saw the first “assignment” is to introduce myself through video, my first thought is that I need to buy a noggin-cam (ala Wayne’s World) to wear when I’m skiing this weekend or when I’m on poop-patrol with new-puppy Hank, because that’s the only way I can find time to make one. Then, I remembered I have one in my back pocket. A video, not a noggin-cam. I do have doggy treats in my pocket too.

So here I am- me and mi vida loca- and technology teacher too.

Animoto- a sometimes-sideways teacher’s best friend

http://animoto.com/play/WoZjDb4mqroWYkP4xFmnrA