Animation 19.02.19 | Abbie's Reflective Journal

Over the past two weeks of digital technologies we have focused on animation in the classroom, and we have been preparing our own animation resource to use as student teachers.

Animation involves the “stringing together a sequence of static images, generally so that they appear to move” (Jarvis, 2015, p.89). Children are exposed to animation every day, whether it is their favourite cartoon, video game or movie, therefore it is essential to educate them on what animation is and how it works. Many potential jobs in the future may regard animation, to give children a fair insight into this will set many up for their future aspirations.

Different types of animation include; cut out- being the easiest, stop motion- using plasticine models, pixilation- where real people are edited to move like artificial animals, or drawn- which is classic Disney animation style.

Animation can have big visual impact, Jarvis states that using sound and video, such as in animation, enhances the quality of learning (Jarvis, 2015, p.93). Animation can also contribute to many different aspects of learning, as a student teacher in 2019, I understand that it is essential to familiarise myself with the aspects of digital technologies that pupils encounter in their everyday lives.

Our task today was to choose a historical event and portray this through an animation. We worked in a small group, which was key to complete our animation as it is very time consuming. We started by sketching a story board so that we had a clear concept for what we aimed to create. The historical event we thought would work best was the moon landing; it is a key topic in history and the animation could be used as an additional resource in portraying the event in the classroom. By creating a story board, we were able to plan what resources we would need to create and bring to the next class, and allocate roles to create these. It was also beneficial to have a vision for the final product, and this provided us with time to think about the learning outcome we wanted to cover. The Curriculum for Excellence outcomes which we decided our animation would focus on are “I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts” TCH 1-01a, and “I am aware that different types of evidence can help me find out about the past” SOC 0-01a (Education Scotland, 2019).

As animation doesn’t always have to be complex, for example drawn or using plasticine models, my group decided to start easy. As none of us had any previous experience with animation we used paper cut outs.

We began by experimenting with the ‘iStopMotion’ app. Overall the app was relatively easy to navigate; the control commands were clear and the layout made it simple to find different controls. There was no limitation on how many slides could be added, which allows for freedom to be as creative as you wish to be. It was quite difficult to keep the angle consistent throughout the entire animation, a tripod would be necessary if trying this again. Also, the lighting changed as the sun moved, I would therefore try this again in a well-lit room with few windows. When we put the animation together the timing was very fast, we therefore had to experiment with different controls to slow this down, which was easy fixed when we found the ‘shutter-speed’ control. I liked that we could record music from other devices to insert into the animation. This meant that we could add the audio from the moon landing for an extra multimodal factor.

Although animations are effective in challenging creativity and opening doors to imagination; “ICT allows pupils to achieve something that would be very difficult or even impossible to achieve in any other way” (Beauchamp, 2012, p.54), I personally would not use my own animations as a classroom resource, as they are very complicated and time consuming to create. However, I would use professional animations to enhance pupils’ learning and teaching. I do not think pupils, especially early years and first level, would cope well if given the same task as we were today. There could be potential arguments over roles and the story, and most children would become frustrated at the time it would take to complete an animation.

After creating my animation, I have noticed that I am very patient when organising my own class materials. I am also improving on my team-work skills; as mentioned I am usually quite a controlling person, however when negotiating roles, I let other members of the group choose first, and we all contributed equal amounts of work as well as listening to each other’s ideas.

Animation has the potential to be a valuable resource in the classroom, and I am now much more confident in creating my own resource for the classroom. It is key to educate teachers to incorporate aspects of a child living in 2019’s life into their lessons. Animation is an engaging way to “breathe new life into something that wouldn’t normally move” (Moving Image Education, 2019), and enhance teaching and learning in relation to multimodal texts.