This lesson increased my knowledge on animations including what they are and the various types that exist as well as the benefits of using them in education. The lesson began with introducing us to tutorial videos to heighten our understanding then allowing us to explore the animation app Puppet Pals. This app allowed us to play around with voice recording, character movement, altering the size of characters and creating a story line with multiple backgrounds and themes including fairy tale princesses and dragons. Once comfortable with what was being asked of us, we progressed onto the app iStop Motion.

Animation is defined as involving “the stringing together of a sequence of static images, generally so that they appear to move” (Jarvis, 2015, p89). Moving Image Education believes there to be five chief types of animation: cutout, stop-motion, pixilation, drawn and computer. The app iStop Motion, as the name suggests, focused solely on improving our stop-motion abilities. This type of animation involves taking pictures of inanimate objects and slightly adjusting their position each picture resulting in the object appearing to move when the pictures are played back. Whilst considering the props we had on offer, my partner and I began discussing possible story lines for our animation. We included our own drawings, a toy man and toy cars. Our story displayed the event of a fire spreading in a house and showed the man running out of his house and hailing down our toy fire engine. The story began by setting the scene displaying our drawn house and road alone followed by a car driving past. This illusion was created by us moving the car very slightly each picture we took. We then began inserting the drawn images of fire which we altered each picture to create the impression that the fire was crackling. Next, the man was shown running out of the house as we moved his legs and lifted his arms in a panicked motion. Our short story ended with the fire engine pulling up to save the situation. Although we had more ideas that could have been put in to practice with less time restraints, we were overall impressed and content with the work we produced. As a student teacher, this helped me recognise the importance of allowing children enough time to complete tasks so that they get the greatest fulfilment possible.

I personally found iStop Motion very enjoyable as a learner and believe children would experience a mutual feeling. This app challenged my concentration and determination as staying focused throughout the piece of work was essential to ensure no mistakes were made and when the pictures were played back the animation appeared realistic and believable. The skills of concentration and motivation in children are important therefore this would be an effective task for them to participate in.

This week familiarised me to the many benefits that come with introducing animation in the classroom. I believe animation to be beneficial to young minds as it can improve their imagination and let their ideas come to life since animation breathes new life into something that wouldn’t normally move (Moving Image Education). Bertrancourt (2005) suggests three ways animation enriches learning: to enhance learner’s visual representations, to illustrate processes and to provide an interactive element (Jarvis, 2015, p92). This session also brought to my attention that using sound and video enhances the quality of information processing and therefore also learning resulting in animation allowing children to find it easier to understand and remember a lesson (Jarvis, 2015, p93).

Digital technologies and using animation as an alternative way to convey a story line can be used across many aspects of the curriculum. This particular lesson fitted in with the outcomes:

“I can explore and experiment with sketching, manually or digitally, to represent ideas in different learning contexts.” TCH 1-11a.
“I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways.” LIT 2-28a.

(Scottish Government, 2008)

Overall, I found this class very beneficial in developing my own skills with animation and having an understanding of how it works and how it would bring advantages to a classroom. It was also beneficial in enhancing my confidence when presenting this type of lesson in future classroom environments. I will now understand how it is enhancing the learners’ experiences and how it can be used across the curriculum.

References:
Scottish Government (2008) The Curriculum for Excellence [Online] http://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf

Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.

Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A Very practical Guide for Teachers and Lecturers. Routledge.

Moving Image Education website: [Online] https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed: 14.2.18]