This week we’re going to use our new found movie-making skills to find out about the art of animation.
Animation is a long and slow process which requires planning, space and logistics. While it is very heavily consuming of time (Jarvis, 2015) it has the potential to engage children well and promote learning across the curriculum. As a fairly large task to undertake it requires planning to ensure that all learners are involved, effectively engaged and contributing equally. Children with ASN are an everyday part of life in a mainstream Primary School and it is essential that their needs be included in learning intentions. The strength and surety of planning and the rapidity of outcome and success can be suggested to make participation in Animation a positive learning experience for those with ASN (Korsgaard and Voldberg, 2017). Positive classroom experiences are vital in promoting self-esteem and inclusion in all learners (Beauchamp, 2012).
Animation can happen in numerous ways, including a range of different media. Using Digital Technologies as a mode of production does not mean it has to be constructed solely using those Technologies. I am a very big fan of traditional art and craft and multimodal texts can be produced wonderfully using children’s creative imaginations and own constructions. Having viewed some particularly effective animation using simple cut-out materials we opted to use that same technique in our own animation.
Having a play…
Before getting started on this week’s task we first had a go at doing some animation on our own. First using the Puppet Pals app then the iStopMotion app.
Puppet Pals is easy to use but quite limited in its scope. The user can select from a range of characters and scenery and use the app features to make their own story. However, the features of the app are limited without paying to upgrade to a premium version. The could be successfully utilised by younger children where a quicker interaction is desirable but it would not hold the attention of an older child for very long.
iStopMotion is a user-friendly app which allows the user to quickly produce an animation result without any intensive training. All you need is a classmate who knows you’re going to say, “I can’t work this” and you’re good to go! After some brief instruction even I was able to produce a short animated clip from which I managed to deduce that:
- Animation takes a really long time to produce a very short output.
- Nothing stays where it is supposed to.
- Trying to produce a stop motion animation on your own is really hard.
- It’s a steep learning curve.
- You need to plan.
- Helping other people to achieve their desired animation outcome is lots of fun, even if it does end up a bit like a game of Twister!
Planning our next masterpiece…
The first question we asked ourselves was “What are we going do?” After lots of batting ideas backwards and forwards and refining, we settled on producing an animation, based on a known story, with a maths-based focus. Hence “Little Red’s Fraction Footpath” was born. Based on the story of “Red Riding Hood”, we decided to add a fraction-based problem-solving element.
Our second question was “How are we going to do it?” We decided to opt for the cut-out animation method we had seen in class as it was easy to do and produced a quick and effective result (Moving Image Education, 2019). We decided to opt for the cut-out animation method we had seen in class as it was easy to do and produced and quick and effective result. We opted to combine this with another effective element which is very recognisable in the field of animation – Lego. Not only is Lego one of my favourite things ever but it is also a great way of demonstrating fractions. So, our fraction puzzles would be constructed from Lego.
Our third question was “What are we going to use to make it?”. Having found our video production so successful in “Week 6 – iMovie and some sage advice about internet safety” we decided to use the same tools again. We would shoot our animation using the iPhone XR and edit it into a finished product using the iMovie programme.
Thinking forward to Part 2…
We’ve all got our allocated jobs and we know what it is we want to produce. Now we just need to put it all together and see what we come up with. Very much looking forward to next week’s stop on the journey!
References
- Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in Primary School from Pedagogy to Practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
- Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A very practical guide for teachers and lecturers. Oxon: Routledge.
- Korsgaard Sorensen, E. and Voldborg Andersen, A. (2017) Strengthening inclusion of learners with attention difficulties through interventions with digital technology in process of production. European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning. [Online] Vol. 20(1), pp.45-53. Available: https://doi.org/10.1515/eurodl-2017-0003 [Accessed: 21 February 2019].
- Moving Image Education (2019) [Online] Available: Moving Image Education website: [Online] https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed: 21 February 2019].
