The subject of this weeks class was to learn about and use the iStop Motion application on the iPads to create a scene from our own made up stories.
We discussed how the use of digital technologies can allow children to fully delve into literacy. For example, you may ask a child to write a story and they might not be able to create a stimulus and therefore they would struggle. However, with the introduction of applications like iStop Motion, children can often create imaginative stories instantaneously without even realising that they are doing so. Beauchamp (2012, p.54) similarly states that ICT allows pupils to “achieve something that would be very difficult or even impossible to achieve in any other way.”
When creating iStop Motion animations, Moving Image Education states that there are 5 main types of animation, these are as follows;
- Cutout
- Stop Motion – For example, plasticine
- Pixillation – Where humans become puppets
- Drawn – For example, classic disney
- Computer
The scene that my partner and I created consisted of a family of aliens visiting Earth for the day and the father being bumped from a falling apple on the tree overhead. We created our scene from a paper background and our characters were made out of plasticine. We decided to challenge ourselves by using cutout animation and pixillation animation however, this proved to be quite time consuming as it took us one hour to create a 6 second video. Moving Image Education believes that you should start easy then work up to using harder animation techniques, “animating in the classroom doesn’t have to be with plasticine models – cutout animation is by far the easiest technique to start on.”
I believe that this application can be used for a long-term lesson plan, where in which every day or week, the children can add to their stories by creating more scenes. Over time, the teacher can introduce the five different animation types and this will fully allow the children to explore their understanding of the application whilst gaining enriching life skills.
my partner and I associated this activity with the first level in the CfE:
“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”
Thus, the child can create multimodal texts with regards to such subjects like literacy. Therefore, they are enhancing their knowledge in literacy through the use of digital technologies.
To end this weeks blog, I am going to leave a quote from the Children’s Parliament which emphasises the importance of movie making within the classroom:
“Making movies was important to most of the children. They wanted the opportunity to remember things and create their own content to share.” (Children’s Parliament, 2016).
References
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy top Practice. Pearson.
Children’s Parliament (2016) A Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland: The View’s of Children [Online] Available from: http://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/REPORT_digital-learning-consultation_Childrens-Parliament-1.pdf [Accessed: 20 February 2018].
Moving Image Education website: [Online] Available from: https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/animation [Accessed 20 February 2018].
