Creating a short animation was a fun and interesting task which I found highly engaging and was one of the first times I enjoyed an ‘ICT’ lesson. During primary school ICT consisted of going to a crowded room at the back of the school and having to race to get a computer which actually worked, needless to say I did not enjoy the lessons and couldn’t tell you what I learnt, or was supposed to learn, during those classes. Secondary school somehow managed to be worse with the schools only ICT teacher being seriously disengaged and the classes never managed to grab my attention and while I now have some grasp of simple IT skills I have never been confident with using computers and the idea of teaching children ICT was something I was dreading. However during the two hours we spent making our animations I really enjoyed learning about the different programs available for people to use and I realised that teaching children to use computers to express their creativity will actually be a thoroughly enjoyable and exciting experience.
Through creating this style of animation children would be developing several different skills, they would be working in a team which allows them to develop their communication skills and how to create a creative piece of work which they were all proud of through sharing ideas and compromising with one another to ensure everyone has an idea within the project. They would also be developing several ICT skills. We used the program ZU3D which allowed us to attach a camera to the computer and take pictures of our models which created a stop-motion animation. This would teach the children to be able to use additional pieces of equipment as well as the computer itself and be able to use a range of technology to express themselves. We also placed a piece of music in our film which we had to find and then add to the film in the appropriate place. This would also help the pupils develop ICT skills as they would learn to add in multiple layers of media to their animations.
This activity sits within the ICT experiences and outcomes as it falls under the category of ‘ICT to enhance learning’ as it is a way for the pupils to manipulate their ideas in a creative way and produce a piece of work using sounds, texts and images to communicate their thoughts across to a wider audience in an engaging way. It is also a very good activity as it is exciting and will encourage more children to go out and find ways to express themselves and their ideas in a way which they find engaging and interesting.
I really enjoyed this task and it has started to change my opinion towards teaching ICT and has shown me that there is more to computer skills than simply learning how to use powerpoint and word.
