The Oxford Dictionary defines animation as “The technique of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an illusion of movement when the film is shown as a sequence” (2019). This week within the class, we were able to explore the world of animation and see where it could be used within the modern day classroom. This included us looking at 2 fantastic apps for children and adults while thinking creatively to make some short videos showcasing our new skills.
It never clicked with me until today’s session that animation in the classroom can actually be an excellent task for children to explore as it can link many different areas of the curriculum as well as changing up their lessons from the basic worksheet. Animation can be used to support the inclusion of children within and out with the classroom environment. An example is allowing children to express themselves with their own animation projects so that any insecurities are taken away. This is also good for the e-inclusion of the classroom as it can take away the difficulties of those with additional support needs. However, we cannot forget about how animation skills are connected to the confidence of teachers. A teacher must be skilled to teach these ICT methods without projecting their nerves or opinions onto the children who are ready to learn. (Beauchamp, 2012). This is something that I will need to personally practice as I want my teaching to be of a high standard so that the children are able to explore their new skills without any previous judgement or fears which I have passed onto them.
So how does animation enhance the learning of the children you ask? Well, it can be used to enhance children’s visual representations. This can be useful for those children who are shy and are also too nervous to tell you any worries face to face. This could also help us to understand how children learn more efficiently. It can also be used to illustrate the processes. This can be as simple as baking a cake or creating an amazing piece of art. Through animation, we can see the step to step guides of how the children have achieved their final products (Education Scotland, 2018). The final way it can enhance the learning of the child is that animation provides an interactive element to the basic subjects. This could be using a stop motion lego figure movie to tell the class how to do their 3 times tables or even a stop motion cut out story to enhance the languages. Animation is a great method for learning within the ‘digitally native’ classroom (Prensky, 2001).
Children engage with animation on a day to day basis as they may watch cartoons which require drawings to develop. This means that by using animation it provides children with a visual impact and lessons can be taught to them through an animated character(s). It also brings along the idea of new life to inanimate objects as through animation we can allow them to become a character and move due to the sequence of photographs (Jarvis, 2015). The best way to start in the classroom is cut out animation due to the demands which are required with the other types. It is also good to start in groups within the classroom as an animated short film can be a lot of work for an individual child.
The 5 types of animation are:
- Cutout Animation – This is quick and easy to create as children can move around paper images to create a story.
- Stop-motion Animation – This could be through the use of plasticine, however lego figures are a much easier option.
- Pixelation – The use of humans as the puppets in the animation. This is still using stop motion technology however, the humans can show expression and give a real-life sense to the movies.
- Drawn Animation – This is what you see in cartoons. The most common example would be films such as Disneys Snow White or Cinderella.
- Computer Animation – Also known as CGI which is where people can create animation through many magnificent profiles. Of course, this is the hardest and will take many years of practice.
During the class, we had the chance to explore some apps that allow animation within the classroom. These were Puppet Pals and iStop Motion. I started with Puppet Pals to begin with as we had been told it was the simpler app of the two. This app allows children to recreate some of their favourite fairytales with the choice of characters and scenes. It has to be said, without payment, the choice is very limited and children would only be able to create a few of their favourite tales. At first, I found it quite difficult to use as I wasn’t grasping the concept of how the app records the tale and also trying to resize characters as they move. Of course, I overcame this hurdle quickly and was able to play with the app and create a fairytale. Below is an example of my creation.
Overall, I thought the app was very good if it was to be used with the children who are perhaps in the early and first levels as I could imagine a second level child wouldn’t have much interest as their ICT skills will have been more developed by this stage. As it is very limited, if I had to use it in my classroom I would need to upgrade the app as I want to allow the child to have full creativity. However, it did show me that animation could be used in the classroom settings as children could film these fairytales to convey their own emotions which could bring in the health and wellbeing of the child as it could be used if the child doesn’t want to tell you their feelings face to face. I also felt the app was inclusive of those with additional needs and that the full class could use this app. I will definitely keep it in mind for my own classroom.
I then had the chance to explore iStop motion, which I have to admit, was my preferred choice of the apps. This app lets the child have a fully personalised choice of what they want to create. This app can be used with any inanimate objects or even humans to create pixelation. It basically allows you to take a series of photographs of the objects/people where you can move them about in each photo so it seems like the object/person is moving. I used the “stretchy people” in the class to test it out and see if I was any good at animation! It was harder than it looked! The inanimate objects don’t always want to do what you want them to do… especially this stretchy person! He just wouldn’t stand up for me and I ended up having to use some plasticine to try and stick him to the desk. Below is my example.
This was fun to use and I can see where it would benefit the children in the classroom as it would allow them to use anything they wanted to create a story, their feelings, historical events or even just explaining what happened at the weekend. Next week, we will be creating our own iStop Animation with lego (hopefully) to create a tsunami scene! We have already planned our storyboards and I look forward to the challenge.
A CFE outcome which I feel represents animation in the classroom is ” I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts” – TCH 1-1a. This would allow children to produce short films and clips to represent how they are feeling or to even give an answer to a question.
Already I can tell that animation is a section of digital technologies which will provide me with many lesson plans and ideas for my classroom in the near future. By practising my ICT skills, I will be able to enhance both the teaching and learning within the classroom which is the main focus of the Digital Learning Strategy (). I am looking forward to creating out animation next week.
References within this blog:
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary School: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson.
Education Scotland. (2018) Animation in the classroom – Developing skills in animation.[Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/practice-exemplars/Animation%20in%20the%20classroom%20-%20Developing%20skills%20in%20animation[Accessed: 21 February 2019]
Jarvis, M. (2015) Brilliant Ideas for Using ICT in the Classroom: A Very Practical Guide for Teachers and Lecturers. Routledge.
Oxford Living Dictionaries. (2019) animation.[Online] Available: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/animation[Accessed: 21 February 2019]
Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants MCB University Press.
