I decided to pick Go Animate as a presentation tool that could be used in many of the classes I teach. I could see the program being used in our Business Law class. The students would be given a term or situation. They would have to research the terms meaning and then recreate it with Go Animate. Here is an example of a video I made describing the difference between a person stating a fact and giving their opinion with the sale of a car.
GoAnimate.com: Bussiness Law Example Video by cherie21
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
While the site is fun, many things can be confusing. They advertise the program is free to use, they consistently want you to purchase add-ons to your characters and other layouts. After exploring the site more, I was able to create many characters without having to pay. Their marketing strategy was very good and I believe many people would pay.
The learning curve to create the animations is pretty simple. If I were to use this I would give the students a brief overview and believe they would have a solid understanding of the program within 10 minutes. The variety the site offers is exponential; from different backgrounds to having your characters look and do anything you imagine.
When finished with the video you have the option to save and publish. Unless you have the premium version or pay one dollar, you cannot download the video to your computer. You can view the video from their web site as often as you choose. Another concern I have with the site is it is always asking for the information to log on to your Gmail account and Facebook page. It would be extremely important to teach the students not to give out personal information.
While I thought this was a neat Web 2.0 tool, I think it would be better suited for the middle school student. I showed this site to some of my current high school students to get their feedback. To my amazement 90% thought the program was really cool and said they would like to complete a project with the program.
Cherie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this website and program. Goanimate seems like it may really engage your students. I really like how you already included an example of how you could use this in one of your classes. On a side note, I am also glad to see that financial planning is being taught in school. I think this class should be a requirement in high school. Many students are really unequipped for the "real world" when they graduate and "go out on their own". They easily fall prey to financial pitfalls. I was also actually thinking about using this site to create my 1 minute video, so your post and videos have come in very handy. You'd be surprised at what students will find engaging. I think because there is still popular appeal among students with animated programs such as South Park, the Simpson etc. I would guess that this website would strike a chord even with you high school students.
Thanks again for sharing.
Cherie
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a lot of fun. I teach Middle School and the detail to which you can give characters expressions and faces, would be really appealing. I can see using this site as a way to review a book they read or to assess their knowledge of the latest history lesson. It does look like it would take some time to learn about but once you know how to use it, I imagine it would go quite quickly. The students have been wanting to make avatars and Animate Me looks like a kid friendly first step into that process. I love how you used the video tutorial and then put your own in there as well, great examples. Thanks so much for sharing and I look forward to using this in future project based learning!
Cherie,
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a great site to use to reinforce concepts that my not be so exciting to students. This give them the opportunity to make ideas that may not be so concrete come to life and also adds entertainment value. Its also nice that it has many choices that are free to the students to use.
Cherie,
ReplyDeleteI am excited to check out GoAnimate.com. I like the way you used it to put characters over your CreditAble video. Did you capture Creditable with Screenflow then upload it into GoAnimate? I can see using GoAnimate to create some of my own videos to introduce concepts to students like the one you created for Business Law. It would also be a great assessment tool for students to demonstrate what they know about a particular concept. Thanks for sharing GoAnimate. I will definitely be using it.
Cherie,
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing how you evaluate the program. I, too, was considering this tool. I do not see it being used as readily at the elementary level by the students, though it could be utilized by the teachers to capture students' attention. I did not spend as much time with it as yo did so I am glad to get your information.
Great job! Thanks for sharing!
Hello,
ReplyDeleteVery great post shared, Indeed goanimate is really wonderful site for getting videos done but I was wondering if you could check out www.mozvideo.com and tell me about it.