Animation Peer Review.

Today we had the opportunity to watch our seminar groups stop-motion animations.  I was very impressed with them all, the ideas were fantastic and I was extremely impressed at the imagination and creativity of my peers.

Rhian Davies, a member of our group presented her animation; 'Solution No Pollution', to us all today and I found it compelling.

The Message
Rhian's animation was a simple tale of a stick man enjoying the fresh air after a tree had grown from the ground.  Unfortunately, the stick man chops the tree down and burns the wood by using a match which releases Co2 into the atmosphere.  The stick man becomes ill from the unhealthy air and grows a new tree to clean the air.  The message was very clear and the topic used is strong in schools today.

The Sound
The animation was supported by soft music which represented the animation beautifully.  The music had no vocal which meant the viewer was not distracted by lyrics.  Another advantage of having music without lyrics was that Rhian was able to use sound affects to her animation.  You can hear the crackle of a fire, and the stick man has the line 'oh no!' which made me empathise with the stick man's unhappiness of his actions; a clever use of identification.

Technical Ability
The use of paper and clay at the beginning showed a good technical ability.  It was simple and effective and must have been very time consuming.  Rhian used speech bubbles with very little words so not to distract the viewers attention or confuse the working memory.  The fire scene was incredible as with paper, to create the flickering movement, is very difficult. The movement was simple which did not take away the focus of what was being viewed.  I was not distracted by an array of things going on so my eye was drawn to exactly what was going on.  If the stick man moved, my eye was on him, if the tree moved or the fire flickered that is what I was looking at. The whole animation was very creative and cleverly put together.

Enjoyment
I thoroughly enjoyed Rhian's animation.  It was professional but also raw.  After I had viewed it I felt as though I should do more for the environment as the message was strong.  I could easily see this very animation being seen by schools all over Wales as an environmental message.  A very enjoyable viewing.

The Circle Of Life

Using Zu3D, as a collaborative piece of work, our group constructed an animation called The Circle of Life,  that we showed to an audience for critical analysis.  Our story represents a baby growing into adulthood, meeting a girl, having a child then growing old and dying.  We imported music to represent the story and to add emotion to the viewing experience.  We incorporated humour, fun and sadness into our animation with specific movement, sound effects to create identification whilst using different backgrounds to set the scene.  The concept was to be kept simple yet effective as in Mayer's (2001) cognitive theory of multi-media learning so not to overload the working memory for a deeper understanding of our message; life goes on.

 

Me moving the characters frame by frame.



It took a whole day to create all of the characters, a day to film the animation and another day to create the sound.  In my opinion, the adding of the sound was the most difficult.  We used the song Take Me On My Way by Rusted Root, as a main sound as it tied in with the theme of our story.  We then incorporated sound effects over the music to represent movement and human sound for the characters. 

 

This was a fun but time consuming learning experience which required patience while using both fine motor skills and higher order thinking. It can be planned for in cross curricular lessons and is not only a hands on way of learning but is also stimulates cognitively. This video of Zu3D at BETT 2015 shows how children learn with animation in a deep and interesting way. 

 

 

Our stop-motion  creation came with some technical problems. We forgot to save our completed animation as a movie which resulted in the sound disappearing. We did however record the animation with a mobile phone so when we presented our stop-motion animation we ran the sound off the phone to the computer whist playing the animation.

 

I was very proud of what we achieved.  The story as a passage of time in a young boys life was felt, laughing at the humour and I was moved by the ending.  I believe as a group we worked very well together, and even in the face of disappointment on discovering the hard work we put into the sound exactly matching the movements was in vain, we found a way to solve our problem.  It was not perfect, however it worked and I was very happy with the result.

This is the video that we recorded using a mobile phone.



This made me reflect on how sound does in fact have an enormous impact on a visual experience.  Sound does offer the viewer an added dimension of drawing ones attention and empathising with characters and understanding the message.

This is the animation we achieved with just the music background but without sound effects, it does not have the same affect than with the audio affects attached.
 

Overall, this learning experience came with positives and negatives, however as a whole it did reap many rewards.  I have learnt patience, stamina, organisation skills, team work, communication skills and reflective practice, all of which will assist in my career journey both as a primary school teacher and for the learners that I will be learning with alongside.

What's the BETT?

The Bett summit opens today in the ExCel Arena in London offering an insight into the future of technology within education.  Its purpose is to inspire and open our minds to the possibility of innovative technological breakthroughs that could be seen in future learning environments.

 

 

This planned arena conference offers all persons working or interested in educational technology a plethora of innovative breakthrough products that are believed to enhance learning allowing the learner an infinite learning space.

But, is technology necessary in education, and does it benefit the learner in any way?

Teachers plan for every lesson and within that plan, the intended use of technology is incorporated.  However, Aubusson et al (2014) explain that this can be dependant on the teachers technological ability and efficiency, and the schools regulations and policy.  Aubusson, et al (2014) study on technology in education found that technology has a positive learning impact and an enjoyable rich task experience for the learner.

Atis (2013) disagrees, arguing that technology in school is rapidly growing to meet the learners needs, educationally and socially, however its over use in the classroom was noted as having a negative affect on the learner.  Atis (2013) further explains that computer use does not always meet the need of the learner's engagement especially when the technology is not used to its best advantage.

However, Yanez and Coyle (2010) explain how multi-modal technology; using audio, visual and tactile products cater to all learning styles and provide an interesting and enjoyable learning experience.  The learner is said to have the ability to visualise problems rather than misunderstand verbalised direction and have increase cognitive visual recall after learning with technology.  However, the authors go on to explain that technology in education can come with problems of their own.  There is the problem with internet access or a slow connection, or calibration difficulties on interactive whiteboards. Studies have revealed that new technology in schools are, in some cases, not used to  full advantage.  Teaching professionals could use the new equipment as a simple replacement to the old and some do not allow the learner to use the technology therefore the teacher remains to deliver learning, not allowing the learner to take learner ownership. 
The authors call for more research for a deepening of understanding of technology learning and state that teaching professionals should be instructed on soft wear and usage to implement the intended use successful learning in this manner.

We live in a technological age where even the youngest children can use I Pads, mobile telephones and use a mouse on a lap top.  The internet holds an infinite amount of knowledge to learn from and allows communication from contacting friends, following iconic people or to people in other counties around the world.  Educational software and applications can engage the learner, making the learning experience fun and hands on, more than a book or having a lesson delivered.  There is, nonetheless. a call for a balanced learning environment, one rich with many different learning resources, however, technology as a cognitive and tactile learning tool that offers a rich and meaningful learning experience can not be ignored in todays technological age.