All Access to Animoto

All About Animoto

Animoto is both an app and a website that is open for anyone to use. It can be used by both professionals and students. There are several different types of accounts that you can have as well. These plans include a free trial and then also several paid subscriptions that each allow the user to have more features throughout the program along with more features within their work. When signing up for an account it will also ask you what type of account you will be making videos for. The choices in this are either education, personal use, business, pro- photography, or other. They also offer the ability to use it for family, business, photography, education, and real estate plans. This program allows the user to make videos to create a more engaging way to facilitate information.

Animoto can be used in two different creations which they call these "memories" or "marketing" videoes which helps the user create the right environment for their topic. Inside both of these video pieces, the program allows you to attach music, sounds, and text to the project. The project base can either be pictures, videos, or both. Within the system, these videos can be used for social media, promotions, educational clips, businesses, celebrations, and community projects. These projects can be made either by hand or with the help of some of the templates that are offered within the program. The editing side of this program is fairly easy to use and is often changed by clicking a button or dragging part of the video to another place. There are several tabs on the side of the screen that makes navigating through editing easy.

These tabs are labeled with which function you are working on and then walks you through the steps. There is a full music library that you can use when picking background sounds. There are also libraries of pictures and videos. In addition to the ones listed on the website, you may also upload your own and make it more of your own piece. Other functions that you can use to make your video better suited for you are changing the pace and also the song trim. In addition to changing the pace of the whole video, you can have certain slides, text or pictures, stay longer than others. There is not a limit on how many videos you can make or how many can be stored in your account. In fact, when you are done Animoto even makes it easy to share your videos to various social media platforms and downloading it to your computer. Animoto has been able to partner with other companies such as Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram which makes it easy to share with other platforms, but Animoto is also compatible with other companies such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

Animoto Everywhere
Animoto can be used in various places, but my main focus for using it will be in both the classroom and a professional setting. On the first day of school, I can use it as a recap of my past summer and for me to use it to introduce myself. As the days go on, I can then use it for a hook into my lesson to get my students engaged or to open them up into a new topic. By doing this they will gather questions and get excited about a new lesson. I can also use this as a recap from the lessons that I have taught. I can use this as a "send the message home" type of resource. I can pull the main topics out of my lessons and then either use it as an opener for the topic or I can use it as a summary for my students. These videos can be anywhere from thirty seconds to a couple of minutes so with that ability to pick my timeframe I can decide how much information goes into it and how long I want my students to be engaged.

I can also have my students use this resource to do activities of their own. I can have a project where they have to make an engaging lesson to teach the class or a way to share the information they learned. I can either share this resource with them as an option or make it mandatory that they use it. I can also have them create a virtual field trip of a place they either traveled or a place they want to travel. bringing this form of technology into the classroom will allow my students to be more involved in their projects as well as in their learning. Other projects may include a vocabulary word assignment or a book review or trailer. These projects using Animoto do not all have to be linked to English or Reading, in fact, they can be used for all subjects within the classroom.

I can also use this to present information to fellow professionals and colleagues that I will be working with. I can present current research that I will be doing or even use it once again as a way to introduce myself. I can also use it to share current data within my classroom and share the resources that I am using or the activities and projects that I will be doing. I can also have this professional feel in my classroom when I have events with parents such as "Back to School Night." These events are the type that I want to show my professional side as well as have an engaging way to show myself to others. Having a basic presentation of yourself will not leave an impression on someone else and will not keep people listening to what you have to say or show.

Animoto Put to the Test
Research focuses on the idea that new technology needs to be taught in the classroom in efficient ways. In one research article I read they talked about how "If we teach today's students as wee taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow" (Wickline). This can go for all forms of technology in the classroom and especially for programs such as Animoto where students can express themselves and show their learning in other ways other than taking an exam, test, or quiz. This idea of teaching technology has brought up the idea of a "practice consists of teaching “reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and designing in print and nonprint media using pop culture and digital technologies” (Wickline). Using technology students can collaborate, show their understanding, and communicate through technology. Using technology such as this program may also help increase motivation and engagement in assignments. This is important especially for inside the classroom since educators are always looking for ways to increase these two things within instructional time. When educators use forms of technology in the classroom students will be more willing to participate in projects and become more willing to engage in these activities.

My Personal Experience 
I have not had a lot of practice with this app until I started this project. However, since I have been working on this project I intend to use it for other classes and parts of my life. I am going to use this for my tutoring when I am working with my first and fourth graders to see if this helps engage them in the lessons that we are going over. I can easily use this application for lessons such as sight words or writing activities when we practice writing an "About the Author" section. I can use these as a way to demonstrate topics both in and outside the classroom. I also plan to use this in my own classroom when I have an opening to a lesson or to a new book that we will be reading. This app can also be an easy way to have an engaging and different entrance to a "Do Now" or "Question of the Day."

References
Ha, Anthony. (2016, October 6). Animoto gives businesses an easy way to create social videos.
Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/06/animoto-marketing-videos/

Kievlan, Patricia Monticello. (2016, November). (Online Image). Animoto Review for Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/animoto

West, Moria. (2016, May 5). 10 Ways to Use Video in Your Classroom. Retrieved from https://animoto.com/blog/education/ways-use-video-in-classroom/

Wickline, K. (n.d.). Bringing Lessons to Life with Animoto - ReadWriteThink. Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/bringing-lessons-life-with-30885.html