Kizoa

Kizoa is a great Web 2 tool to use in the classroom. The students can create slideshows, collage and edit graphics. This is a free tool to use. Once completed the students can save the collage for example to their hard drive (this is not part of the free membership, you need to pay a fee) or share it online through their blog (free). With the slideshows you can put in text, music, animation and other special effects, there are all sorts of possibilities to customize your slideshow! Be careful to only use the free tools and effects if you plan to share your creations.

Christchurch earthquake 22 Feb 2011 - slideshow with musichttp://www.kizoa.com

Automatoon

Automatoon is a great Web 2 tool to use in the classroom for free. There's no authoring software to install and you can share your animations online. You can also export your animations and embed them in your own websites (e.g. classroom blogs), all for free! These could also be used in other web 2 tools such as Glogster or 280 slides. What a great tool to use as a reading activity for example - certainly would give motivation for some readers. I used animation in my classroom as a reading activity where the children designed an activity (simple) that one of the characters from the story was likely to do. They could then make the animation for others in the group to guess who it is and what they are doing.

This video shows you how to use it.

Animation

I have used Microsoft gif animator and Image Ready to make my animations. One of the teachers I am working with at the moment wanted me to make some animations with his children (aged about 7 - 8). The machines they are using are Macs with iMovie. I know that we could use iMovie to make the animations but here is a quick and easy (and free..) alternative.

It is called Make animation. It is extremely simple for children to use:

1. Upload your pictures or photos to make the animation - these can be any type eg jpg, tiff, png
2. Double click on uploaded picture to add text and draw on it.
3. Drag 'n drop left icon with top and down arrows to change the animation order
4. Set size and speed as well as other options and effects
5. Make the animation by clicking on "make animation"
6. Your animation will be displayed and you can download it

GoAnimate

To animate I usually use either Adobe Image Ready or Microsoft Gif animator. I have just been playing around with GoAnimate (another free Web 2 tool) and looking at the possibilities of using this tool in the classroom. It is very easy and children will love it. I can see a lot of ways making these animations fits into the Language curriculum but of course (with some lateral thought) they could make them around Social Studies, Maths or any other curriculum area.

I am going to use this tool with my students next year but would be interested to hear from anyone who has used it in their classroom.

Make animations

A great online site for students to go to make animations is Aniboom.



When the student has finished they are able to export the file as an animated gif to use in PowerPoint presentations, web pages etc.

However there is a need to be careful here as there is an area where you are able to watch animations that others have made and some have adult content.

Another program that is available - free to download is Scratch.

They have excellent support with pdf files and videos on the site to help teachers and students. I have uploaded the Getting started with Scratch pdf file into the files on the left of this site so you can download that and get an idea of the program.