Week 5

Animations

This workshops revolved around Animation websites. These websites allowed students to create drawings and animations to express their ideas. I have never visited any of these websites before, and i was quite amazed and excited as to how fun they were. The first website, Dfilm, allowed us to create scenes and characters and get a feel for animation. There was some content however that was inappropriate for the classroom and it is again a reminder that whilst the Internet is a excellent resource, there is also need to take great care in the websites we allow our students to access. Unfortunately in Dfilm i was one of the unlucky people that lost their work due to a technical error, and so no print screen is available to view.

Dfilm
http://www.dfilm.com/live/moviemaker.html

Build your wild self
http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

This website allows students to build a character using animal features. I really enjoy this activity as it allowed you to experiment and easily modify your character. I think the students would really enjoy using this site, and then they could even go on to write a narrative about the character they have created. Below is my attempt of building my wild self.



Sketch Swap
http://www.sketchswap.com/

Sketch swap enabled students to draw pictures using the mouse. I found it quite difficult to coordinate as you needed excellent mouse control to draw a good picture. Some of the pictures however that i received through sketch swap where excellent, and showed what a little practice can do! here is an example below.

The main concern with this website is that after submitting a picture, you receive a picture from an unknown user. In some instances i received a reply sketch which would not be appropriate for children. I did however find another website which offered a sketch pad, and you could use different colours to draw http://www.webtots.co.uk/.


Zimmer Twins
http://www.zimmertwins.com/movie/create

This animation website enable you to make a slide show movie. The good thing about this website is you have control of movements, voice and backgrounds for the characters. It is simple to use and easy to create a short movie.



Lego
http://www.reasonablyclever.com

This was a fun animation tool that allowed you to manipulate a Lego character. This is great for students as at a young age they are very involved with Lego, and i could see the students having a lot of fun with this creative website.


Story Games
http://www.storygames.com/TeachManPF/Rebus.html

This website has stories written using a combination of text and pictures. When i read some of the pre prepared stories, i actually found it quite challenging in that some words where in text, and then there was a picture to describe the next word. It made your mind think in a different ways because you were not just constantly reading, but you where translating the pictures into text. There is also the option of students coming up with their own stories, which i think would be fun for students as they could try and use as many pictures in their stories as possible.




Zip Tales
http://www.ziptales.com.au/

This website contained a number of activities that students can do with step by step instructions.

Plunging Parachute
A step by step guide to how to make it:




Towards the end of lesson, Greg asked us to switch off our computers so the screen was blank. Greg then dictated as we typed on our keyboards, unable to see what we were writing. I found this quite difficult as i am so use to seeing the characters on the screen. When we did turn our screens back on, we were able to see how many mistakes we had made. Interestingly enough, i am not a very good typist with the screen off! This would be a great test for students as it makes you think about the words and their spelling without being able to see them. Students these days have a big reliance on spell check.

This was my attempt below

I have a speelling checker
It came with my PC,
It plaienly marks with my review
Mistkkskes I can vnot see.

I strike a key and type and word
nd wait for it to say
Wherther I samt wrong or right
It shows me striaght a way.

All the websites we visited in this workshop were very creative and showed the vast resources available throughout the Internet. I will definitely be using these resources, but making sure to always keep in mind the importance to monitor the contents of these websites for the students safety.