Tag: animation

DomoNation

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on DomoNation4329 views

Picture 5

What it is: DomoNation is a free animation website that is powered by Go! Animate.  The site is very intuitive to use and makes impressive cartoon animations.  Students can create animations with backdrops, characters, dialogue, props, music, and special effects.  Students can create on scene or several to make up their animation.    The interface is very simple to learn, the drag and drop platform will be familiar to students.  To make their cartoon come to life, each character has a set of actions and emotions that can be added by clicking on the character and choosing from a drop down menu.  Special effects, such as weather occurrences or zooming, are simple to add to the project.  Animations can be saved for personal or public view on the DomoNation site. This is an impressive little web application that makes students the director of their very own movie.

How to integrate DomoNation into the classroom: Allow students to present their knowledge creatively using DomoNation instead of requiring the traditional report, diorama, or poster plastered with pictures and information.  Students can create an impressive alternative book report by creating an animated book talk, interviewing a character from the story, or re-creating an important scene in the story.  Students can display their knowledge about a historical figure by “interviewing” the historical person of interest or an eye-witness of a historical event.  DomoNation would be a great platform for creating public service announcements (how about the importance of hand washing with the H1N1 outbreak?) or short video commercials that persuade in a debate. Students can write a screen play and then transform it into an  animation. Animations are also a great way to illustrate vocabulary words and story problems in math.  In the foreign language classroom, students can create short cartoons practicing the new vocabulary they are learning.   The possibilities are endless!  Hold a DomoNation premier party day in your classroom so that students can watch each other’s finished animations and learn from their peers.

Tips: Direct your students to the Create page of DomoNation, some of the content created by other users may not be appropriate for your school.

Related Resources: Kerpoof, Shidonni, XtraNormal, DoInk

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using DomoNation in your classroom.

Xtranormal Text-to-Movie

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Xtranormal Text-to-Movie4549 views

What it is:  Xtranormal Text-to-Movie is another outstanding site that I learned about from @danreeve on Twitter.  This site lets students create and direct their own animated movies.  Students can choose a set, actors, and music for their videos.  Xtranormal allows students a huge amount of control of exactly how their movie will look, they can choose camera angles, animations, expressions, looks, points, and sounds.  The site is very intuative and user friendly for students in third grade (with a little guidance) and up.  I was able to create a movie without reading any instructions in about 5 min.

How to integrate Xtranormal into the classroom:  Xtranormal is a great way for students to express what they know creatively.  Students can use Xtranormal to create mocumentaries on any subject, students could interview historical figures, report on geographical occurances, or create public service announcements.  Xtranormal would be an excellent alternative to the traditional book report.  Students could interview one or several characters from the book or create a little review show about the book.  The Xtranormal interface is intuative enough that the focus will be on the learning, not on the tool.

 

Tips:  Xtranormal is a great way for students to create movies.  Many times schools are restricted from putting videos featuring students online, this is a great way for students to put their creations online without their actual picture being out there.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Xtranormal in your classroom.

Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime2243 views

What it is:   Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime is an incredible look into the life of Benjamin Franklin.  I learned about this awesome site from @kylepace on Twitter (a great educator to follow if you aren’t already).  Students can play, listen, watch, observe and have fun learning about Benjamin Franklin’s life and legacy.  Students can explore Franklin’s life by different  themes such as Franklin’s character, B. Franklin Printer, Franklin at Home, Doing Good, Franklin at Home, and World Stage.  This feature breaks Franklin’s life down into manageable pieces for students and provides a well rounded understanding of who Franklin was and why he is an important figure in American history.  As students explore the timeline, they will find quotes, stories, videos, and audio about Benjamin Franklin.  I wish there was an interactive timeline of every historical figure like this one!  History would have been so much easier for me to understand.

How to integrate Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime into the classroom:  This interactive timeline would be great for use with a whole class and Interactive whiteboard.  Students could take turns visiting the whiteboard to ‘discover’ a new fact about Benjamin Franklin.  Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime could be set up on classroom computers for students to visit as a center during a unit on Franklin.  In a computer lab setting, students could be assigned a theme or time period of Benjamin Franklin’s life to explore and share later with the class.  Make it even more fun by creating a time machine atmosphere where students can travel back in time to learn about Franklin…stamp their time travelling passports as they ‘journey’ from one period of Franklin’s life to another.  This site is an outstanding way to capture students interest in Franklin and American history. 

 

Tips:  Show students the help/tips section for a key to understanding the different symbols on Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Franklin’s Interactive Lifetime in your classroom.

DoInk

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on DoInk4811 views

 

What it is:  DoInk is an outstanding free illustration and animation creator.  The site has tools that are similar in feel and function to Adobe’s flash.   DoInk creates custom animations right inside your Internet browser.  There is an explore section where you and your students can get some inspiration for animations.  DoInk provides tutorials for illustrating and animating making it easy to get started.

How to integrate DoInk into the classroom:   Adobe products not in the budget?  DoInk is a fantastic alternative to Flash.  DoInk would be a great way to familiarize students with the basics of animation that will lead nicely into using more robust programs like Flash.  Allow students to create mini animations to demonstrate science concepts (think life cycles, rock cycles, water cycle, etc.).  Students can also create short animations to display an understanding of verbs.  Since verbs are action words, an animation is a great way to show the action.

 

Tips: DoInk requires registration with a username and password.  For elementary students, I find it helpful to create one class account where students can create.  This keeps you from having to keep track of a class full of login information.  It also makes it simple to keep track of student work.

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using DoInk  in your classroom.