Animation!

Here is the video animation me and Kirsten made during a previous input.
As I have stated before, the patience it takes to make the video is very important. I find that this patience is sometimes lost on me as I personally prefer instant results however I do feel that looking back at my experience and the end product of it is very enjoyable and I feel that I have not only learned to be more patient but I have reflected on ho I would use this in my own teaching. I think that some people would respond to this activity the same way I did whereas others would appreciate the experience. Paying close attention to detail is a process certain people enjoy. Knowing whether a class would enjoy this comes with knowing the pupils. If I were to use this in education I would set the time frame for the activity at a rate which would suit my own class. We completed the animation in just a few hours as we were only testing and learning the processes ourselves. teaching this to children could become a mini topic which splits each aspect of the task up so completion of smaller tasks could be achievements in themselves. This could be expanded to blogging as each activity could be documented and blogged about e.g. taking pictures of plasticine characters, practicing with the Digital Blue camera technology and the final movies as well as taking pictures of the children during the process. Pupils could also reflect in the blog about how they found the activity. This would help them reflect on their own learning experience by self-assessing and inform the teacher's practice.

During the animation process I feel that the pupils would be working towards the Curriculum for Excellence outcome;
I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.

TCH 2-04b

I feel that I have enhanced my skills in this area as well as practicing the skills involved in the Curriculum for Excellence outcome;

Using appropriate software, I can work individually or collaboratively to design and implement a game, animation or other application.

TCH 3-09a

ICT Input 3 - Animation :(

As our groups, and therefore topic for our wiki, changed during the last input we decided to use the theme of healthy eating.
Because of this, our animation was based on health.
In my first blog I spoke about animation and how much I despise it! I don't have the patience for the constant clicking and I'm not really great at the art involved in making the models!
Me and Kirsten were the only people in the group and we worked well together, however we were both getting frustrated with the clicking and moving of the animation. The background was constantly moving and when we watched it back our hands were still in the shot! We re-shot a lot of the video and when we were finally finished, I didn't feel much achievement as there was only around 20 seconds of video!!
I think this could be used with a class but over a longer period of time and with more pupils in a group. I think if this was spread out into a project for pupils they would enjoy it as they would invest time and have a strong sense of ownership on the final product.
I took Sharon's advice to keep it simple but with my lack of patience for this activity I spent the three hours frustrated!!

Introduction to ICT (2CM8)

I chose ICT as my elective as I enjoyed the previous inputs, especially the games based learning and movie making. I'm looking forward to trying out these aspects of the module.
In the first workshop of the ICT elective, our class was given an overview of the activities we will be participating in this semester.
We made wikis and began our blogs. I have experience of wikis from the modern languages input last year and will hopefully further my knowledge of them as the module goes on.
Blogging is something I've never done before so I'm interested in the new experience and predict that from this experience I will learn the benefits blogging can have within the classroom.
We teamed up with the modern languages elective class and formed our working groups in which we will be movie making. Our group has 2 modern language students and 3 students from ICT. I'm glad that the numbers turned out this way as I'm keen to edit the movies we'll be making but feel that I don't have a full enough understanding to take on the ICT aspect on my own.
During the workshop Collette spoke about the negative relationships of some of the groups from other years. This has made me wary of the fact that I don't know two of the members of my group and haven't met them yet as they were both absent. I hope our group can work together well, it seems to be working so far as we started thinking of ideas for our movie together.
Combining modern languages and ICT has complicated the task as our group has French and German students so the topic must include both. Thinking of a topic which can include all five of us and cultural aspects of France and Germany was hard. We came up with 'Paris to Berlin' and had rough ideas of what to include in the video but will need a lot more input for perfection!
I'm looking forward to the Strictly Come Movies as it's an example of active learning and also sounds fun. I think that the Smartboard and Promethean training will help me use these resources to their full ability in a classroom and the bear journey is a great activity!
I think over the module I will struggle with the animation as last year I lost patience with the endless clicking!