Instructional Animation

Instructional Animation

I like it. I like it a lot. Not much more to say than that, now is there.
Why do I like it?
I like instructional animation because it is fun. It is fun to plan, to create, to watch and to share. As of this posting, I have not actually completed my 514 weekly homework assignment of creating two instructional animations. However, I have some experience doing such a task from last semester when I completed the 532 Moodle class. I created a few animations to go along with my Moodle theme which was "Teaching Preschoolers Basic Life Skills." I made an animation teaching about table manners and pedestrian safety. It took me about an hour or so to create each. The reason it took me this time was because I had to think about a particular topic, what I wanted to say and sort of come up with a mental script. Next I had to pick my setting and characters, then put it all together to type in what each one was going to say and do. This may seem a bit tedious, but the results were completely worth the time and effort.

Instructional Animations are fun and beneficial, in the classroom setting, because they require the individual to be creative. People have to be creative to make up an animation because the message that is being taught has to be completed in a short span of time. I know goAnimate's time frame is only 2 minutes. It requires the creator to really focus on the message and is forced to simplify as needed. Do you remember that article we read about what makes things "sticky"? Simplicity is one of those qualities. Simplicity forces the user to really be creative to get the idea across in a fun and entertaining manner.

In my classroom, with 18 three- and four-year olds, I need to be constantly moving and talking. It's a very active age and their attention spans are very limited. It is difficult to sit down and directly teach them many skills. They learn by doing and exploring, not by sitting and listening to teachers talk and lengthy explanations. The benefits of Instructional Animation is that to show them one and have them watch it would be like showing them a TV program. They will focus and pay attention because they do not know that they are being taught a lesson, they think it's just something fun to look at. It's bright and colorful and fast paced, all things that children are naturally attracted to.

Another benefit of Instructional Animation would be that the teacher could use it as an assignment for the students to work on either during class time or at home. This could work with older students (maybe 3rd grade and older). They could be assigned the task of (similar to our assignment) thinking of a topic to be taught and creating a script, then working on actually bringing that topic into fruition by use of animation. This brings a lot of important skills that students can learn and demonstrate their capability of. Creating a script is good for literacy skills, depending on the particular topic they can work on math, science, critical thinking or any subject skills.

Instructional Animation can have many benefits for teachers and for students. It can help the teachers explore a topic and the animation can make the lesson more"sticky." The teachers are using their creativity in a fun and exciting medium for the students to see and learn from. The students can also benefit not only from watching the animations but also from creating them on their own. Animations are fun and educational, who'd have thought those two ideas can go together?