Time Travel

That time of year again... time to turn back the clocks. Although we don’t change time within our time zone, I couldn’t help imagining turning my clock back a year.  At that time, my only experience with presentation and multimedia tools was Power Point. Granted this was (and still is) a useful tool for presenting information, my explorations through my courses have brought me into the present day and have helped me realize that there are a multititude of other online presentation and multimedia tools available.

Wikipedia defines multimedia as “media and content that uses a combination of different content forms”. It continues to point out that these forms may include “text, audio, still images, animation, video and interactivity content forms”. While a multimedia presentation may be either live or recorded, I questioned whether there was a term specifically for web-based multimedia tools. Most of my digging led me to the term “mash-ups”, which “combine and integrate information from two or more sources into one new information form” (McPherson, 2008, p. 73). Although this concept of “mashing” seems to have originated from the idea of combining two pieces of music together to form one new song, it seems fitting in this context as well. Two such mashups which I have been anxious to peruse are ones that I have either heard fellow classmates promote or have seen integrated into projects.  They are those of Animoto and Glogster.

Time to Play

Not really knowing what to expect when I opened the site (Animoto – animated?), I was quickly brought up to speed with an immediate description that appeared on their home page... “produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips and music. It's fast, free and shockingly easy”. Shockingly easy? Considering my technological (in)abilities, I was anxious to check this one out. Just out of curiosity though, I first searched for some sample Animoto video clips. After browsing a few, I then stumbled across this one that captured the essence of “Animoto in 60 Seconds”...



Returning to the home page, I proceeded to sign up and familiarized myself with the scope of the site. Thinking that I could compare my experience creating a “slideshow” using Smilebox, I decided to use the same photos. My first step was to choose a style/background for my clip. Done. Next I uploaded photos from My Pictures. Done, well took a couple of minutes. Then I was to select music. After browsing through the samples they provided and not finding just the right one, I decided to check out CCMixter. org for more copyright free music samples. Once that song was inserted, I was pleasantly surprised that I could edit the song so that it would start at the precise moment of my choosing. At this point, I think that Keith McPherson (2008) captures it best; “upon finishing, the Animoto application creates a video-montage that presents your images at a speed paralleling the tempo of your music or sound file, while adding video motion indicative of a professionally produced video”. (p. 73). Pretty cool. So... Fast? Reasonably. Easy? Yes, I must agree that even for the technologically challenged, the creation of an Animoto video montage was quite easy.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

And then came the much anticipated Glogster... a very creative name for a creative means of making a “poster or web page, containing multimedia elements including text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings and data”. On the few occasions that I saw Glogster creations, I was impressed with their visual appeal, their creative opportunities and their ability to link to other web pages. I thought this would be a good chance to make a decorative “home page” for the wiki I had just created, Wildlife of Our Region. Once I registered for an account, I wasn’t prepared for the experience I was about to encounter... the term ‘play’ certainly took on new meaning. From the get go, you have many choices of ‘tools’ that you may simply drag and drop from the magnetic tool bar into your glog. From images to graphics to text, you can even manipulate the settings within each of these tools. Once I figured out how to connect to links, I proceeded to set these up as well. After positioning the tools, I decided to preview my glog. It wasn’t until this time that I realized because I had repositioned some of the tools, the animated links were not in the right place. Because I was not able to figure how to change these settings, I decided to redo the glog and made sure to attach links only after everything was in place.

Time to Reflect

Unlike the slideshow I prepared through Smilebox, Animoto offered a production that was more video-like and “sport[ed] visual effects similar to that found in MTV videos or movie trailers” (McPherson, 2008, p. 73). I can see using this tool to help create clips for family viewing pleasure and also greetings to send to family and friends on special occasions.

McPherson (2008,) provides some good examples of how Animoto may engage students’ learning and help develop skills in the classroom setting:

• expands literacy concepts and communication practices beyond just that of reading and writing
• develops online social skills including sharing multimedia communications to a much wider audience
• introduces new learning and communication processes and skills reflective of existing and future Web 2.0 social communication and learning software (p. 74)

When browsing sample educational Animoto productions, I instinctively thought of a project we are currently undertaking which involves phototaking and writing in efforts to create a Photo Essay. Knowing the students will be taking photos over the course of a few months, I’m thinking that at the completion of the project, they could create a video-montage of self-selected photos that reflect their journey and the progressions they made. Their end products could then be displayed on a class blog for all to view and enjoy! As with any other Web 2.0 tool, before I were to implement this in my classroom, I would explore the privacy/pubic issues that may come from publishing online.

Similarly with Glogster, I can see where inviting students to showcase their learning through the creation of a glog would not only get them excited about sharing their knowledge but will expand their presentation skills and will inspire them to be creative. I’ve been looking for an idea on how the students may prepare a book report... and I think I’ve just found it! As presented in an article by John Wylie (2010), I am anxious to further explore the option of creating a Glogter EDU account intended for teachers and students. I was thinking students would be able to access each others’ glogs but it seems with this account, only the teacher and student are privy to the glog until it is formally published. This would also make for an excellent demonstration of learning and may be easily displayed on a class blog.

In the words of Will Richardson (2009), “the simple fact is that it has become much easier to create and consume multimedia as well as text and digital images” (p. 110). With this in mind, it’s hard to imagine what the future will bring in terms of multimedia tools and opportunities they may provide. But by helping students develop the “mashing” skills of today, we “will help establish a solid base of new literacy skills from which students’ can learn to effectively and safely use communication technologies of their future” (McPherson, 2008, p. 75).


References

McPherson, K.  (2008, June).  Mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian (35) 5, pp. 73-75.

Richardson, W. (2009).  Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Corwin.

Wylie, J.  (2010).  Using Glogster in the Classroom.  Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/57951.aspx