Ready, get set, animate
Sujata C
These are exciting times to be a teacher. Technology has made sweeping changes in the way we teach and learn. A very competitive world lies ahead for our children and it is important that what they learn in school is impactful and long lasting. Educational methodologies continue to evolve with new technology coming in and teachers must make the most of digital technologies available to them in order to do justice to their profession.
I see, I remember: We know how valuable visual aids are to learning. Research has proven that visual processing comes easily to the brain since most of it occurs in the frontal cortex which is dedicated to vision. Animation goes a step further; as Walt Disney said, it can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.
Children love animated cartoon shows. They easily grasp the entire story plot and replay it with their friends long after they have seen the show. Animation is one of the factors that aids comprehension and recall, according to experts. Research also shows that children learn best when they are enjoying themselves. It is logical then to believe that animated lessons make for deep learning. Animation also comes in as a handy tool when you have a difficult topic to teach.
How you design the lesson and the learning experience makes the difference. High quality education curriculum is being delivered by international schools. The learning is interactive, practical and application based. But not all schools have the infrastructure to support the delivery of high quality education and many teachers may feel deprived – like a child staring at a shop full of yummy delicacies and not being able to eat any of them.
Luckily, software development has advanced so rapidly in the last decade that animation is no longer a resource of Hollywood filmmakers. It is within the reach of every interested user. There is an urgent need for teachers to get into the learning mode and upskill themselves in order to stay relevant to the times. How about some capacity building during the summer break? Replace that chalk and duster with the mouse and keypad.
But why should I have to create my own videos, some of you might ask. Many teachers may be reluctant to try something new because they are afraid of the steep learning curve. Technology is always advancing much faster than us and it takes some effort to keep up with it; those who have an open mind and are not afraid of failure are the ones who end up winning. If you embrace technology, you can grow with it and win with it.
Like any other teaching tool, animation works for any subject. You can add to this list.
Animation and the science teacher can’t do without one another. Check out this link to see how some educators have used animation to work for them. http://www.explania.com/en/channels/health/detail/the-human-heart
Animation is great for explaining concepts that are not visible to the eye like photosynthesis, earthquakes, weather systems, etc.
When the geometry lessons are on, animation can come to the rescue of the maths teacher. This link – http://clickschooling.com/ has a great interactive game and helps students with spatial and geometric skills, for example, bisecting an angle, making a parallelogram, finding the midpoint of a line segment, centre of a triangle, centre of a circle, convergence point of three line segments and so on.
To find out how an animated video explains global warming check this link: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview-interactive/
Time to upskill: Now that you get the idea of the possibilities of learning with animation, the next step is to empower yourself. There are many open source animation tools available for free nowadays. You can use these to create small bite sized videos to explain a difficult concept or to drive home a point with force.
Powtoons is great for project based learning, according to some teachers who have used it. It is believed to be so easy to use, even the student can do it himself. This video called Green human project is believed to have been made by an eight year old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaKV3GkOsM M&feature=youtu.be
GoAnimate for Schools helps you make animated videos in the classroom. This too is user friendly software that can be used both by teachers and students. It could be a good tool for assignments. Some of the other free/Open Source animation software in 2D Animation are listed below with an outline of the features. You Tube tutorials are available for most of them. If not, you can take a demo that comes with the software to get familiar with it.
Pencil 2D
Pencil 2D is a software that gives you realistic results. It can be used on many operating systems – Windows, Linux and Mac. It has so many tools and features to aid you that you’ll wonder how they made it free software. You can use both vector graphics and bitmaps. But it also comes with illustration tools of its own, so you can either import graphics or create them and then animate them.
Synfig Studios
Synfig Studio is similar to Pencil 2D and can be used on various OS like Windows, Linux and Mac.
There are some additional features in Synfig which you have to figure out a bit before you can start using them. But don’t get put off because you have to put in some extra effort, the results will be quite superior and will make you feel real good with the final product.
Stykz
Stykz works on Windows, Mac and Linux. At the outset it appears as a very basic tool for stickman figures, but the good thing is it integrates with Pivot which is another free animation tool. It can make GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format) real quick. It rates high on usability and functionality.
CreaToon
CreaToons works only on Windows and is entry level animation software. Some of the useful features in it are real time editing, auto in frame filling and variety of file formats support.
Ajax Animator
Ajax can be used on Windows, Mac and iPad but is particularly popular with iPad users. It is a robust and fully functional software. Appearance wise it has a rather basic and functional look but makes good with its functionalities.
For those of you who feel really adventurous thereare free open source 3D animation software available. The best of them include Blender, Bryce, DAZ Studio and Clara.
Steps to make an animated video:
Now that you know what software is available, let’s go through the steps involved in developing a simple video:
- Start with an outline of the topic.
- Know your audience – grade level, language that’s easily understood.
- Write the script. Set it in a real world scenario. Keep the tone conversational and informal.
- Make a storyboard – what visuals go with each bit of the script.
- Record the narration – Stick to the script and don’t try extempore. Keep the pace and voice easy and the diction clear. A bad narration can mess up a good video. Record once and listen to it to know if you are eating up the words. Modulate your voice where needed, add emotion and excitement.
- Get the sound effects and music – There are many royalty free tracks available to provide the background score to your video. But of course there is nothing like making your own music. You can rope in the music teacher here to play a track on an instrument. Prepare a scratch track first and get feedback on how it sounds.
- Mix the audio and the video – this is where your computer teacher plays a lead role.
- Publish
- Play it for a review and tweak where necessary
- Play it for the students and take a bow!!
Nothing works like teamwork: None of us is as good as the team we are on. It takes many heads to produce good work. Besides, it is not realistic to expect one teacher to single-handedly produce an educational video clip. Collaborative approach works best, so pool your resources. Enlist the help of the music teacher, the language teacher, the arts teacher, the computer teacher apart from the subject teacher. Sit down and brainstorm together, throw up ideas, prepare the artworks, and get going!
Once you have a working group that specializes on animated videos, you can always get together to produce new videos.
School education is highly competitive with no place for laziness. You have to make every lesson you teach count. School managements must take the initiative to send their teachers for skill upgradation and programs every year during the annual break, because at the end of the day, teachers to a large extent are responsible for the quality of learning. Such capacity building initiatives are essential to strengthen the learning system of the school and make teachers active stakeholders in the mission of the school and the lives of their students.
The author is a freelance writer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at sujata117@gmail.com.
