Making short videos with Animoto is a great way for a teacher to introduce themselves at the start of the school year. It could be used to inspire learning at the start of a project, making school greetings cards, sharing information about events towards autumn such as Harvest Festival and bonfire night, or later – e.g. the plays and carol service at Christmas time.
It also has a free Classroom Video Maker where a teacher can sign a whole class up:
“Animoto is a free classroom tool for educators, students, and administrators. Easily create and share videos with your class, with parents, and beyond. No software downloads required.” (Animoto)
Students are allowed to create unlimited videos on their free accounts. A couple of the suggested ideas are a book trailer and important dates for this week – a class diary.
There is a step-by-step guide for teachers and schools for setting up student accounts in the education frequently asked questions page. There is an app for iPads – iOS App which is rated from 4 years old upwards.
There is lots of help and support on their website but the following is a video explaining how to do all sorts.
Making short videos with Animoto seems a great way to add a sparkle to creativity – how about getting children to take a photo of every piece of artwork during a school year, then producing a video showing all of them? It is something that children could keep forever.
