Technology
Visual Literacy in dance and dance education
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Visual Literacy
Canva
Animoto
Smartboard
Photoshop
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Sammons Animoto video
Irving Animoto video
Mattmann Animoto video
Reflections on use of Animoto:
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"It took just over an hour to complete this assignment, but I believe I may have budgeted more time if I was creating a longer video and add more depth to each of the pieces that compromised the video. Considering my extreme verbosity, the only part of the process I became stuck on was the character limit for each caption or textbox. I needed way more characters!
I felt as though this was creative in a different way than we typically are asked to be creative. As teachers, often our creativity is poured out towards developing the highest quality materials, lessons, and choreography for our students. Otherwise, our creativity often goes to figuring out how to best interact with, communicate with, encourage, and push each of our students. However, this assignment was creative in that it asked us to take an inward look and be reflective about ourselves rather than towards others."
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"I believe the simplicity really spoke to me as a teacher most. I find it very effective to give information to students in a way that is short, sweet, and to the point. I believe Animoto could help make lessons fun and easy for my students. From the get go, users are given options from the first step of the process of style of video, then template, music options, and then of course the personalized additions (photos, text, and videos) did not stifle any creative thinking. I also like that it was easy to manipulate the order of the video and nothing was ever stuck in a position until I was ready to produce the video."
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"I could foresee using Animoto in multiple ways, including: Portfolio construction, Choreography sharing, Introduction activity and End of year reflection tool. The only issue I found with the program was lack of advanced features. The process to use Animoto is very simple, however, I often found myself wishing for features that could expound upon my best ideas. I was utilizing the trial program and I would need to research if the paid copy has more features."
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Animoto discussion to use:
Animoto-Morning Session Discussion Notes
Prompt: What are the critical components of making media?
-Must pre-plan, make an outline, or a checklist
-easy access and organization is important- naming is important
-time parameters, define the end game
-balance between audience perception and artist’s intent: the medium changes how it is contained, have to make sense of the aesthetic
-options sets us and out students up for success
-authenticity is important- holding off sharing until the “reveal”
-Be Clear, but flexible in your rubrics
-videos within a video are important and takes the audience to the desired location-use of voice over, text, and context of video
-timing of video, and finding the “sweet moments”
-quality of photos within the media, presentation/aesthetic is important
-use of media/technology makes exploring, creating, and repeating easy to do. It’s unlike other mediums, like painting, where starting over or editing are difficult or sometimes impossible.
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Smartboard discussion to use:
Difficult because of the learning curve, mac to PC issues
Felt it was interactive and great for review; would need or want more time to work with the application before presenting it to students so teacher feels comfortable with the application first
The use of different pens or images made the words and experience more exciting; felt like it brought it to the students’ level, as they always want more enticing images to connect to
The features of incorporating images and videos made it more exciting as a lesson; discussed how using well-planned and high quality images are just as important as the first day’s discussion (i.e. when choosing images for the Animoto project).
Realized that the teacher needs to remember how the lesson is going to look displayed on a large board, not just the computer screen. Felt more exciting when the students got to interact with the board.
Discussed how we would not just jump into using the Smartboard, but set parameters for how it is used in the classroom. Make sure that students care for the board and its equipment, share/take turns, make quick transitions, practice those procedures altogether in class many times.
Question about using video or other items on board during an independent work time; would students bombard the board and all try to use it at once? Do they fight over whose turn it is? How do you approach the use of the board during a rotational time like this? Referred back to the set-up of procedures being key to this.
Other similar technology being use: E-beams and Prometheus boards as alternatives. The large cost and large amount of space for the board could be prohibitive to some teachers. Some teachers’ spaces do not allow for a piece of technology like this or would not be supported; some teachers felt strongly to have one just like a core teacher. Mentioned that having more training on using and incorporating this technology in undergraduate work or in regular coursework would feel more beneficial; creating lesson plans with this technology in mind would be helpful for the future.