Classroom Resources

I always try to use technology in my classroom and after creating the Animoto video I understand how easy it is now for students to be able to make a video.  The tools in Animoto allow very easy access to create a video about any subject.  I think using this tool in my classroom for things such as book reviews, parent meetings, the beginning of the year, or even an end of the year video would be a great experience for the students in my classroom.  I do believe my 3^rd graders may need a little more assistance since I was having a few technical difficulties myself especially with adding the music.  I tried to insert my own music but it was not allowing me.  However, overall this was a very easy tool to use and incorporate into the classroom.

Since I could not enter my own music into the Animoto video I then tried Free Play Music.  It was very easy to access the music on this site.  However, it was a little hard to find a song that I felt was just right for my video.  I did enjoy being able to look in different categories such as pop, dance, country, and so on.  This allowed me to search for that perfect song a little quicker.  When it came time to saving the song onto my computer I thought it was a very easy experience and went very quickly.

                I had never used Picnik before but it was a great resource to edit photos.  I had a lot of fun messing around with the different tool they had to change and edit my pictures.  I really enjoyed changing one of my own personal pictures of a pasture into sepia.  It added a new aspect to the photo it didn’t have before.  Another picture I changed was a photo of a beach.  I did the auto enhancing tool and the colors just popped out so much more.  I also thought it was extremely easy to change my photos using Picnik and then enter them into my video in Animoto.

                Overall, using all of these tools was an excellent learning experience.  I could see myself incorporating all of these tools into my classroom.