I love Animoto! It is so easy to use and fun too! I’ve been trying to make more videos for my class and for my You Tube channel and have been stuck on Windows Media Player. But since I have really started using Animoto, it will be my go to movie creating platform for almost all my needs.
With Animoto, you choose a theme, upload pictures and videos, arrange them, add text slides, add music (there is music available or you can upload your own) and then you are done! Without an account you can create 30 second videos for free. But as an educator you can apply to get a “Plus” account for free. All it takes is filling out an online form with a legit school email. Now that I have a Plus account, I can make longer videos and basically have all the capabilities I need for the classroom!
The first Animoto I created this month was this one for our students’ “Wax Museum.” The post explaining the project is HERE. This Animoto combines still pictures of all the students in my class as well as video clips of each of their speeches on the night of the performance.
The only downside to this Cloud-Based program is that you can only have 10 seconds of video at a time. However, it forces you to choose only the most important pieces like what I did in the above Animoto. If you need to, you can duplicate a video and put 10 second clips of the same video back to back. That is what I did when making my Animoto and post “Skyping with Cybraryman.” And for the purposes and theme of the video, I think the effects it created were very fitting!
Just about 20 minutes ago, I decided to create one last Animoto for this post. This one is about Celebrating Patriots’ Day. Click the previous title for the post. It really only took me 20 minutes. (Of course I knew the location of all the photos and music I wanted.)
And, as you can see you can embed these movies into a webpage. So, if you have a class or school website, you can easily share it with your students, parents and communities. AND it is probably not blocked like You Tube possibly is. I can view these movies in my classroom, unlike other online video players.
At the writing of this post, these are the only Animotos I have created, however, this is only the beginning! I will be creating more.
So, what about you? Do you use Animoto yet or are you going to try it out? Let’s share here and spread the word about this great classroom resource!
~EMP
