Animoto: Stunning Video Slideshows

What is it?

As those who follow my class blog know, I love making videos with students. However, the preparation, filming, editing, and processing can be extremely time consuming. As educators, we know there just isn’t enough time in the day. So, when I don’t have the appropriate time needed, I turn to Animoto. Animoto makes creating videos easy as all you have to do is import pictures and videos and then Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology acts as the director and editor and does the rest! Then, all you have to do is choose the music, either from their extensive catalog or upload your own, and Animoto will complete your video for you. From there, you have the opportunity to share your video by Facebook, Twitter, a link, email, or embedding it in a site. All of this is very simple to do and would be great to share a class event or for students to use to create a video to accompany a project they’ve done.

As an educator, you can apply for a free Plus plan on Animoto. The Plus plan gives you unlimited full-length videos. Their regular free plan, the Lite plan, only allows 30 second videos. Also, with the Lite plan, you are unable to download the videos where as with the Plus plan, you can download any videos you create. This is great for any school that have some sites blocked or have limited internet access! Once you have been approved for an educator account, they will give you a code that you can use to apply to up to 50 student accounts so they may also have a Plus plan. It makes it a great free tool that every classroom should have!

Video Tutorials

Below, you’ll find four different video tutorials. The first video will teach you how to sign up for a free educator account. You can get to the educator application by clicking here. The next two videos will share how to use Animoto. It will walk you through how to upload images and videos, either straight from your computer or by syncing it with sites such as Flickr, Facebook, or Photobucket. They’ll also show you how to add text, highlight photos or videos, and choose music. The final video will show what you can do with your video once completed, including different ways to share it and how to download it to your computer.

In any videos where I show you how to choose music, an example Animoto, or a finished Animoto, you will not be able to hear the music because I had a headset on. The music works though!

Examples

We’ve used Animoto to share special events and projects that we’ve done in class. In the future, I plan to have student use Animoto to create their own videos for different projects that we’ll be working on. Below, you can find a couple examples of how we’ve used Animoto. The first highlights when we created our own kites as part of Jonah Salsich’s Kites Around the World project. The second Animoto is from when students had the opportunity to work with a giant map.

Application in Class

Animoto is a great tool to use in class. It’s a pretty basic tool so there isn’t a large learning curve to it. This opens it up to those of all ages, from younger students to any teachers. As mentioned previously, it’s a great way to share a different event at school, whether it’s a field trip, a project, or something involving parents.

Students could use Animoto for a variety of projects. You could have them research a plant, animal, state, or country. Students could find acceptable use images, add them in and share information about them. You could also have students narrate a story. Have them draw pictures on a website (that you can save images with) or paper (scan the images in). Then, students could record their story in an audio file that could be uploaded as music. It’d really bring their story to life! In math, students could create number stories. They could draw images that go along with it. They could use the text feature to share the steps in solving the problem.

There is also an Animoto app for Apple iOS. If you have an iPod Touches or iPads in your classroom, this opens up even more opportunities to use Animoto. Best of all, it’s free! No matter what platform you use, I highly recommend you give Animoto a try!

Resources and Links

*How have you used Animoto?*

*How do you hope to use it in the future?*