On Monday my group and I created an animation, which related to our chosen topic of 'People Who Help Us'. There wasn't any new plasticine therefore we had to use plasticine people had used before to create their own models. This was useful because it meant we did not have to spend lots of time creating new models, instead we adapted models to suit our requirements for our animation. We decided that our animation would include various scenes on the various people who help us and situations in which they help us. By looking at the various models in the box, we were able to come up with a variety of characters and situations. We all worked well together to adapt the models and ensure everything we needed for our animation was ready. A member of the group collected paper from the Art cupboard, which we used for our backgrounds. One member took up the role of operating the computer while the rest of us set up the scenes and moved the characters and cameras. The process of filming was very time consuming because it required the characters and objects to move very slowly to ensure the animation looked fluid. We took it in turns to move the characters although found it worked better if one person did it at a time because they knew how far to move it. Communication within the group was vital in ensuring the success of our animation. As a group we worked well to communicate who was moving what and where it should be moved. Unfortunately the communication between the members of the group moving the models and the member operating the computer was not effective. This was due to them thinking the scene was ready to record so would start recording but would end up recording someone's hand in the background. As a group, we should have stated when we were ready for the recording to begin and stated when the recording was going to begin and finish. As a result of this we had a few hand shots in our animation. We ran out of time so only got to shoot two different scenes but managed to add a bit on the end introducing other people who help us. Upon reflection I think we should have managed our time better. We did not have enough time to create our own sound effects therefore had to use the ones we were provided with on the software. I benefited from this activity because it gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of how to use the software and what strategies need to be adopted in order for the animation to be successful. As a result of this experience, I now feel more confident to teach this lesson to a class.
People Who Help Us Animation
I really enjoyed you animation which shows how much you have developed from doing this in BEd 1.
ReplyDeleteNow it is time to stop telling a story and trying to be a little more reflective with links to websites or readings.
You talk a great deal about the collaborative aspect of creating an animation and how you need to work together - go and find some readings related to this to strengthen what you are saying.
You mention the skills you need to do an animation - can you maybe relate this to how you need to teach these skills to children. How would you do it?
You tip for the week is to be more critically reflective with links to theory or pedagogy in classroom.
You have discussed team working and the need for good communication. It would be benefical if you could find some literature on collaborative working.
ReplyDeleteAnimation does take a lot of time, effort and management and organisation when working collaboratively. Your final product looks good and shows you are all now skilled in the ICT aspect that creativity can now take over.
ReplyDeleteI do believe you need to start bringing you posts up another level.
What I would like you now to do when you are writing a blog post that looks back a a process is to use the following methods:
1. Describe - this is where you tell the readers what you did. A simple description of the task. Why were you doing this task? What was the learning outcome? Where did it fit into CfE?
2. Reflect - this is where you look at what you did and tell us what happened or did not happen. What were the problems? What were the successes?
3. Evaluate - this is where you will reflect on the process from your own personal development and how you could use with children.
In the above you should provide links to websites and have at least ONE reading reference to support your reflections.
I have written a post on my blog related to the above process that might help.
I also suggest you start looking at books related to collaborative working. I suggest LAve and Wenger's Communities of Practice. Have a look through this and create a post reflecting on what you gain from the book. Their books are not easy so you need to be selective in what you read and do not read the whole book.
You have given a detailed description of what you did and reflected a little on the communication between the members of the group.You need to reflect more on the tools you are using and how these might be used in school. With regards to the communication look at the material I gave you on Monday 7th Feb on Cooperative Learning.
ReplyDelete