I used GoAnimate for my digital story telling, to create an assignment for my course, Test Taking Skill Development. Click here for digital story telling.
The assignment is for students to create a digital story to show what they learn about Multiple Intelligences. Each student’s story will be about how Multiple Intelligences affect how their learning, and test taking ability. Students will research a famous person with the same intelligence, and reflect on that person’s accomplishments through digital story telling. This digital tool has been used by my students, and has become a preferred method by them for creating presentations and story telling. I have used this technology multiple times for presentations; it allows for customization of presentations through the use of various themes, characters, backgrounds, props, and even the addition of voice by microphone, or using the text-to-speech function. This digital tool is an effective way to present a digital story, because it allows the creator to utilize and integrate the 7 Elements of Digital Storytelling;
- Point of View
- Dramatic Question
- Emotional Content
- The Gift of your Voice
- The Power of the Soundtrack
- Economy
- Pacing.
(Robin, B., 2015).
The relation between these elements and the tools within GoAnimate are listed below. Additionally, it allows students to become creators of content, instead of only being consumers. As a creator of digital stories, using the digital tool GoAnimate, here are the advantages and disadvantages of using this technology for Digital Storytelling:
Affordances:
- Multiple types of accounts are available to suit each person’s personal needs
- The finished product can be uploaded on external sites such as YouTube for viewing (depending on the account). Free accounts allow for uploads unto Google plus
- Images can be imported into the library to allow for further customization of presentations (Element #4)
- There are a variety of themes and props available
- Users can change the skin colour of characters, allowing for choice and diversity (Element #4)
- The large variety of tools within GoAnimate allow for individualization, such that no two products are the same (Element #1)
- Enter and exit motions can be applied to text, characters, etc. to allow for more interesting transitions
- A large variety of music and soundtracks is available for use in presentations (Element #5)
- The use of characters allows for the personalization of the digital story (Element #4)
- The use of both written words and audio allow for in depth presentations, that are still concise (Element #6)
- Users can adjust the lengths of slides based on the amount of content within that slide (Element #7)
- Creators can further personalize their presentations by adding their own voices to the audio (Element #2)
- The platform is very user friendly, and flexible enough to allow creators to have specific, individualized content (i.e. presentations can be made on a diverse and wide range of topics using this digital tool, allowing each presenter to have control over what they present, and how they present it) (Element #3)
- Allows the digital story to unfold frame by frame, at the creator’s discretion (Element #2)
Limitations:
- Cutting and pasting information into Goanimate can be difficult
- The range of motion for the characters can be a distraction sometimes
- The amount of motion that can be placed on the slide is restricted for characters and props
- It can be difficult to customize music to allow for seamless scene transitions
- Student accounts have time limits on their presentations, which constricts their creativity
- Upgrading to a higher level account requires money, and may not be feasible for students
- Some content is restricted to higher accounts
References:
Robin, B. (2015). The 7 Elements of Digital Storytelling. The Educational Uses of
Digital Storytelling Website University of Houston College of Education.
Retrieved from http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=27&cid=27