OK, so my first attempt at digital story telling was not very successful.. I was impressed with some of my classmates successes with Animoto so I thought I would give it a try.
I teach faculty how to use our Learning Management System, FanshaweOnline (FOL) a Desire2Learn product. I thought I would try Animoto.com to find a more entertaining way to show “how to” instructions
How to View a Section from a Multi-Section FOL Course
a quick video on how to see individual sections in a multi-section FOL course
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
‘How to’ steps and instructions are hard to keep short and sweet. Usually an educator wants to show the user/student all possible ways of doing the same thing, while the user is just looking for a way to do the task… the quickest and easiest way. The 30 second restriction of Animoto keeps the steps moving while offering the ability to pause, rewind and play as often as possible. The music/sound is entertaining but not necessary. Sound is not available on all college workstations so I can’t rely on sound to get my story across. A couple of images were dropped as was a couple of text frames but it seems to work out alright. I am interested to see how the profs react.
It will be fun to create a set of small videos on how to use FOL.
Upon further reflection and due to some peer feedback, I would not use this tool to teach ‘How to’s”. One of my peers noted that it is hard to read the text and the presentation is too fast. Unfortunately I can’t control the speed of the transitions or what transitions were used.. although I think if I chose a slower song it slows down everything but then I will lose some slides. This presentation would be good as an introduction to a lesson.. like a teaser for a movie… it could get the students interested and motivated.
I would teach the lesson and then use the presentation as a reminder or recall device.