Rock the Vote!
(click on this to see my Animoto)
After I learned to use Animoto, I was wracking my brain to come up with a relevant example that would be a powerful 30 second visual argument. The midterm election was the next day, and I was concerned that my students would not vote. After all, in my first posting I discussed the importance of having a voice in this democracy, so I came up with this idea, took my camera to school and twisted a few arms. In about an hour, I assembled this sample visual argument that I could use in class the next day. I was really excited, and immediately, my mind was flooded with ideas about how this tool could be used.
The next day I collected a bunch of images that made an argument: a mylar smiley face balloon, a poster persuading students to take a Jane Austin literature class, a poster persuading students to collect books for African orphans, another persuading students to attend an art show, and several brochures and booklets persuading students to engage in activities of various social agencies. I put these up around the room and asked students to explain how the elements of each sought to persuade the viewer. Which were effective? Why? To what interests did they appeal? We discussed images, text, color, arrangement. Then I introduced Animoto, taught the class how to make one, and showed my example. I asked them to plan a visual argument Animoto as a group using a wiki to select a theme, collect images and find statistics, quotes or words that supported the argument. I advised them to fool around with making an experimental Animoto first to get the feel of the tool. Finally, I assigned in individual argument Animoto. The group and individual Animoto are to be posted in their portfolio. They are to write an introduction for each, which will take the form of a rhetorical analysis.
I can't wait to see what we create!
I love the way you introduced your Animoto activity. I'm glad you were able to use it in your class. As I mentioned to you, I really wanted to use it in my class, but it didn't seem to make sense to use it when it didn't work for me. I also questioned whether I wanted to force students to set up an account for photographs. When I originally planned the Animoto activity, I thought it would be okay to do with more than one student, as there would surely be at least one student in the group with a digital camera and/or photos on a website somewhere. I'm interested in hearing about the results of this assignment.
ReplyDeleteHi Marian! Thanks for the comments. To answer some of your concerns, the second time I made an Animoto, I uploaded my pictures directly using tools provided by Animoto, but one of my students pointed out that we could use Picasa, a Google application listed under "more". I am glad to learn that for next semester. I haven't yet learned to use video, but when I do, we can use the little flip recorders Neil has with our classes. I think he has about 10, so a class could do this in groups.
ReplyDeleteAh-ha! Picasa. That might make things a little easier, seeing that students would not have to make up new user names or passwords (I'm assuming for what is just another Google app. I want to know where the students went to add words to their photos. I wonder if photos from PowerPoint presentations could be used? Oh, well, I think I'll be playing with this over the break. When it comes to a visual argument, though, I think I'd rather have the students stick with images, with only words on one or two photos (as in the example I saw on Animoto).
ReplyDelete