The challenges facing education systems and educators continue to intensify. In modern knowledge-based economies, where the demand for high-level skills continues to grow substantially, the task in many countries is to transform traditional models of schooling.
Having watched all of my classmates animations, I decided to evaluate Rhian's 'Solution no Pollution'
Firstly, I can see that her catchy title justified the whole animation, though without it, the powerful meaning was still portrayed through all the other aspects. The use of sound effects were outstanding against the Ed Sheeran number, creating a perfect balance rather than overpowering. Her simplicity of using paper is deceiving. The calculation, technical precision, timing and creativity of the piece showed upmost skill. Even though this is commonly expressed issue, I feel that Rhian's animation, through talent and patience, was freshly unique and by no means amateur. My only criticism is that it could have been a little longer, with a change of scenery. My favourite animation of the morning. Visit Rhian's Blog
As part of our assignment for this element of Education Studies, we were given the task of making an engaging animation of our choice, that sent a clear message of a contemporary issue to the viewer.
Initially, I started to research the different avenues and processes that are involved when making an animation. I experimented with both Audacity, Zu3D and Apple's 'Stop Motion' to get a feel of how these programmes operated. Alongside this experimentation, I spent time on YouTube researching already made animations to see what sort of issues were effectively demonstrated through animation.
The below video is the result of my experimentation.
The above animation was my attempt at portraying the Bible's 'Good Samaritan' using lego figures and a Pepper Pig toy. During this experimental phase, I learnt quite a bit about camera angles, lighting and even the editing process. However, Sam White contacted me shortly after and after sharing our ideas, we decided to collaborate therefore I scrapped the notion of Lego. After my initial research gathering inspiration and ideas from the Internet, I decided to create a spider diagram of the different contemporary issues (old and new) and also the various methods of animation. Here is the spider-diagram;
After this planning we decided to take the concept of Globalisation and Global Conflict and Resolution, and attempt to display this using the stop-motion animation technique. From the word go, Sam had this idea of using little plasticine balls that would conflict with one another, and then eventually merge together to form Planet Earth. We found that using symbolic balls as apposed to people or animals were a lot more efficient as we only had to worry about keeping them in shape.
Storyboard and Context Intro- Creative scrunched up ball that rolls in and displays the title Beginning - The blue ball and the green ball take it in turns to collide with one another, like an old Charlie Chaplin comedy. They bounce off one another and flatten each other. Ideas emerged of sound effects that would include; giggling, oi!, ouch! very much like the old 90's game Worms. Middle - Introduction of two 'armies' that confront and eventually collide in a Roman fashion. Two of the balls would stick together. Ideas emerged of incorporating famous speeches such as Winston Churchill's 'Fight them on the beaches' before the battle.
End - Conflict Resolution as all the balls realise two specific blue and green balls are stuck together. All the balls pile upon each other and make up Planet Earth. Surrender flags (also from the game Worms) appear from the planet to show Peace and Realisation. Production: Methods and Complications The filming and production of our Animation took place on a Friday, at Sam's house. We spent time experimenting with different locations around his home such as the Kitchen work top, a wooden floor and finally Sam's desk. Firstly, we gathered our materials which included;
Blue and Green Plasticine
Cutting equipment, chopping board and a knife
Apple Mobile device fitted with 'Stop Motion'
Several Lamps
Memory Sticks and Paper Clips that were later used as markers
A wooden box, with masking taped chop sticks as a prop. (Note: Getting the right angle, and maintaining stability was a major issue, though finally overcome this issue) Initially, I proposed that we film the animation directly from above, although this would have given us less space to work with. So Sam suggested that we shoot from an outside angle to gain more of a perspective.
Image 1 (The Above Angle)
Image 2: The side on angle that we chose
Whilst shooting we encountered many issues that definitely developed our team work, communication, patience and problem solving. The camera would not stay upon our home made tripod so we ended up using plasticine (the only material we had) which solved the problem as the balls were more stationary.
The frustrating issue of Light
Lighting our set caused quite a bit of frustration. As we were filming over a number of hours, we forgot to draw the curtains, which diminished the light over time. Also, my device had an automatic white balance on it, which changed the whole scene when we incorporated our white flags.
Editing Process
The next day, Sam and I met to complete the editing process which took a good few hours. The process of uploading the finished stop motion video from my phone to my MacBook (for further editing) was tiresome. I had to delete several gigabytes of data off my phone so that I could process all of the photos. The beauty of the MacBook using the programme 'iMovie' was that we could add effects; change speeds; change lighting; add sound effects and cut our any errors.
Audio Choice Process
Originally, we had planned to use many sound effects within our animation, however after a few hours of experimentation, decided against it. We found it difficult to add consistancy with our sound effects and also felt that it took away the impact of the meaning we were trying to articulate. In the end, we found a Jack Johnson number, which was perfect for the dynamic and pace of the final product.
The BETT conference is a yearly event that gives companies the opportunity to market their own educational products. Having attended before, I was excited and inspired by all the innovations. Both large companies such as Apple and Samsung, and smaller companies such as the makers of Zu3d were at the event, marketing their latest creative equipment.
Grabe and Grabe (2001) give five roles of technology in learning:
as tools to support construction of knowledge
as information vehicles for exploring knowledge to support learning-by-constructing
as a context to support learning by doing
as a social medium to support learning by conversing
as an intellectual partner to support learning-by-reflecting
