Animation as a teaching aid
Animator can offer the classroom teacher an invaluable resource for
teaching both information technology and subject specific skills
throughout the curriculum. Students enjoy using animator and find it
intuitive to use. It appeals to a wide audience, independent of their
age or skills. Animator can be used at varying levels of
sophistication, from National Curriculum Key Stage 2 onwards. Animator
can be used to develop and enhance information technology skills,
allowing a student to communicate and present information. It also
allows students to model aspects of their studies and apply new
knowledge to their coursework.
Animation provides a new dimension for
teaching resources. The combination of movement and sound creates an
interesting, lively and effective method of learning. It is more
appealing than text, photographs or diagrams and is therefore more
likely to be remembered. Animated sequences can be stylised to keep
them clear, simple and easy to understand. An example of this may be an
erupting volcano together with the intrusion of dykes and sills.
Animation can be used to illustrate topics that can not be easily
presented by any other visual means in the classroom. In science it is
extremely effective, illustrating in seconds, rather than days or
weeks, the growth of crystals or plants. Simulations of the
complexities of moving molecules, or the convection currents in hot air
circulating in a room are other possibilities. As a teaching aid
animation can be used in multimedia presentations. Multimedia authoring
at its simplest is one step on from desk top publishing. Anyone with
the skills to produce worksheets on a computer with pictures and
diagrams can extend this to developing coursework modules through
multimedia. Animation can be used alongside other available resources
such as text, artwork, scanned images, photographs, diagrams and
clipart.
Animator can also combine video with animated overlays and
titling providing the ideal tool for enhancing fieldwork and school
trip videos, drama productions, sports events and media studies.
Animations provide excellent tutorial sequences for teaching and
illustrating important points where a clear understanding of a process
is essential. Such an example may be the correct sequence in which to
make toast or bake a cake. It may be more complex and critical such as
the sequence in which to remove and discard a nuclear fuel rod from a
reactor. Small tutorial sequences can also be used for instruction such
as teaching young pupils how to cross the road or how to correctly make
a three point turn for learner drivers. Around the school, where
monitors are used to relay messages to students, animation can be used
to attract pupils to particular events. Animations are eye catching and
improve the presentation of any bulletin board, multimedia presentation
or messaging service. It can be used to good effect in the school
foyer, library or for after school events such as a parents evenings
and drama productions.
Across the curriculum
English
In English animation can provide the trigger and visual stimulus for
students to communicate through writing. In watching a short animated
scene, such as a crying child who then starts to laugh, students have
to write a script to explain why the child was upset, what made the
child laugh, where did the scene take place and what was the conclusion
to the scene. On an even simpler level animation can be used to help
students to read as sounds for letters and words can be added to the
animation making an ideal tool for very young and those with learning
difficulties.
Maths
In mathematics animation can be used to challenge students to solve a
problem or to simulate an event such as calculating the angle needed to
hit a ball and make a passing shot in tennis. Animation can also be
used to simulate a scenario that illustrates a mathematical principle
such as a car travelling along slopes of different angles which can
then also be used for calculating gradients and angles of slope through
trigonometry. Animations can also be used for tutorial work in that
simple animations can illustrate how to construct a particular type of
graph e.g. a pie graph or a bar chart.
Science
Science offers a huge range of opportunities for animation whether it
is a beating heart in Biology, the growth of crystals in Chemistry or
the study of waves in Physics. One of the great advantages in the use
of animation in science is that the time to set up apparatus or the
time for an experiment to work is removed and students can experiment
with a variety of animations illustrating important scientific
principles. Students use the computer as the experimental apparatus and
animations can be combined with a database and spreadsheet for further
in depth investigations.
Art
Animation offers art students the ability to experiment with images and
sound and to stimulate and develop their ideas beyond traditional
teaching materials. With animation they have a new tool and can develop
interesting new techniques applied in the real world by animators,
designers and advertisers. Students can explore the rotation of
objects, changing colours and moods, the animation of storyboards and
the development of cartoons and the use of animation in advertisements
and media studies.
Music
Animation can be effectively used in music. As sounds can be linked to
an individual frame in an animation then the plotting of musical notes
linked to the correct sound can test a pupils ability to sight read
music and identify the correct sound to a particular musical note. Such
an example is ideal for young musicians starting out with the simple
scales.
Geography
Satellite images, particularly of the weather, can now be easily
obtained from a number of sources such as Campus 2000, the Internet and
the Meteorological Office. The images may be obtained electronically
via E-Mail or they may be scanned digitally from a paper copy with a
scanner. Once a sequence of weather images has been saved on disc they
can be dropped into animator and the passage of fronts and weather
systems immediately come to life. Alternatively animation can be used
to illustrate the impact of geomorphological processes on the
landscape. For example, a landslide, a river undercutting a bank and
the formation of folds and faults. On a base map animation can also be
used to explore the urbanisation of a town or city through time with
different colours used to show pre 18th century developments, 19th
century developments and so on.
History
History is a good subject to illustrate how animation can be used in
multimedia presentations. Animation can bring alive the different
techniques used to attack and defend castles e.g. catapults, rams,
boiling oil, or to illustrate the defenders field of coverage for
arrows fired from arrow slits in castle towers. Animations can be used
to illustrate how the pyramids were built or how the first steam driven
beam engines were used in Cornish tin mines.
Design Technology
In technology animations can be used to build a design and examine the
effects of a working model. Animation is a useful tool for teaching
construction. It also helps the student to develop and communicate
design ideas by animating freehand drawings techniques which will allow
the student to model their ideas in a new and exciting way. Animation
increases the range of communication and presentation techniques
available to the student. It allows them to use information technology
to create their design. It allows the student to apply new graphic
techniques. This assists the student in making a decision on aspects of
a design that include colour, form, texture, tone, construction and
layout. Animation offers the student the ideal method of rotating
objects to illustrate 2D and 3D sections and plans.
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