I’ll just be honest… I totally agree that Animoto has its limitations as something to be presented in schools. When we originally built Animoto we never thought students and teachers would be part of our user base. But we’ve been surprised (and honored) to learn how popular it has in fact become with schools. Thus, we’re just now starting to think about how to incorporate some of the more specific needs and priorities teachers have as they send us feedback.

Regarding how well Animoto presents photos… I’d say right now, it does a better job presenting a series/story of photos versus trying to showcase any one particular photo. When starting to build Animoto, we had in mind the people are starting to use their cameras less like photographers and more like producers/directors… taking dozens, if not hundreds of photos to capture an event. For those who use their cameras to capture that one perfect photo…. we concede… Animoto probably isn’t the best. It’s not meant to be used for carefully viewing photos one by one. But, we may soon offer a feature to accommodate the spectrum of needs.

We’re actually still working on our photo analysis technology so we can better determine where the subjects are in a photo and out how to serve them better with the right motion design, effects, and energy. Obviously we agree certain subjects shouldn’t have flashy MTV style effects. (I’d be pretty offended if photos of my dog that just passed away where treated with crazy high energy effects.) Some should be much more soft, elegant, and purposeful. As you can imagine, the analysis behind this isn’t simple. And we have a long way to go. But we’re excited by what we’ve accomplished so far.

As we develop our technology, we definitely take into consideration everything we hear from you, so please continue to let us know your thoughts.

I’m siding with Dan on this one….even though I hear consensus growing in the conversation. Animoto is a limited “instructional” tool at best. While it has some “whiz-bang” value and is incredibly easy to use, I don’t even consider it in the same category as tools like Voicethread or our classroom blog.

And the whiz-bang value gets old quick. My kids liked Animoto for about 10 presentations. Now it’s old. We use it to add some new content to our blog every now and then, but it’s just interesting filler for readers.

Here’s the interesting question running through my mind: Are the teachers who are embracing Animoto as a “digital storytelling tool” the same kinds of people who struggle to piece together a good lesson in any format?

In my experience, it is that crop of educators that latch on to tools for all the wrong reasons.

Bill

Perhaps I shouldn’t care, but I wasn’t being the least bit facetious when I said we do value comments from people who actually care enough to make a comment… good or bad.

I think this was a really interesting debate. My sister is a teacher and I sent it to her. She, like you, laboriously devises lesson plans and assignments. She takes her profession very seriously, as all educators should. I find that commendable.

Until next time you end up on our Google Alerts…

— Becky

It’s the same when someone has a boring slide in PPT and tries to liven it up with some “cool” text effects. Form rarely rarely saves boring content. Good content is remembered regardless of form.

Ken, the difference between your students’ podcasts & their (hypothetical) Animoto presentations couldn’t be more obvious to me. One required crushing mental exertion both pre-, during, and post-production, deploying old skills and learning new ones, with a hundred assessable shades of gray between a strong project and a weak one. The other is Animoto.

Please consider this in the “I really like reading your comments” tone in which is it intended:

YES, dammit. EVERYTHING in a classroom must be value-added. Every single little thing. That’s the whole point.

Podcasts add massive value because of audience awareness, as you say so eloquently– and I’m coming to realize that this is the most powerful added value of all Web 2.0 tools.

But Animoto? Sure, if you scaffolded the hell out of it, as some commentors have suggested. But then, who is adding value? The tech– or you?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got enough to do. I demand all the added value from my tech that it can give. And if it ain’t adding more value than I am myself as the educator using it, then screw it.

I’ve had students make podcasts. They are not polished recording artists and their voices surely are not the stuff of fireside chats, but they scripted, researched, revised, rehearsed, considered audience, and the did all of those thing again. I assessed research, writing, quote integration, and so on down the English teacher line of grading, but their constant awareness of an audience greater than a little Rodoff made one hell of difference in their attitude, approach, energy, and output.

If only I could get students to write the bland essay with as much vim and vigor.

I wish my comments here could resonate with the power of your posts and your subsequent follow-up comments, but I write in the moment (see sloppy blog!) and then keep my brain churning long after I’ve hit the ‘submit comment’ button.

Does everything have to be ‘value-added’?

If you’ve read Pirsig, then I’m sure you’ve wrestled with the question, ‘what is quality’?

Animoto, Scrapblog, and dozens of other drag-and-drop apps may not demonstrate thinking and all that other fun, assessable stuff, but does it have to?

Thanks for keeping us all on our mental toes.

Talk about confusing the issue.