Welcome to my blog on Educational Futures. Over the past few months I have been blogging about the future of education, mainly focusing on the learning environments where children spend a lot of their daily lives striving to improve and develop (in most cases).
A large part of this blog has been focused on animation; The different types, camera-made and camera-less, different mediums/equipment to go by creating animation, and the affects it has on learning and development. However, I have also investigated into what makes a good learning environment for a learner within a setting; as well as the different activities and features that are important to make the learning environment a stimulating environment. So this is just a couple of the different areas you will expect to see posted up here.
So if you are a fan of technology and/or animation or are intuiged in the different ways these mediums can impact ones learning then tune in and stay posted as this blog could just be for you. :)
Oh and before you go... Don't forget to feed my fish! (In the tank at the bottom) ;)
Education Futures
Unravelling the Impact Effective Environments have upon Learning
Thursday 29 January 2015
Wednesday 28 January 2015
Peer Review of a Fellow Groups Stop Motion Animation
I have chosen to review the Stop-Motion animation created by Toni Watts and Feba Philip called:
The Life Of A Student
You can find the Link to their blog and video here ---> http://p095516tjw.blogspot.co.uk/
They used the medium of Cutouts to create their Stop-motion animation. I personally really enjoyed their animation. I found it ran smoothly, was really entertaining, humorous, very well drawn and put together, and all the other features like the sound lighting etc seemed to compliment it very well. The fact it was on a topic their target audience (University students) could relate to worked in their favour making it more enjoyable to watch.
I found the story ran through very well and kept my attention all the way through. It didnt feel like I was watching it for 2 minutes. All the cutouts were really well drawn which added to how realistic it looked; It was evident that they had put time into it. They used a music track through out the whole animation which complimented it all very well, and encouraged a smooth flow from scene to scene. So altogether it put across their message very well.
However... A couple of things I thought could have been better was, to use more frames to really highlight and show off the movements of their character; in turn making her look like she is more alive and less like a cutout. Also parts of the film were slightly jittery and were freezing up, which didn't really affect the quality of the animation, but could be something to consider. Apart from that, overall the animation worked well and was very enjoyable.
The Life Of A Student
You can find the Link to their blog and video here ---> http://p095516tjw.blogspot.co.uk/
They used the medium of Cutouts to create their Stop-motion animation. I personally really enjoyed their animation. I found it ran smoothly, was really entertaining, humorous, very well drawn and put together, and all the other features like the sound lighting etc seemed to compliment it very well. The fact it was on a topic their target audience (University students) could relate to worked in their favour making it more enjoyable to watch.
I found the story ran through very well and kept my attention all the way through. It didnt feel like I was watching it for 2 minutes. All the cutouts were really well drawn which added to how realistic it looked; It was evident that they had put time into it. They used a music track through out the whole animation which complimented it all very well, and encouraged a smooth flow from scene to scene. So altogether it put across their message very well.
However... A couple of things I thought could have been better was, to use more frames to really highlight and show off the movements of their character; in turn making her look like she is more alive and less like a cutout. Also parts of the film were slightly jittery and were freezing up, which didn't really affect the quality of the animation, but could be something to consider. Apart from that, overall the animation worked well and was very enjoyable.
Friday 23 January 2015
Learners and an ICT rich environment
ICT has long been a subject that seems to be in the background of schooling today; despite the internet and technology being such an important and well used thing in today's culture, even to the point of obsession in this generation. Largely due to how accessible it is and the introduction of social networking sites and apps like Facebook... Twitter... Snapchat... etc. It has such a massive impact upon behaviour, self-esteem, emotional regulation, how active one is and just generally how one spends their time day to day, etc. I believe that ICT needs to be a more important part of our school curriculum; it should be closer to the forefront. Children need to be taught how to use it, and in the right way. If we believe this is a possible future of our education, we need to ensure people know how to use it to its full potential without abusing it. I remember times back in Secondary school, sitting in a lesson and starting the lesson 5 / 10 minutes late simply because the teacher didn't know how to work the computer properly. This then lead to a pupil teaching the teacher, to solve the issue.
The video above shows teachers at Coventry University talking about their experiences with ICT and the use of technology as part of their teaching and its usefulness in students extra learning, and how it is shaping this generations education.
Bett
is a technology event held in London. It shows off the latest
technology and boasts a show of ICT that intends to inspire and spur
people to investigate and be creative. Bett consists mainly of seminars
and talks, stalls and exhibits with different things to do and see. They
do something there called summit's for Higher Education, which focuses
on the use of technology specifically in higher education. This often
refreshes the thoughts of lecturers and enables them to bring new fresh
ideas into their teaching.
The
slow introduction of Web 2.0 has given people an improved experience in
surfing the web. It Increases flexibility with what can be done with
technology and the internet and giving people a greater freedom and
control of its use, therefore increasing interactivity.
Tuesday 20 January 2015
My Animation made through Stop-Motion Techniques
As part of my Educational futures module we were asked to create a two minute long animation made only with Stop-motion techniques. The objective was to deliver a certain message or moral through the 2 minutes and to show ability and convince the audience that the characters are alive and moving on their own.
Stop-Motion is a very tricky and time consuming way of creating an animation; although it can be a lot of fun and is very rewarding once watching the finished result of your work. Certainly a perfectionists nightmare! As so much can go wrong... even in the slight nudge of the camera their is a stress that follows, to get it back into the same position. Then there is the lighting, the characters, the stage and the background/setting as well as other things that have to remain the same from picture to picture; so use items that aren't likely to change on their own (unless of course it's part of the story for it to change).
I found when making this animation the easiest way was to do as much as I could in one run. Whenever I wanted to finish working on it for the day I made sure to finish the scene or get to a point where there was a fade-out or change of set so I could start afresh the next day; This helped to keep the continuity of the realism of the animation, and meant any slight changes over night didn't affect the animation.
Apart from these small details working on this animation turned out to be a very enjoyable process, even though very time consuming. However, this meant you could really invest your own creativity into it and really make it yours. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in animation.
So here is my animation called...
The Lion and the Monkey: (Hope you enjoy it!) Make sure you watch it in HD quality :).
Wednesday 19 November 2014
The Effect of Sound in Animation
"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps Express emotion" Michael Geiser
As michael Geiser says here in this quote, Sound is such an important part of an animation. He states that music has the power to control the general emotion and feeling of parts of an animation or video. A good animation should take you on a journey, and keep you interested throughout. The sound effects and music has power to shape how your time is spent whilst on that journey. Simply choosing the right music and sound effects to accompany scenes in an animation can shape the success and quality of that animation. After all, Sound is one of five of our senses and needs to be engaged.
Just the use of music can create an image in a person's mind. It encourages you to use your imagination and has an impact on the way we watch something, the impact it has upon the way we watch something . If you were to watch a video twice: one time with a certain soundtrack music and use of sound effects, but then the second time with a completely opposing choice of soundtrack music and use of sound effects it could cause one to view that video completely differently and come away from it feeling completely different.
Catchy sound effects or music are great at encouraging people to remember a video or animation. This proves extremely useful for advertisers selling a product or an idea; especially if the words of the product, what the product does, or company name is held within the tune.
"The
right music can help your animation flow, and sound effects can give
your work a solid feeling that adds to the illusion of life." Mark Simon
What Mark Simon states here about sound effects is very true. Especially through stop-motion animation when your aim is to convince the audience that the characters on the set are alive and moving. It really helps to increase the audiences belief that they really are doing what they're doing by themselves.
Sound in films & animations:
Dialogue
Ambient or natural sound
Narration
Sound effects
Soundtrack
These are all important elements that is needed and will increase how real looking an animation is; as well as accompanyments which will make the story run smoothly and make sense. Even down to the smallest detail of the quiestest hiss during a peice of dialogue, or instead of complete silence (unless you want complete silence) can improve how believable it is.
"A truth whispered among animators is that 70% of a show's impact comes from the sound track" Michel Dougherty
Wednesday 29 October 2014
Creating Camera-less Animation
This week during our educational futures seminar we were looking at
different types of non-camera made animations and how they manage to make an
image move. We looked at different methods such as: Thaumatropes,
Phenakistoscopes, flipbooks, etc.
We all then got assigned a type of non-camera made animation, and got
set a task to make one for ourselves. I got assigned the Thaumatrope. These are
the steps in which I went through to make my Thaumatrope.
Step 1...
You will need to collect all these different bits of equipment, as you will need them to create your Thaumatrope |
The first thing you will need to do is (using your scissors) cut your piece of paper into a circular shape like so. |
The next thing is (using your pin, or another sharp object) make a small hole in 2 sides of your circle (these must be symmetrical to eachother). |
Next, using the string you have (it is best they are the both the same/similar lengths) push both bits of string through your two holes and tie a hole (as shown) in the end to stop it pulling out. |
Now your Thaumatrope is successfully completed it is time to create your animation. Remember these two images need to be slightly different to show a change between the two pictures. |
The idea of this Thaumatrope, as you can see by my step by step
pictures, is that you have a circular piece of paper, card or other material
and create on one side a simple creative picture. On the other side you will
have to create another simple creative picture, normally the same picture but
show a movement or change. You will then need to pierce small holes in either
side of the circle, insert string or an elastic band and then whilst holding
both sides of the bands or string spin round your circle and your image will
become animated!!
After successfully creating my Thaumatrope, we were all
placed into pairs and set a task to make a more complex camera-less animation.
We were set to make the Phenakistoscope. These are the steps in which we went
through to make our Phenakistoscope:
Step 1...
Step 2...
Step 3...
Step 4...Step 5...
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