Lexitronics

ANIMOTO is a great tool, elegant in its simplicity.  All you do is upload a bunch of pictures, then choose some music, and then sit back and let ANIMOTO produce a professional quality video.

• The basic service is free, but limited to only 30 second videos (about 12 to 15 pictures fit nicely into such a sequence.)
• They do have an educational option, which you can request, which gives you free access to the professional options-unlimited clip length and the ability to download the movies to your computer.

Here is a simple example of an ANIMOTO I made about Saint Hilarion Castle, one of the historic sites in North Cyprus:

The basic version on its own has some very good applications for teaching English as a foreign language.

• I wanted to get the perspective on this tool through some fresh eyes, so I set an assignment for my third-year ELT class in Instructional Technologies to share a bit about their lives with the group by creating an ANIMOTO.
• I then asked them to reflect on the experience and comment on its potential use with their future students.  Here are some of their responses and examples of ANIMOTOs.

I think animoto activity is a good way to motivate my students. for example, I can make a video of my students’ assignment, and at the end of the somestr, I can show their learning progress. I mean, with putting their writing assigments on the video, ı can say that at the beginning of the somestr you had these kind of problems for writing, and now you don’t do the same problems, and your writing ability has developed. Plus, animoto can be reminder of our activity during the class and a video can be a memoriable gift for the students

Another student reflects:

I think creating video is beneficial to make our classes enjoyable, different and memorable. Also it helps to motivate our students when they feel the classes are boring. Because it triggers students to listen to the teacher and to be careful about what the subject is. Also it warms the atmosphere in the class by creating a sincere dialogue between the the teacher and the students. I say sincere, because watching a video during the class may relax the students and they can speak more confidently, relaxed, and openhearted.

And one more:

1. I loved it, really really loved it. I will definetly use it with students. if you ask why, because I can know my students better and learn their lives as you do I can figure out their characters from their photos and treat them as they deserve. 2. Absolutely, I began to love this lesson much more. And my stress, unwillingness was dissepeared. Because it is realy fun. it is something emotional ,it is a piece of their life, entertaiment. I tried to make lots of videos… as I said before I loved it

And a final reflection on ANIMOTO as a tool for EFL teaching:

I think using animoto with students can be really fun.They will fell confident about the course when the theacher asks them to create a video to introduce themelves to the class.

I could use it with my (future ) students to give an impression that the course will be enjoyable and they will also contribute to the course with their own creations.

Judging the response I got from these teachers-in-training, tools like ANIMOTO do have a place in our repertoire of tools we can use to engage our students.