This week I spent time exploring slide
show tools, specifically Animoto (click on the “Animoto” page tab at the top of
my blog to watch my video!). I really like that this is another tool I can add
to the ‘create’ section of my PLE! The tool itself is very user friendly – it did not take long
to get the hang of it at all. One downside is that I do believe after a certain
number of slideshow creations, you have to pay for the tool. Your first video
is a free trial that allows you to get a feel for the tool and its
capabilities.
Animoto
displays both images and short text statements. The slideshow I put together
using Animoto was on Copyright and Creative Commons. I learned that Copyright
is having the exclusive rights to copy on everything except ideas, concepts,
styles and techniques. A good place to share your creative work or look for the
work of others that is available for use is Creative Commons. Creative Commons is a
place where you can search for images that are available for public use, or
request a license for your own images and then limit how little or how much the
public may alter or use your specific image. This article answers
nine basic questions about Copyright that was really helpful to my
understanding.
Even
if this tool were free, I’m not sure exactly how much I could use Animoto.
Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides or Prezi, the one downside of
Animoto is the word limit. You can only add very short sentences to each slide,
which really limits the ways I can use Animoto, especially where more wording
and information is needed. However, it is really great for picture slideshows
that may only need limited wording, so I would definitely consider using the
tool for this purpose.
One
of the most important things about being a good digital citizen is remembering
to always give credit where it is deserved and always cite your work! This
concept applies to pictures just as much as words. I think this is something
that is really easy to forget – we know when we use other’s words we must
attribute where they came from. I think with pictures we forget that those come
from someone or somewhere as well and deserve just as much credit as written
words do. I think this knowledge is critical to becoming a good digital citizen
– although we have the right to access information (as learned in previous
weeks) we also must not pass work of any type off as our own.
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| Merdzan, C. (CC) 2016. |
This
week’s interesting Feedly find…
Happy International Day of Happiness!!
March 20th marks the day the United Nations proclaimed just four
years ago. I totally understand why happiness should have its own holiday.
Those who are happy are generally healthier, live longer, make more money, are
more productive at work… the list goes on and on. This article shares five
(scientifically proven) strategies that can help us to (easily) lead a happier
and more fulfilling life, such as acknowledging the good and finding meaning and
purpose. Read the full article here !
Hi Carolyne, Great post ! I agree with you when you talk about how Animoto has the word limit so it may be difficult to see yourself using it. However it may be a good thing to create a word limit for slides as sometimes people put way too much information on one slide. Maybe if they increased the word limit a little more though it would be more useful. thanks !!
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