The Circle of Life

As part of our Education Futures program we were to construct an animation using the child user designed software Zu3D. As part of a group of 3 we worked together and created a story board designed around the topical issue the “Circle of Life”. Sectioning our story board into various frames we included characters that were to be used along with scene music, sound effects and backgrounds. We used this story board as a reference during the next stage of our animation creation.

Once decided on a topic and setting, we moulded characters for our stop motion animation. We decided to use clay figurines as we felt this way was best suited to represent our story. As our story was about the developments of life stages we were able to remould our characters to adapt to different parts of the story, something which may possibly have been more difficult and time consuming if paper cut outs were used.

 

 

We printed out splash backs for our animation and decided to use adaptive backgrounds which could easily be used throughout the animation. The main setting was outside a home, therefore the first 6 scenes were shot in front of this setting. We felt it was best to not keep changing the background of the animation as it would interrupt the flow, something we wished to keep seamless with our stop motion approach.

 

Once the scene and characters were made we met to use the software and create our animation. Collaborating and working together we sufficiently shot the movie taking around 5 hours. Due to the creation of our characters being somewhat weeks before we did find it hard to easily create a range of movement for each shots. Something that we did overcome with efficient teamwork, we managed to take shots and create movements to the best of our ability. All three of us worked in partnership by creating the scene and taking a sequence of shots (3 each movement). This did test our patience as I don’t quite think we were aware how much time and effort to produce a mini second of a clip. We did encounter mistakes along the way which we had to crop and edit out of the production. On occasions we caught hand movements within frames which we then had to undo and reshoot. Luckily these faults were noticed during the creation stage and no errors were detected after filming.

After shooting the movie as a group we met again to add music and sound effects. This part of the production stage was definitely the most testing. We cropping music clips and applying them to our movie we encountered a number of disturbances. As the music is imperative part of the animation we wanted to ensure it was faultless therefore a lot of time and effort (blood, sweat and tears) was put into the implementation of the music. We used the song “On My Way” by Rusted Root as we felt it was uplifting and nicely complemented our movie. Throughout we then added various sound effects from the sound database to show further detail in our animation (baby talking, kissing sound effects, and background rock music). During the scene where the couple conceive the child, we added a firework banner, and the sound track “Marvin Gaye- Let’s get it on”, to not only to set the scene but to make light heated entertainment out of the situation. As the soundtrack was only required for a short while, we encountered challenges when fading out the music and bringing back in our original theme tune. After numerous efforts we managed to successfully mix both songs without any noticeable disruption. After we were happy with our SAVED production we recorded it on our phones to have copy via smart phone.

When it came to showcasing our stop motion animation to our greatest disappointment somehow the added sound effects and sound media was not to be seen. We were left to feel extremely saddened as our greatest efforts went into making the sound making perfect. The only way to overcome the situation was either to show our movie without sound or to (luckily) play our smartphone recorded version. As a group we felt the music had a great part to play in creating the atmosphere we intended (light hearted and entertaining) therefore we agreed to play the sound media through my phone. Unfortunately there was background noise during the first few scenes however from feedback it seemed to go unnoticed. Although as a group we were greatly disappointed I feel we overcome the dilemma well and worked with what we had.

 (Overcome by using the sound recorded on video smart phone)

Feedback from peers highlighted our efforts when stuck with the dilemma we encountered. They commented on how they enjoyed certain aspects of the movie like the seamless production of the character growing from a baby to a man and how time was represented by the parents growing older. Overall I feel we worked well as a group in creating the stop motion animation, although we were headed with a slight problem I feel we created a well-produced stop motion animation and achieved all learning objectives during the process.

BETT- "We have the opportunity to fertilize the whole of education by the ambitious and creative use of technology"

The BETT Convention

“We have the opportunity to fertilize the whole of education by the ambitious and creative use of technology” Sir Ken Robinson (2013)

National education systems are adapting to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Sir Ken argues in this powerful presentation Common Core, Creativity, & Technology in the Classroom that many reforms are pushing in the wrong direction. Drawing from his ground breaking book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, he explains why too many are locked into a model of education shaped by the Industrial Revolution and a narrow idea of academic ability rather than exploring the creativeness of an individual through their selective talents. He urges schools to rethink basic ideas of intelligence and achievement and highlights the necessity to promote creativity through the child’s creative form. Behind his argument “education kills creativity (date)” Ken Robinson explores the radical changes in how we educate our students to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and learning in the 21^st century. 

Areas that Sir Ken Robinson explores to reason his opinions are;

• How education wastes more talent than it saves

• The three core objectives of 21st Century education

• Why we’re all smarter than we think

• What schools and colleges should do, and how governments should help

(Robbinson, 2015)

 

 

 

"Schools need to embrace cloud technology to prepare for the future of learning" - Matt Britland

 

By its very nature, technology changes at a fast pace and making it accessible to pupils, teachers and other stakeholders is an ongoing challenge. BETT or The BETT Show is an annual trade show in the United Kingdom that showcases the use of information technology in education. Senior decision makers from early years, primary, secondary, further and higher education use BETT as their source of inspiration when it comes to investing in products to futurise a new notion of teaching and learning (BETT Reach the Education Market, 2015).

 

“There are no technology shortcuts to good education”

Toyama argues in his article There Are No Technology Shortcuts to Good Education that technology today or in the foreseeable future cannot provide the tailored attention, encouragement and inspiration for students that a nurturing adult can. Further he adds technology is no exception, and rigorous studies show that it is incredibly difficult to have positive educational impact. Claims that technology only amplifies the pedagogical capacity of educational systems meaning it can make good schools better and bad schools worse (Toyama, 2011)

In support Patrick Suppes, a pioneer in computer-aided learning suggests that computers can “adapt mechanical teaching routines to the needs and the past performance of the individual student.” But adds the key challenge in education remains the long-term, neither interactivity nor adaptive capacity are sufficient in the directed motivation of the student – something which no technology today can deliver on its own, but only lays in the hands of good teachers (Suppes, 1966)

Personally I believe people expect too much from technology. Technology is an advancing and ever evolving introduction to education but merely works in support of good teaching. In agreement with Toyama, technology introductions into the classroom should be used as a teaching aid and people should not be under the impression that it works alone. In the view of 21^st Century demands, ICT elements should be widely welcomed by many schools to promote transferable learning thus bettering pupils’ educational development.

Suppes, Patrick (1966) cited, Toyama, K, There are no technology shortcuts to good education, http://edutechdebate.org/ict-in-schools/there-are-no-technology-shortcuts-to-good-education/, (2011)

Toyama, K, There are no technology shortcuts to good education, http://edutechdebate.org/ict-in-schools/there-are-no-technology-shortcuts-to-good-education/, (2011)

BETT, Reach the Education Market, http://www.bettshow.com/Content/Reach-the-education-market-Exhibit-at-Bett, (2015), [Accessed, 2015]

Robinson, K, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, (2015)

Britland, M, What is the future of technology in education? (2013), http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jun/19/technology-future-education-cloud-social-learning, [Accessed 2015]