Can Animation Help Kids?

No matter how you feel about our nation’s obsession with visual technology and animation, there is no denying that multimedia and tools such as animation can help students tremendously in the classroom. In fact, my research proved that animation and multimedia mediums are an exciting new way to bridge the verbal ideas stressed during teacher-centered learning with the visual images that many students latch onto for deeper understanding of difficult ideas. Specifically, animation supplies memorable images and such images are more easily retained.

The idea can be as simple as helping an elementary school student to focus on sequencing in a story or it can be an idea so complex and minute that the manipulation of size and space is required to truly visualize what is occurring. An example of this could be exploring and understanding the organelles in any given cell. Animation and or multimedia tools could aid in supplying a real life way to visualize and understand these microscopic entities. For more visual learners, this can really help! Thus, both animation and web-based multimedia can be used for students of all ages and at all levels, but more importantly for students with diverse learning styles.

Another added bonus is both that animation and web based multimedia, are a win for both teacher and student. The teacher is able to use these tools in the classroom to reiterate prior learning in a simple and organized fashion, to motivate students to view a difficult concept in a simpler way and to facilitate a deeper understanding. Students love these technological tools because they can make learning fun and personal. Often times a student can select an idea to focus on, let’s say addition and subtraction, but he or she will be given choices in regards to which way he or she would best like to learn or review that concept. Thus, animation and web-based multimedia can allow students to make the own interpretations of which learning style best suits them. This creates a learning environment that is student specific and can benefit both teachers and students in the diverse classrooms we see all around the country today.

Further, another interesting I came across in my reading was another great way to facilitate learning of a complex idea is to require students to create their own animation or multimedia example and to present it to the class. This will require the student to think of their own understanding of an idea and it can also help a classroom of diverse students to see how each person learns differently. Also, with the technological trends of today we will all have to know how to use these mediums to express our ideas and communicate them to others.

So are animation or web based multimedia just for kids? What do you think?

After, my research I feel like they can aid in any classroom. I am not a big fan of videogames, constant television or constant texting, but from a pedagogical point of view, it seems like these tools can help any teacher reach more students. Currently, I am taking a science class (and I am not a science person…trust me) and I am seeing that the visual tools that the professor offers and has suggested; for example, animations and games have helped me a lot when studying, especially since that type of information is not willingly accepted into my brain.

This grown up kid…says yes to animation and multimedia tools!

For further information see:

http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/activities/multimedia/animation.asp

http://www.aa.ufl.edu/aa/facdev/develop/teachingtools/teachingwithtech/tmultimedialearning.shtml

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Multimedia_animation

http://tilttv.blogspot.com/2005/12/tilt-episode-7-multimedia-animation.html

Take "Virtually" A Tour of Anything! Using Virtual Field Trips to Aid Learning

Today, teachers and students literally have a world of experiences right at their fingertips and virtual field trips have opened the door. Virtual field trips allow a student to visualize an experience first hand, whether that means exploring an ancient tomb or medieval castle, the jungles surrounding the Amazon or the geological history of the Grand Canyon. Teachers are also able to facilitate learning beyond traditional rote learning techniques by using virtual field trips, to enhance learning a laboratory experiment or about a particular ecosystem.

This type of learning is where education is headed. Virtual field trips, like other visual/audio aids allow the students to learn abstractly and are very successful, especially when concrete, participatory activities have preceded. (1) These trips “outside” of the classroom allow a student to see and experience visually, an idea or concept that has been addresses during typical classroom time and it also helps the student to relate personally to an experience. Students are not just sitting through a lecture and reading a text. They are actually seeing and hearing about the ancient ruins of the Roman Empire or a particular science experiment. The students feel like they are walking past the Roman Forum or that, they are facilitating the maturation of an egg in the lab. Not only is this type of learning experience a great way to take a break from tests and lectures, but it also allows a student to make an experience their own.

On a practical note, visual field trips can also achieve the impossible. Is every class able to visit Rome or a state of the art lab? Visual fields trips allow teachers to give their students the best of an experience that may otherwise be impossible due to budget constraints and or plain distance.

The only thing I came across in my research that could be an obstacle in using visual field trips is that it is expensive to make your own. Still, there are thousands (my Google search produced, 1,940,000 hits for visual field trips) websites that offer free visual trips to be used in the classroom.

From what I read, visual field trips seem like a great way to enhance the learning experience in any classroom. Children today, are not learning in the same ways we did in the past and their lives are full of visually stimulating experiences. Why not make education just as stimulating? Otherwise, how can educators compete? Of course an actual field trip is a great experience for students, but even a small break in the day, to do a visual field trip, can provide them with the type of learning that could intrigue them for the rest of their lives.

For further information, check out these websites:

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/666
http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/
http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic35.htm
http://www.fieldtripearth.org/strategy.xml?id=14


1. Smaldino, Sharon, E., Deborah L. Lowther, James D. Russell. Instructional Technology and Media for Learning. (Ohio: Pearson, 2008). 9.