Out of my element

DAH!! So far I have been at videoschmideo for 3 hours working on homework for my two classes. Not too long compared to how much time I would have spent on this stuff at home, but it's far more frustrating. I got here and realized that my power cable for my laptop was still at the trailer...thankfully my husband was nice enough to bring it. And now as I am reading through all of the great tools for this week I am realizing that I don't have my camera with my to download pictures that I could use for a "5 photo story" and that I left my flash drive at the trailer...I'm so spoiled to normally have everything I need at my disposal. I suppose I will have to improvise a bit this week and be very busy in the weeks to come.

I really like the idea of the "5 photo story" and animoto. I looked at the sample video on animoto for education and thought it would be very cool to make one for the start of the school year to summarize to students what they would learn throughout the semester. I also like to have my students do some sort of "about me" project at the start of the year so that they can get to know each other - I'm thinking about having them use one of these photo resources or glogster for this. I think it would give them a fun opportunity to get started using the technology so that we can use it for educational purposes later in the year.

Ok now it's 4 hours later and I made my first animoto. Having only my computer with me limited me a bit on what to make a video of, so I decided to just make a fun video for now and save the school related one for home when I have my camera with to take more pictures. It was very easy to make and now is being made...the process is going pretty fast! Almost done! Here's a little bit of background on the video...I made it based on last summer. My family went to Florida (first 3 pics), then we spent some time in Michigan with my husband's family (next 2 pics), the last pics are from Chicago - visitors, Rascal Flatts at Wrigley and just the beauty of it all. Based on my use of this it seems very straightforward. I could pick 12 frames for my 30 second video (text or pictures) and then you pick music from their collection or yours. Last step - animoto makes the video! I could see students getting caught up in the decision making since you only have 12 frames, but it could also make them really focus on what is the most important information that they want to get across. (total time for them to make the video was about 3 minutes)
Here is my video below, it's short and fun...I hope this works!!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Alright, I'm heading back to the trailer for today to spend some time playing with my little nephews - they should be up from their nap now. Have a GREAT 4th of July weekend everyone!