“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” -John Dewey

With just a few clicks you can quickly turn photos and videos into an animated, show stopping, musical masterpiece for free!!

Ms. Griffin’s 6 th graders created propaganda posters like those used in WWII. This Animoto video by Ms. Daniels shows off their work. aspx?PageType=3&ModuleInstanceID=25 609&ViewID=047E6BE3-6D D8E4E9ED6C2A&RenderLoc=0&FlexDat aID=62640&PageID=21651

Ways to Use Animoto in the Classroom Create videos to introduce new topics or review old topics. Use videos to display your students’ completed work. Have students create their own presentations to teach each other.

Animoto for Education Free Animoto Plus account (usually $30/year) with Buncombe County . Gives you unlimited full-length videos, more style and music options, and ability to download completed videos. You can also set up 50 free student accounts (see the following site for info: How-do-I-set-up-accounts-for-my- students-). How-do-I-set-up-accounts-for-my- students-

Getting Started – Step 1 Sign Upon acceptance to educator program you will see this screen – read it carefully and take note of your unique student promo code.

Step 2 – Check your An will confirm that your account has been upgraded to free Plus subscription also contains your classroom code (this is for setting up student accounts – note that it expires in one month) Educational Accounts expire every six months, but you can re-apply for new code the same way you did the first time Now you are ready to start using Animoto!

Step 3 – Register your students (optional) After you are familiar with your account, you can set up your student accounts. Students under 13 have to use teacher created accounts (see details below). Remember that your promo code expires one month after it is ed to you. For more detail on this step, check out the guide to setting up accounts for your students available at:

Good to Know All videos on Animoto are completely private. The only way someone can watch a video is if they have the video's specific URL (web address), or if the video is posted to another website. Also, no one will be able to contact your students via Animoto. The Animoto Privacy Policy is available at:

Creating Your First Video For a video guide to getting started, visit: videos-just-got-better/ Once you are logged in to the site, you are ready to create your first video slide show. This is a simple 3-step process:

Step 1: Select pictures and/or videos. Use your own images and videos or select from the Animoto stock gallery. Photos and videos can be reordered simply by dragging and dropping them. If you select shuffle they will be randomly ordered by Animoto. You can also add text to your pictures, duplicate them, rotate, delete and spotlight images (giving it more prominence in your finished slide show).

Step 2: Choose your music. Think of what type of music may be most appropriate for the slideshow you are creating. Can select your own music or choose from a variety of tunes in the Animoto library. You can choose where you want the start point of your soundtrack to be. For a short video, you may want to begin with a catchy chorus half way through the song. When song ends, so does your video!

Step 3: Finalize your video. Choose what speed you want the video to play at - half, normal or double speed. Select what thumbnail you would like to have as your video cover screen. Give your video a title and write a short description of what it is about. And finalize…and wait…

And wait… After you finalize video, Animoto will process and render it (how long this takes depends on the length of your video). Once it is ready, Animoto will you a link to your finished slide show. On this page you will also see a blue toolbox with links to it, embed it in your classroom website, remix or export your video.

Project Ideas Biographies, field trips, digital storytelling, science projects and more can all be captured with this quick and easy slideshow tool. Want to see examples of how teachers are using Animoto in the classroom? Visit and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Bringing Lessons to Life with Animoto For more great ideas and lesson plans for using Animoto in the classroom, visit: development/strategy-guides/bringing- lessons-life-with html For an instruction guide for students, visit: /lesson-docs/30872AnimotoInstructions.pdf

Next Sessions: Thur, April 3:30 in the media center Topic: Voki: Get your own avatar and even have it talk with your voice! Thur, April 3:30 in the media center Topic: Storybird: Build your own stories (with images) and share them with others!