Thanks Esra. I think it would also help the teacher to become familiar with the tool as well.

I love to use videos in my classes. Sometimes I use them to raise discussion or as warm up or follow up to the lessons. My favorite webtool is Animoto because it´s so easy to produce your video. Sometimes a 1 or 2 min video trigger long discussions in class, this is an oportunity for students to use the language in a more relaxed way, making assessment easier.

A lesson idea for the first week of the school. http://evasimkesyan.edublogs.org/2012/07/30/describe-my-holiday/
I used it with my grade 11 students and it worked.

Both Animoto and Photopeach are easy to use. Animoto seems to do more to make up for my lack of an artistic side! I think students could use either in a variety of ways: summarizing a story, teaching a concept, step-by-step demonstration of an experiment. I really enjoy being able to use the Animoto app too. The app makes using it that much easier when wanting to access to my photos.

Q3: As I start looking at more and more of the options for creating animations, I wonder how much time needs to be spent on learning how to use the tools efficiently. I know many teachers who will just look at things like Goanimate and say, "My kids will waste too much time playing around with that!" How can we ensure the technology doesn't become the centre of the lesson?

Great discussions! Great of you all! I need some time to go through all of this! Thank you all for your assistance and share!

One way of uploading videos to You Tube and then allow your pupils to view them, is to publish them on You Tube as Private. In that case, I believe that whatever music or images you use are allowed.

It's then quite easy to embed them in a posterous private blog which only your pupils and their parents can view, or in a private wiki such as this one.

One way that my students use goanimate is to create sketches out of dialogues in their coursebook or stories with or without dialogue which they have written and acted out in the classroom.

Sometimes an interview with one of the characters in a story they have read can come to life with one of these tools. And of course, you can use them to create new language presentation materials which you can use for listening and viewing in just the same way you would use other ready made video clips.

1. Do you use videos in the classroom? How do you integrate videos into your lessons? Do your students produce any videos? If so, which tools are you using?? How can we integrate videos into our lessons, what are your ideas?
I didn't use a lot of videos during my classes just to save time. It is mainly a part of homework assignments such as creating various stories, expressing opinion a given topic. It could be done as a group or an individual work where the students are supposed to apply either new vocabulary or grammar patterns, and come up with interesting ideas. They can later post it and the teacher and their peers should leave a comment on the video. In this case, students have more chance to be exposed to the newly taught grammar or vocabulary.
One more activity that was quite popular among my students was filming interviews. it can be done while practicing question forms in grammar, at lower levels, or working on a group project which may involve surveys and interviews.

1.How can we integrate videos into our lessons, what are your ideas?
2. How we can use Animoto & Photopeach in our classes with our students?

I am teaching Listening and speaking to undergraduate students. one of the tasks that they like is extensive listening. They are supposed to listen to/watch the assigned task, record their answer to the critical questions given by their teacher, and post it on Edmodo. I think Animoto, Photopeach could be another useful and engaging way to fulfill this task. They may present their opinion in a lot more appealing way, supporting it with relevant images,background music+ voice over.

Very true David and it is so great to learn about the wide range of tools that are out there :-)

Hi Teresa, isn't it great to see how other educators are also discovering, struggling, and having success including digital technologies in their classes. EVO is such a powerful transformational space!

Hi Bonnie! Thank you for sharing. Isn't it amazing how young learners figure out so quickly to use the Ipad? I love the idea of allowing them to discover language and technology at the same time.

Your enthusiasm in trying new tools will surely be felt by your students! Learning new things is a habit that we can model.

Hi LaQuita! I like very much the idea of giving instruction through a video. Students pay attention and they can watch it again at home before completing the assignment.

Question 3: I think these animated resources can be used the same as animoto and Photopeach. That is they can be used to show how to…cause/effect..etc. The key to using the animation resources is to make sure that when the students create the storyboard, they include all the details about the animation. The teacher should also specify or indicate the choices that they have. This would avoid the students spending too much time creating the presentations because of the animation feature.

I agree the discussions here are very rich indeed. I have really learned a lot by reading all the comments. I don't have a class to teach full time at the moment, so sadly I can't try out all these lovely ideas straightaway with students, but I am writing everything down in a special EVO DigitalStorytelling notebook, so that I will be able to refer to ideas and resources when I am next in the classroom soon. Thnanks everyone :-)

Question 4: There are many pros and cons. Allowing students to create videos does allow them to apply their critical thinking skills while being creative is a positive thing. I feel this is a way for students to demonstrate their knowledge of the materials. These types of activities are engaging and allow the classroom instruction to be exciting and challenging for the students. The cons of creating videos would be that you must make sure your instructions are clear and very detailed for the students and that you are organized. You must also be sure to have a “back-up” plan in case the technology doesn’t work. Also, you will need to be able to monitor the students so that they remain on task. As a teacher of these assignments you must be able to refrain from the “traditional” classroom. The classroom may appear “chaotic” at times. So patience is an important requirement.
I find that many parents and schools are in favor of the students creating digital stories. They actually encourage these assignments.

I agree with LaQquita in questions 3 and 4. I also understand what E.Hurley says about what some teachers think about these tools, but she found an excellent post to her point (I read it). I also liked Ozge's answer to this point. Apart from that, I realized using these tools for the first time that it was not only about learning how to use them, I also had to make a process and think what to include in the video or comic, how to write it to make it more appealing and so on. Therefore, I (thinking as a student) was making a personal and important thinking that was paid-off at the end. The outcome is going to be different for everybody and I'm going to be more than satisfied as a T because I gave Ss more than tools.
I repeat LaQuita's words: '... refrain from the “traditional” classroom. The classroom may appear “chaotic” at times. So patience is an important requirement. '

Hi everyone, thanks for sharing!
Because I teach more adult students, I will share how I used video with them so far. Dvolver: I asked students to make short dialogues at home, advertising a product and employ specific advertising language: superlatives, comparatives, direct/indirect invitations. The one bothering thing about Dvolver was that, once embedded in a class blog or wiki, these movies start playing whenever you go to that page and there's no way of "silencing" them.

Hi Anisoara - I agree with the annoying music which starts playing on a blog or wiki, and then doesn't stop!! What I do now is always select "No music", so the dialogues are silent. It might not be so much fun without the music, but I prefer it this way. I only add music to productions when I am actually demonstrating how to use Dvolver with classes.

One of my students used Domoanimate to compare her classroom reading novel assignment with her reading intervention novel. (Charlotte's Web vs Take me to the River) I hadn't even ask the class to do it but she came up with it on her own. Of course, I will share it on Monday and probably see 20 more examples from my 20 students. But Compare and Contrast are important skills to know so why not do it through comic animation?

We have a school policy and forms have to be signed before posting pictures in newsletters or on the web. Of course, I wouldn't use names but my kids in past years have used their initials. I used to pass out a DVR and ask students to comment on what they knew about the science topic or ask a question about a topic. I would then post it on a blog site so parents could listen. After the unit, I would pass it around again and record their learnings from that unit. We would listen to the pre question/comment post again and see if our questions had been answered. Now I think I feel comfortable doing this with animation and video. Children can create a comic with their questions pre and make a Post comic with the answers. I am very interested in making a Photopeach quiz for the electricity unit we just finished using their pictures taken during the inquiry lesson.
I love most that I can teach a few the computer/site skills and they can in turn help others. It builds their conversation skills as well as their self esteem when helping others.

Let's schedule it Maria! I was there 5 years ago and I made videos with Buddy, my giant puppet frog, to show Egypt to my students.

Lovely!!! I can see their smiles in being connected and validated by their penpals!

I like this idea. Thanks for sharing.