Animoto - mixed reviews

My feelings about Animoto are mixed.  I think the concept (ie, making your own movies via a user-friendly, stream-lined process) in and of itself is very fun and engaging for students.  I myself felt pretty limited while making my video, however.  I felt the text boxes were too short, especially since I was writing in French, which requires more words (prepositions) than English.  I also had a difficult time making accents work.  I would need to find a way to work around this if I were to use it in class.  My other frustration was that I could not control how the text appeared in relation to images.  For example, I could not make text appear WITH an image to which it pertained.  I was frustrated that I could not control the time spent on each frame as well.  Perhaps these limitations are because I was using a free version that has more limited capabilities.  I would think other versions are more robust.

After that critique, I will now note some positives!  The technology behind the tool is pretty cool.  I never thought making a movie could be so easy!  The front-end is very user-friendly and I think anyone could navigate around the tool after a simple tutorial, which makes this a possibility for middle school through high school.  The themes are visually appealing, and while I like the music selection, I would prefer more known artists (although there is most likely a copyright issue here!). 

As I write this post, I realize that, while I may have issues with Animoto, students would not.  I can imagine that middle school students would love the ability to make their own videos.  So, for me, the best use for Animoto would be for student use in the form of assignments and assessments.  I could integrate Animoto into an end-of-unit assessment.  For example, if we studied a particular francophone city or country, I could ask students to do their "report" using Animoto.  They could also create a movie that tells a story, using a particular tense we learned in class.  As I think through this more, I do believe the possibilities for students are more robust.  If students are engaged in the technology, they will have much more fun completing the assignment, and there is a lot to be said for that!