Animoto

Animoto is a picture/video service. Anyone can make a free account, but to access certain features, you have to pay an upgrade fee. However, educators can get a free version of this updated account by simply verifying that they work for a school system. Hooray for websites that value educators!! :)

After creating an account, Animoto users submit a series of pictures to the website. Users can customize the video and add music (either your own tunes or stuff sponsored by Animoto). When you submit a project, Animoto turns the photos you submitted into a video by shuffling the photos creatively and adding the music to the background. The result is a very professional-looking photo video!

It's SO simple to make an Animoto video, so I definitely encourage all to at least try it!

As a teacher, you can take pictures of your students and turn them into an Animoto video for the class website or for parent/teacher conference night. You could also compile pictures from your last year in class and create an Animoto video for the first day of school so your new students know how much fun is about to happen this year!

On the student side, there are a few things kids could do:

1. In an English class, students could pick out a character from a novel they're reading. Then they could collect Google images that depict that character's personality, and add music to complete the video.
2. After reading factual material, students could collect Google images that depict the main theme of the text. 
3. If a video camera isn't available for recording projects, students could take pictures of each other performing a project/skit, and then compile the pictures to form an Animoto video. 

The Animoto site has a page full of sample videos you can view, and here's a screen shot of one of the vids:


As you can see, not only can you add pictures and videos, but you can also add slides of just text. This has so much potential for classroom use!