Tools/Visualisation

Explain ideas using animation

Tool Description Animation is much used in teaching. A search for animation of solid, liquids and gases will find plenty that can be learned from. Just as schools purchase word processing software for some added-value within, they also buy animations too. So you will find free or paid-for animation in schools and you will want to find ways to use it well.
Do you imagine that the teacher discusses the animation on the whiteboard^(tool)? Would it always be better that students use it for themselves? If so how would you structure the student's activity? Does that mean making a worksheet or does that mean putting an open-question on the board? Does the students response have to be marked automatically or can there may be discussion about them? Is it true that closed questions lead to closed minds? So does it always follow that learning with animation^(tool) should entail some kind of inquiry^(ta) learning? Think about it: these points are not exclusive to using animation. But how about the idea of finding a space for students to make their own multimedia?

Good novels aside, it is hard to imagine a piece of writing that does not benefit from adding media. Good animation aside, it is not hard to imagine that students could benefit from making multimedia to explain an idea. Some, if not many learners, work well with visuals. ICT tools allow students to draw, photograph and make video and animation. You will find links for possible tools nearby. So how might animation^(tool) be used for teaching? Some ideas:

• Make a step-by-step visual guide^(tool) to an experiment
• Make a puzzle where you must put a series of steps in the right order
• Animate^(tool) a story to explain what happens in photosynthesis
• Animate^(tool) the orbit of the earth to explain the phases of the moon or the reasons for seasons.
• Make a timelapse^(tool) movie of a plant growing towards the light
• Write a dialogue^(ta) where animated^(tool) characters discuss^(ta) two sides of an environmental issue ^(edit)

Teaching Approach. Visualisations^(ta) provide a central stimulus for reasoning^(ta) about a particular problem, engaging in the scientific method^(ta) and mathematical thinking^(ta), and considering subject specific language^(ta). They can be used to display models^(ta) and concept maps for dialogic teaching^(ta); building on the visualisations over time. Creating effective visualisations is a great way to encourage pupils in higher order^(ta) thinking in group work^(ta) and individual settings. ^(edit)

Tool details
Title	Explain ideas using animation
Topic
Licence / Cost / Platform
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Teaching Ideas / Links
Link	SCRATCH; POWERPOINT; TOOLS IN THIS SECTION

Further notes:

• Visualising Ideas: Mind maps and similar ideas, see e.g. http://www.tessafrica.net/files/tessafrica/kr_brainstorming.pdf
• Visualising Data: Undertanding the relationship between data (numbers or words) and how they can be visualised - e.g. how changes in numbers impact on the mean, and thus on the graph.
• Visualising Processes and Simple Ideas: Diagrams in science, Drawing shapes