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[hellochanicee]

This is my final animation for my assignment. I produced this animation on Zu3D. I took 3/4 pictures of each movement before moving my clay people to create another movement, so many photos where taken to make the movement as smoothly as possible. Whilst taking the pictures on Zu3D i discovered that the clay people i had created where very hard to move. I did not make their feet and legs big enough to hold up their top half. This made it difficult to move them and make them balance. It took 2/3 hours to finally create my clay people for this animation and another 4 hours to take pictures. Using Zu3D made it very easy to add sound, speed up the animation to give the illusion of movement and to add fades between scenes. I used a song called same love by Mackelmore to set the mood for my animation and the lyrics within the song link to how my characters would be feeling, and the mood behind the animation. For further enforcement of mood, i used different colours between my characters as a reflection. The main character is dressed dingy and grey because they are sad and upset and the person they love it more colourful in orange to show happiness and hope. It also allowed me to add credits and titles and overall i am happy with the outcome of my animation. If I was to do this animation again i would make the people differently so that moving them was easier and so they look less robotic. 

[hellochanicee]

Starting my assignment

To first think of ideas to what contemporary issue i wanted to do my animation about I decided to Google what some contemporary issues where. The idea that stood out most to me was gay marriage. It is an issue that has recently been on TV. In the UK gay marriage has just been passed by law however in Uganda homosexuality has just become illegal with a jail sentence if found doing homosexual acts. Also, currently in Russia they have just passed a bill that has made it illegal to tell children that gay people exist. With all these issues built up around homosexuality I felt this topic would be useful and may be compelling for other countries to see and change a perspective through the use of media. 

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Why do Educationalist want to change and advance learning

To first answer this question it must first be discovered what is an Educationalist. Cambridge Dictionaries Online defines an Educationalist as "a person who has a special knowledge of the principles and methods of teaching".

Sir Ken Robinson is a well known Educationalist with modern ideas about using Technology to help enforce teaching. Sir Ken Robinson has been a researcher, writer, teacher and speaker. He has been involved in a number of initiatives and organisations and states his main mission throughout the initiatives and organisations has been “to transform the culture of education and organizations with a richer conception of human creativity and intelligence.” On his website sirkenrobinson.com the header of the website has a quote "Imagination is the source of all human achievement".

Educationalists are moving away from traditional learning with children sat at their desks copying from a book and wish to engage childrens imaginations in creating skills like problem solving and creativity. Sir Ken Robinson believes that the education system we have now stops individuals from being creative and takes away pupils motivation to learn. In an Interview with The Guardian Sir Ken Robinson states that it is the system of schooling which needs to be changed. he states that with each lesson being 40 minutes long it interrupts the flow of creativity and this is what needs to be changed. sir Ken Robinson wants to create a dynamic curriculum, he believes that having subjects does not make a dynamic curriculum as none of the subjects have anything in common or are fluid. he does not want a curriculum reform but a curriculum transform. 

Robinson is supported by Anna Craft, a professor of education at the University of Exeter and a government adviser on creativity. The Interview with The Guardian States that Craft says: "There is an enormous willingness to embrace creativity in the classroom, but an increasing lethargy in the system too." Robinson is right, she says; it's not that we need to "tweak the recipe - we need a new recipe".

From this is can be seen that educationalists believe that creativity, imagination and freedom within education is important and the educational system currently restricts children's minds. 

References

Cambridge Dictionaries Online (2014) Educationist (online) http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/educationalist [Accessed;06/05/2014) Cambridge University Press. 

The Guardian (2009) Fertile minds need feeding. (online) http://www.theguardian.com/education/2009/feb/10/teaching-sats [Accessed:06/05/2014]

[hellochanicee]

This is the first Zu3D project my seminar group made. We used a very simplistic idea to understand how Zu3D works. Our animation is called a mothers journey with a goldfish swimming and having babies. I am happy with how this animation moves and will take what i have learnt for my own project,

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What is Animation?

The last Animation I watched was the film Tangled. The film was created by Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Teach-ICT.com states that animation is “where a series of still images are linked together as part of a timed sequence. This makes the image appear to move. This is the same technique used when making cartoons.” 

This is similar to Zu3D which is the program i will be using to create my stop motion animation. 

This idea about animation is further supported by Film Education which states "Our brain holds onto an image for a fraction of a second after the image has passed. If the eye sees a series of still images very quickly one picture after another, then the images will appear to move because our eyes cannot cope with fast-moving images - our eyes have been tricked into thinking they have seen movement."

References

Film Education (2014) What is Animation? (online) http://www.filmeducation.org/resources/primary/teaching_with_film/primary_animation/what_is_animation/ [Accessed:06/05/2014]

Teach-ICT (2014) Animation. (online) http://www.teach-ict.com/glossary/A/animation.htm [Accessed:06/05/2014]

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Sound

"A truth whispered among animatores is that 70% of a show’s impact comes from the sound track." Michael Dougherty

I like this quote and beleive there is truth in what it is saying. Sound has a huge impact in shows, it crerates an atmosphere it gives the audience a clue as to what is happening. The screen shot itself is not enough to understand if the scene is dangerous or happy, the sound is a reinforcer for our ideas. It can give us a hint as to what is happening and build up suspense and make the audience anxious. I think the music tell us what we should feel at a specific moment.

Sobchack and Sobchack (1987) state that although a film is a visual experience, it can not be underestimated how important the sound is. A meaningful soundtrack can be just as complicated as the image. A good soundtrack has 3 characteristics:

the human voice

sound effects

music

Sobchack and Sobchack (2987) go on to say Background music is used to add tone and emotion to the film or current scene. This reinforces my own ideas about sound in film and shows. 

Sobchack, T and Sobchack, V. (1987) An Introduction to Film. Little Brown. USA.

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Padlet

Today is seminars my class discussed the improtance of animation in learning. We used a padlet in the classroom so we could all write our opinions on the wall for everyone to see. It was a fun and useful way of getting everyones point across.

Created with Padlet

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“Everyone in this country should learn how to program a computer.. because it teaches you how to think.”

This quote was said in my seminar today. It stuck out and sent a very good message to me. I agree with this quote and believe that computers are suppose to support people within education, work and socialisation. However, when these things break we have to call upon people who knows how to fix them to help us, we are reliant. Most people do not understand computers or how to use them efficently. Breaking down computers to the very basics can help us use them better.

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Debate

The debate was whether video games should be used in the classroom to educate children. My team was for video games within the classroom. This task allowed me to build knowledge on readings and facts about video gaming in education. Unfortunately due to a lack of sturcture my team lost but both teams got a very good insite into whether video games in the classroom is a good idea. After the debate my opinion was for video games.I think video games is a fun and engaging activity which allows children to use problem solving skills, communication skills and develop reading skills. It may also allow for children to develop team work and team building skills. 

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Today I used an App on the Ipad to use different codes to move the objects on my screen. During this procress I used my objects to make shapes by using different movements and rotations and also allowed for when my objects where to meet for a certain command to take action. I think case it was for one of the objects to spin.

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Privates

Today's lesson was activity based. We played a channel 4 educational games called Privates. The games educational purpose was to teach about STI's and infections that occur in male and female genitalia. The aim of the game was to make it through each level, the first being Mount Vagina and kill sperm, chlamydia, herpes, lice and caner. You were given a gun with 4 different lasers for different STI's and infections. You were also encouraged to scan your area in the game, bringing up information about each bacteria. There was an explanation of a few symptoms that could occur along with the infection.

Educationally, the game was good, but i think it could of been better if it was more scientific and gave a bit more information. I did learn from the game and if i was a teenager i think i would learn a lot from the game. i think the age that i am at now i expect children to learn slightly more than what the game is offering.

However, as a game I found it enjoyable and encouraging to kill each bacteria before I did and to live long enough to pass through to the next game.

[hellochanicee]

Digital Learning Environments: Gaming

Gaming is not a huge interest to me. I rarely play such games. Tetris and Sims are my main interests when it comes to gaming. Apart from these two games I do not understand much about gaming. The way in which both these games work are a mystery to me but I understand the rules on how to play them and which buttons operate certain controls.

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The connection between our pathway powerpoint and gaming

The connection between our pathway powerpoint and gaming is in the power point your own decisions and choices affect which way you go through the power point.It will affect in which order the slides are represented to you and which slides you will see at all. You could see a different story or conclusion to a different player with a different idea.

Much like a game it gives you options as to which way you would like to go and which turn you would like the game to take. In Grand theft auto, at one point in the game it asks you whether you would like like to kill one of two people or kill neither of them and have a death wish on yourself. The options in which you choose will affect the personality of the player and how the game will react to your decisions giving you different tasks to complete. The game becomes personal to yourself.

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Who's to blame?

This is an embedded <a href="http://office.com" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://office.com">Microsoft Office</a> presentation, powered by <a href="http://office.com/webapps" target="_blank" data-mce-href="http://office.com/webapps">Office Web Apps</a>.

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Most learning happens casually, and even most intentional learning is not the result of programmed institution

Illich, l. (1970) deschooling society. London. Mexican byers.