:MediaEd

I’ve recently been working with a group of Year 7 boys on a unit on video games. They created a wiki on games, and then made their own games using PowerPoint. I’m beginning to realise the flexibility of PowerPoint for doing a range of things, including:
- Frame by frame animations (ie: cel animation, stop-motion animation)
- Flash-style animation
- Video games
- Interactive projects (games, quizzes, choose your own adventure stories, etc)

Wikipedia has a good breakdown of PowerPoint animation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPoint_animation

Also, check out PowerPoint Heaven – some amazing stuff!. One of the guys also has a blog which goes through tips and tricks for PowerPoint.

Other resources that range in usefulness but are worth checking out (many have been designed for education, so it’s good to see how educators are using PowerPoint and tips for creating resources that are usable for students):
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial094.shtml
http://epotential.education.vic.gov.au/area_phase.php?areaphase_id=2
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/animationsandtransitions/motionpathsanimations2.html
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpoint_tip_anim_path_effects.html

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The Classification Board and Classification Review Board

Useful not only for looking at Media Influence, but handy for checking classification ratings of films to check out if they can be screened in a class.

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For and against arguments relating to children playing video games. Could be used for Media Influence.

University of Illinois News Bureau: Some online video games found to promote ’sociability,’ researchers say
Vancouver Sun: New technology could measure the pleasure of playing games
PC World: Violence in Games: A Conversation with Christopher Ferguson
GamePolitics.com: Child Psychologist Scoffs at Video Game Violence Arguments
(February 7, 2008)
Science Daily: Violent Video Game Feed Aggression In Kids In Japan And U.S. (Nov. 4, 2008)

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Thought this was an interesting article, albeit quite long. Could be useful for Year 11s (Representation, use of new media technologies). Goes into the use of viral videos on the internet to lead political campains and how they work.

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GIMP is an free, open-source graphics/digital imaging program similar to Adobe Photoshop. Aside from using it for photo manipulation and 2D graphics, you can use it to create animated gif images.

Resources and tutorials on how to do it:

The GIMP online tutorials are a wealth of information and can be a first port of call for both animating gifs and other common tools and skills.
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/

Other resources:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/1664.html
http://www.csb.yale.edu/userguides/image/moviemaker/anim_gif.html
http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/writing/help/graphics/gimp/animation.shtml
www.osceola.k12.wi.us/docs/Handouts/GIMPGifAnimation.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-9_HwRcd1A

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At the school I work at we’re pretty lucky in that we have the Adobe Design Suite for creating graphics and animations. While it seems many schools now are going this way, I am interested in how animation might be created on a budget. Over the next few posts I’ll be exploring this topic further, looking at various animation styles and software (with an emphasis on cheap/free software) that is available for these purposes.

If you have any good links to software or resources, feel free to let me know.

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