The Importance of sound

Have you ever stopped to consider, when watching a movie or an animation, how important the sound is to the experience you are having. We can only process the one image appearing on the screen in front of us at one time. however, it is possible for us to hear and interpret many different sounds at one time. Consider this quote with regards to animation:

"A truth whispered among animators is that 70% of a show's impact comes from the sound track.” Michel Dougherty

Try watching this stop motion animation short without the sound first, and then with the sound and notice how you respond to it.    

Well? How did you get on. I actually only watched the first 30 seconds without the sound, before returning to the start to watch the whole thing with sound; and doing that reminded me of an interesting point made today. When we sit down to watch a movie, we will often tolerate a slightly poor picture, a reflection on the screen maybe or a corner or side of the frame missing. But if the sound quality is comprimised, muffled or out of sync we can often find it almost impossible to watch.

Different types of sound

The sound that we hear in any text will be either diegetic or non-diagetic sound: and the easiest way to explain the difference is as follows:

Diegeitc Sound: Refers to the sounds that both the charcters on screen and the audience can hear. This might be sounds effects, like the sounds of footsteps or maybe music playing in the scene, in a bar for example.

Non-Diegetic Sound: Refers to sound that only the audience can hear and is commonly refered to as the soundtrack. Usually this would be music (score) but could be sound effects used to build tension or amplify whats happening on the screen.

Sound can be used as a powerful tool to:

• Sychronise our senses; brining together the images and the sound to create a sensory rhythm.
• Direct our attention to a particular part of the scene, e.g the foreground or the background.
• Or maybe misdirect us and create confusion.
• Clarify what we are seeing on the screen e.g a punch or slap connecting.
• And act as cues to create expectations in the audience e.g footsteps increasing in volume creates the expectation of someone getting closer.

The sound of silence. It is also worth rembering that the use of sound will also increase the power of silence in a scene. Writing this, I am recalling watching many a horror movie were silence is used to amazing effect; my breathing paused along with the sound, waiting with gritted teeth for the impending horror that will break the silence!

References:
http://filmsound.org/

Animation For Learning

The world we live in, childhood and the way we learn is changing rapidly in modern society and technological advances continue to reshape the skill sets necessary for students to succeed both in the classroom and in the workforce (Silva, 2008). Therefore it is important that we try to think of innovative ways to teach in order to meet these needs.

In recent years the animation tools that would have been expensive and unaccesible to schools are now more readily available and are being used by teachers as tools to encourage and develop childrens learning in a way that is not only fun, but effective. By using animation children develop skills competencies in:

• Story telling
• Visual communication
• Cognition, emotional, ethic and aesthetic aspects
• Observation and sensory aspects
• Concentration
• Problem-solving and innovative aspects   (VIA University College, 2013)

One particular product which we have been using to create an understanding of animation as a learning tool is ZU3D. Zu3D is currently being used in a number of schools promoting the use of animation to enhance learning in the creative curriculum (Edspire, 2011).

Zu3D stop-motion animation software has been developed to give children (and adults) of all ages the freedom to create amazing animated films quickly and easily, in school and at home. Combining an intuitive interface with stunningly powerful features. Educational & fun!

Through the initial story boarding process and the actual production of the animation, ZU3D can be used as a valuable literacy tool in helping children to develop a narrative structure. The ability to communicate information verbally and graphically can be viewed as a necessary skill that should be developed (Silva, 2008).

Children will also have a chance to practice good speaking and listening skills as you can also add narration to the animations, meanwhile the whole time developing their ITC skills (Edspire, 2011).

‘Technology and Engineering Teacher’ (2013) suggests The inclusion of a technical animation curriculum into secondary education provides numerous advantages for a learner. The use of a content-rich, activity-based curriculum and the addition of project-based learning activities, which include the use of multiple software applications, allow for an educational experience that prepares the learner… with a general skillset for future educational needs.

References

 Software Review- ZU3D. Available at: http://www.edspire.co.uk/year_2011/01/17/software-review-zu3d/

VIA University College. Animation as a Learning Tool. Available at:

http://www.viauc.com/schools-faculties/faculty-of-education-and-social-studies/exchange-programmes/Pages/animation-as-a-learning-tool.asp

http://zu3d.com

Silva, E. (2008). Measuring skills for the 21st century. Washington, DC: Education Sector. Available at: www.educationsector.org/usr_doc/MeasuringSkills.pdf

Making a Traumotrope and Zoetrope

Last week we began talking about stop motion animation and looked at a few examples. In today seminar session myself and few other group members had a go at making a few of the simpler, earlier examples of stop motion animation in order to find out what kind of skills might be used or developed during the process.

The traumotrope was a popular 19th century tot which consists of a single paper disc with a picture drawn on each side. String is attached to either side of the disc and is then used to sin the disc back and forth, creating a sloid image out of the two images on either side. The Traumotrope demonstates persistance of vision and simple toys of this nature are recognised as important antecedents of cinemantography and in particular of animation.

Here is my attempt at a traumotrope:

It seemed like it would be a simple task, but i found myself using skills id not used since school.






While the task essentially started as a creative process, it required both mathematical and scientific undertsanding to make sure the traumotrope worked.



Being given a task and left to complete it allowed us to develop problem solving skills and required patience, reseacrh skills and interpersonal skills, for finding out where other people had gone wrong so you didnt need to make the same mistake




As you can probably see, im no artist, but the task still allowed me to focus of areas of strength, for example the technical side.

But once it was alltogether, did it really work?

Stop Motion Animation

Today in education futures we've been discussing stop motion animation. Stop motion animation is a cinematic process, or technique used to makes static objects appear as if they were moving. It is a technique is commonly used in claymation and puppet-based animation. The objects are brought to life by breaking up the figure's motion into increments and filming one frame of film per increment.

The first thing that became apparent when asked to give examples is that across a seminar group whose ages span from early 20 into the 30's is that we all have different ideas of what stop motion animation is. some of the more recent examples offered by younger members of the group included Tim Burton movies such as 'The nightmare before christmas' and 'The corpse bride', while slightly more dated examples such as Morph; a plasticine character who first appeared on our screens back in 1977.

Stop motion animation has a long history in the world of moving images and in its early stages was often used to mkae an image appear as if it was moving by magic. You may remember experimenting with stop motion animation as a child, expect you probbably wouldn't have known that is what it was called. Remember these?

other early examples of stop motion animation include these contarptions:some of which you may recognise or have experiemnted with at school:

Zoetrope:

Thaumotrope:



The use of stop-motion animation grew throughout the 20th century. if you like to know more about the history of it, maybe watch this history of stop motion animation:



History and evolution of Stop Motion Animation... by mistersexybuzz

The advantages of using stop motion animation is that you can create something cool and animate inanimate objects. The effect can be acheived with very little costs and almost anyone can give it ago; its accessible to all ages. The disadvantages however is that it can be incredibly time consuming, if wanting to do it well. Also, if a creator wants a smooth image they must create a huge amount of images and set the speed right. 

As you can see the use of stop motion has evolved considerably over the years, so lets have a look at some of the more modern stop animations. Nick park, the creator of the infamous Wallace and Gromit duo, spring to mind as a great example of the success of stop motion animation.

Ways We Learn

Hi,

Welcome to my Blog 'Ways We Learn'.

Its a simple title, "so what's it all about?"

OK....Think of the word education......

 

 

 

....and now think of a place where we learn, a context for learning if you like.

 

 

 

got it?

 

Did you think of a place that looked a little like this?

 

 

All lined up in rows in a classroom.

 

 

 

Or maybe you thought of something like this

 

 

 



 

 

Which looks a bit more fun but its still a classroom.

 

 

 

Often when we think of learning we think of children in classrooms, or our own past education, with our wise figure head at the front of the room imparting their knowledge upon us. When in fact learning is taking place throughout all ages, throughout our lives and in a variety of different contexts.

 

In this blog we will be looking at some of these contexts for learning, or if you like , the 'Ways We Learn'

 

Firstly we will take a look at adult learning and how that differs from the ways we learn as children, followed by a glance at some of the different contexts used by schools to develop their pupils interpersonal skills and love for learning. Then in the final blog we will take a look at how Montessori schools promote self discipline.

 

Watch the videos, follow some links and enjoy this brief exploration of some of the 21st centuries contexts for learning.

 

 

 

Lifelong Learning/ Adult Learning

Although there is no specific age range which determines what will be referred to as 'Lifelong Learning' it can often be referred to as 'Adult Learning'. Lifelong learning tends to refer to adults returning to education or

  

training at some stage or repetitively throughout their  lives.

With a job for life no longer guaranteed, an open market for immigrant workers and fast changing technology it has never been more important for adults to view their education as a continuum rather than end target. While no concrete figure has ever been placed on how many times people actually change Job/Career in their lifetime it has been suggested by researchers that it may be up to as many as 5-7 times, with career change being one of the greatest factors involved in returning to education.

In the following blogs we will be looking at ways in which children learn therefore in this blog it may be interesting to look at how adults learn in contrast to children and some of the agreed and not so well agreed theories on the differences. In order to do so we will look to the work of Malcolm Knowles and his 'Basic Assumptions' of how adults learn or 'Androgogy'.

Andrgogy

For Knowles, andragogy is main up of five basic assumptions of the characteristics of adult learners that differ from that of child learners:

          1. Self-concept: As a person matures his self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being.

2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning.

3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles.

4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject-centeredness to one of problem centredness.

5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal

Differences between adult and child learning

Lets combine what we already know about Child learners and Knowles basic assumptions to find the basic differences in adult and child learning

Independence of learner: A child remains dependant on the teacher for constant guidance and it will
mostly be the teachers choice as to how and when things are taught. Knowles would argue that an adult will work much better in an independent self directing environment, where a teacher acts as a facilitator to encourage and suggest further learning.

Past Experience: Compared to that of a child, an adult learner will posses a great wealth of past life experience, which they often hold in high regard. This should be allowed to drawn upon in group discussion in new learning environments.

Readiness to learn (a need to Know): Children are often unaware of what they need to learn therefore a curriculum is in place to support their education. However adult learners returning to education will mostly do so to learn something they need to know, possibly for a new job or professional development. therefore they have a much more immediate readiness to learn.

Orientation to learning: Again, children are limited by the curriculum to what they may learn and it is mostly basic around specific subject matter. Where as adult learners may respond better to learning through the practical application of a new subject and are more performance centered in their learning.

Motivation to learn: It is suggested that a child motivation to learn will mostly be extrinsic, to please or conform to parents, teachers and society's expectation. However adult learners will be intrinsically motivated or discovering new knowledge for themselves. Although adults could also be extrinsically motivated to please an employer or gain a promotion at work.



References and other useful links:

Rosenberg McKay, D. How Often Do People Change Careers? Guide to Career Planning since 1997 (2006)

Knowles, M. et al (1984) Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education, San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

http://www.infed.org/lifelonglearning/b-andra.htm

School Trips: The Big Pit

 

In order to explore how schools trips and museums can act as an exciting context for learning, a fellow Ed. Studies student Leigh Reece and I headed down to the 'Big Pit' in Blaenavon, the National Mining Museum of Wales. There was mining at Blaenavon from 1788-1980 and the coal face, shafts and lifts remain in place today and can be accessed via an underground tour which is undoubtedly the highlight of any trip to Big Pit. The rest of the buildings and surrounding parts of the mine have been restored or maintained and are now used as various attractions and exhibits for the museum, including the interactive miners galleries tour, winding engine house, miners baths and fan house.

If you have never taken a trip to the Big Pit, do! You'll love it and certainly learn a lot. But in the meantime watch this short clip to get a idea of what a day out or school trip there might include.

 

 

 

This is Bill who took us on our underground tour. We noticed he
interacted particularly well with the children on the tour and
introduced some interesting themes across the core subjects
through his exciting and engaging storytelling.

The 50 minute underground tour takes you 90 meters underground and gives you a chance to discover real life working at the coal face. Its gives the children first hand experience with real mining equipment and they even get to wear actual working miners lamps on helmets. Children are able to get a real sensory feel for the environment. Because it is a real mine there is also real risk so children are learning the importance of following the rules and constantly making their own risk assessments. It is an interactive tour and most of the information and stories shared by the miners are done so through questions and answers with the children. This gives the children a chance to practice and use valuable interpersonal and social skills outside of the classroom.

 

A school trip to Big Pit is most likely to be part of a big theme for learning being explored in the classroom back at school. A school trip can be used as hands on, experiential context in which to apply the knowledge the children have already begun to grasp in the classroom. It is a great opportunity for children to deepen their understanding of the theme through 'seeing' and 'doing'. With this in mind Leigh and I decided to look at what requirements of the National Curriculum for Key Stage Two might be met here.

 

The following are exerts from the Skills and Range sections of some of the subjects at Key Stage Two, with some examples of how they may fit around a visit to the Big Pit;

 

History

 

Nat Curriculum Range:  “Pupils should develop their historical skills,knowledge and understanding through learning about a range of historical contexts. These should be based primarily on the local area within the wider context of Wales”

• Changes to people’s daily lives in the locality in the nineteenth century

• The differences in people’s daily lives in two contrasting periods of the twentieth century

 

These are perfect topics to be discussed around a trip to the mine. The miners baths and the miners galleries gives a chronological explanation of the history of mining across two centuries told through the lives of the people who lived within that community. References to the daily lives of the community were made during both the Underground tour and the miners gallery tour.


Science 

 

Nat Curriculum Range: Pupils should understand......

 

• "the uses of electricity and its control in simple circuits"

• "the properties of solids, liquids and gases and how the particle model can be used to explain these properties"

During the underground tour Bill gave a great example of a simple circuit in the form of a miners communication system. Children would be able to relate this back to what they have learnt about simple circuits back in the classroom or could possibly be used to create a new topic for discussion back at school. This experience could give them a deeper understanding of the subject. The properties of gases were also discussed in the tour while talking about the dangers of fire in the mines.

Benefits of Trip

A school trip like this can act as a bridge between existing knowledge and new skills, attitudes and knowledge yet to be learnt. Returning back to school with a clearer understanding of the overall concept and a re-ignited enthusiasm for learning the children may be ready then to engage in some reflection and analysis on the theme.


Here is a link to some teaching packs we found online based around trips to the Big Pit:

http://education.scholastic.co.uk/content/821  

Task suggested for the children to do at school include:

• Write a diary as a child in the mine

• Write a letter complaining about the conditions in the mines

• Explore current child labour/ poverty issues

For further information on the experiences available at the Big Pit follow the link below to their excellent website:

¨http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/

 

 

References 

Big Pit Website: http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/bigpit/

National Curriculum Wales: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/curriculuminwales/arevisedcurriculumforwales/nationalcurriculum/?lang=en

What are learning contexts: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu

Big Pit teaching packs: http://education.scholastic.co.uk/content/821

National Curriculum Wales: