This week, I took a step out of my comfort zone by trying something new: Animoto, a free video-making tool.

I started by going to the Animoto website:

The opening page of the Animoto website

I then made my free account and started a new project.

Blank project in Animoto.

In Animoto, you can easily do things such as add media to the media library on the right-hand side,

Add audio,

And preview the video.

One nice thing about Animoto is that it provides you with a quick tutorial on how to use it when you first begin. This is super useful for non-techy people like me.

Behind the scenes of my project video.

I’ve never been very good at making videos. Even in seventh grade when our class would make presentations using Windows Movie Maker (the only video-making tool I ever knew how to use), I wasn’t the most creative kid in the computer lab. I like to stick to what I know (which is a problem in the ever-changing world of tech). However, I did my best to create something usable.

After all of this work, I got to the end of making my video and discovered that in order to download it, I had to pay for a subscription.

Not only would I have had to pay for a subscription, but it was going to be a yearly subscription – for $96.

Enter: Screencastify to the rescue. (Screencastify is a Chrome extension which lets you record your screen or a certain window and the audio coming from it.)

And, there I was, having had to use not one, but two new techy things. T’was not a good day.

(There is an icon in the corner of the video from Screencastify, but at this point, I no longer cared.)

(Here are the links to the YouTube video I used this week and the ASL flashcards.)

The thing that was nice about Animoto was that everything was super easy. There didn’t appear to be a lot of free functions, but what was offered free was easy to use. The layout of the program itself was also nice, in that the most used buttons were all easily accessible and everything felt organized. But, in the end, it wasn’t too different from the Video Editor app which came with my laptop and which I have used before.

I think Animoto could be used as a great educational tool if the school system afforded a yearly subscription. However, I don’t think it’s necessary, as there are video editing apps that come with most Windows/Mac laptops/computers for free…

On the SAMR model, Animoto could be used in all of the four categories. It could be used to simply replace a face-to-face lecture, integrate pictures/videos in a lecture to become augmentation, become a tool that students use to create their own videos and share them with each other (modification), or to create something publishable and share it with the whole world (redefinition). In a classroom, I think the most likely level of Animoto on the SAMR model would be modification.

At the very least, I will now be equipped to use a video editing tool in the future. Is there any particular video editing tool that you prefer to use? Let me know in the comments.

(Also, if you know of any tricks to memorize the ASL alphabet, please tell me.)

Bernice

This week, I started using the app Lingvano. I really liked how it was laid out, and the first lessons were very simple. However, pretty soon after I started learning with it, I found out that I had to pay to continue learning. And, although I’m pretty invested in learning ASL, I’m not that invested.

(Click here to watch a video of me signing “hello” and “welcome,” words I learned from Lingvano.)

So, I moved on. The app InterSign ASL seemed like a good second choice. I started working on things there and learned the letters, A, B, D, E, F, J, K, L, O, P, S, T, N, X, and Y.

I can now finger-spell short words, like “ball,” “fox,” “box,” “plate,” or “stand.” I still have a very limited knowledge of ASL, and it takes me a while to think about the shape of each letter before I can successfully make it or identify it.

It’s been really interesting so far, having to relearn the alphabet. It’s a strange feeling to be struggling so much to spell. My hands are a bit slower than my head is.

The homepage of the InterSign ASL app.

I really enjoy the way the InterSign ASL app is laid out. The most fun thing for me so far has been that after I learn a new set of letters on InterSign ASL, it shows a video of someone spelling a word using those letters and I have to type out the word. Identifying the letters individually in order to spell a word just feels rewarding when I finally figure it out.

I think I will continue using this app alongside the other things I try. I’ll definitely be trying YouTube videos next, but after that, I’m not sure what to do. Do you have a suggestion?

Hello!

For my learning project, I decided to try and learn some ASL (American Sign Language). I’ve never had a need for it, but I figure it’s a useful skill to have, and I think it’ll be (at least mostly) fun.

I have absolutely no prior knowledge of ASL, so it’ll be an entirely new thing for me to track my personal level of interest as this project continues and to see how much I will be able to retain starting from scratch.

I have a very rough idea of how I’d like to go about this, but this is subject to change:

I think I’ll start by trying out a couple of apps during the first two weeks. I already found two that I want to compare: Lingvano and InterSign ASL.

I think after that I’ll see if I can find a few YouTube videos and websites to try out.

After that, I’m not totally sure. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for some inspiration, but I’m sure it’ll come to me eventually.

I’m not interested in ASL for any particular reason, just because I think it would broaden my own potential as a person. I’ve never had to communicate with someone who was deaf, but I know a family who has a deaf son, and his two younger brothers were around my age. Sometimes, they would start signing at each other so that no one else knew what they were saying. I found that incredibly annoying, but thinking about it now, I think it’s very sad that just because someone is deaf, I can’t easily communicate with them.

Hopefully, that will soon change!

See you next time,

Bernice