One particular format has been used at both the elementary and high school level to great success. (Although visions of students spread throughout the library, hiding in nooks and crannies, attempting to record their voices at the elementary school without echoes of other voices can still make me giggle a bit!) This platform allows students to create animated videos using stock or uploaded photos for backgrounds. They can also customize characters, upload or use stock music, insert speech bubbles and text screens, and create animated transitions between scenes. It's called GoAnimate4Schools. Not only is it easy to navigate, but it's cost affordable, with a class of student accounts and two teacher accounts costing slightly over $100.
When students compare the different formats: stopmotion animation, GoAnimate, green screen, and live motion not using the green screen, GoAnimate and green screen are usually tied for the most popular. Shyer students prefer to be anonymous and, therefore, prefer animated characters made to look like themselves. Extroverted students enjoy the animation, but they love using the green screen because it has fewer steps involved. (Stopmotion is fun, they all agree, but tedious and time-consuming for tiny clips of video.)
The problem?
GoAnimate ends this summer.
Although it has been written about in every educational tech magazine as the number one platform for students...
Although it has a great following on social media...
Although many of us have asked (okay, I admit, BEGGED)...
They are no longer going to have a school plan/pricing with their new platform. And I can't find an affordable, comparable alternative. There are other animation websites. However, it's hard to compromise on the features that work so well: upload pictures to have it set where you need it (our library, cafeteria, etc.); create characters with a variety of looks and clothes or costumes; huge amount of movements, facial animations, and emotions from which to choose; stock music to fit different moods; ability to download and put the video on a website; make a class set of accounts affordable; easy, easy, easy, easy to use.
They suggest their new platform, Vyond. I am sure it has all the features I love. Except one: AFFORDABILITY. There is absolutely no way a school can afford the business (or a teacher afford the personal) pricing!
So I am still searching for a replacement...and hoping some other company steps up and does what GoAnimate4schools has always done for countless educators and students! Suggestions are welcome!
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