TABLET COMPUTERS IN PROJECT-BASED LEARNING: TEACHING ANIMATION TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN HAWAII – A CASE STUDY

Teaching animation to elementary school students has historically been a challenge. Processing animation work into finished movies took several days with analog film, later being reduced to an hour or less with digital photography and the use of laptop computers. Today’s young learners expect instant results enriched with complex audio and video components. Waiting one hour or even ten minutes to visualize animation is not a viable approach with many such active learners. Without immediate visualization many animation lessons are ineffective with these learners. Animation applications for tablet computers are inexpensive and can be learned quickly compared to equivalent software for desktop computers. Tablet computers are becoming a staple in the classrooms of private schools throughout Hawaii. The one-tablet-per-student initiative has placed a powerful and versatile tool in the hands of this new generation of children. This case study examines how Ipads and animation applications for tablet computers were used in an elementary classroom to teach animation concepts to children in a summer enrichment program at a private high school in Honolulu, Hawaii. This project based learning experience had 25 students produce an original animated film in a period of 5 weeks. Through their film production experience they were taught animation concepts such as Squash and Stretch, Arcs and Timing. They learned film production methods such as Storyboarding, Cel Animation, Stop Motion Animation and Chroma Keying. Through immediate application concepts were reinforced. Apple Ipads were the central technology in this experience supported by use of a laptop computer and a digital projector. This case study examines the implementation of this approach discussing the positive and negative aspects of tablet technology in the elementary school classroom.