Abstract:

This experience took place in a pre-school classroom of 5-year-olds creating an integration activity classroom project dubbed “Prehistory” which was developed during the first trimester. This is applicable to classes in elementary education due to the global aspect during this phase due to the closeness of student ages and interests. This answers that which was stated in Directives as reflected in, Article 6, Decree 22/2007, 10th of May, whereby the curriculum for elementary education was established for the province of Madrid: “Reading comprehension, oral and written expression, audiovisual communication, as well as information technology and communication shall be covered in all areas”. We incorporated the program Crazy Talk 6 Pro® as a learning resource with the objective of bringing the new technologies to the classroom for a hands-on activity complementing other activities previously done (searching for information, playing educational games, viewing audiovisual material). The idea of incorporating this animation program arose as an answer to the “conflict” generated in the group while they visualized an educational cartoon series (“Érase una vez el hombre®”) since they could not understand how the characters could be talking, asking: “Where the people wearing a disguise?”. So incorporating animation software as a classroom tool allowed everyone exposure to audiovisual language transforming ourselves into scriptwriters and main characters in an animated movie with play dough and reflecting the learning achieved on “Prehistory”. For this, we first began by watching an animated film on You Tube of the story: CRONIÑON, of Michel Gay (Ed. Corimbo, 2001), with the objective of understanding how, by way of still images, the effect of movement can be achieved (zoom effects). Following this, we organized the work in the following way: analyzing the storyline; designation of roles ensuring everyone’s participation. Later the script was modified and the character roles were assigned in random manner. For classroom activities we included: the making of the play dough figurines, putting up the scene, the digital recording of the voices (dubbing) and background sound, scene selection and editing, role playing, the incorporation of the “the movie’s” games corner and the making of invitations for the student’s families. The making of the animated movie: “Croniñona y Croniñon” started in October and was finished on the 22nd of December with an invitation to the families to watch the premier.
Among the benefits of using the program Crazy Talk, the following stand out: it is an incentive by itself; favors critical thinking; analyses reality; cultivates creativity; reinforces the use of different languages; promotes a good work ethic; helps them identify their emotions, express and share them; encourages group work and favors integrated and meaningful learning concepts.
The evaluation of the process/product was quite satisfactory in all aspects. This project has allowed the teachers involved to evaluate the teaching possibilities with this computer resource and its possible application for university level teaching, learning and research. In fact this experience has meant personal collaboration with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) which falls within their project concerning education innovation PIMCD 1/2010-11 “BUCM & E-Learning 2.0” (BUCM: Biblioteca de la UCM-University’s library-).

Keywords:

School, animation program, collaborative, E-portfolio, ITCs, audiovisual language, Crazy Talk, elementary education.