Emerging Technologies 4: Animoto

Animoto seems to be a tool that could be very useful in the classroom. Instead of a powerpoint, you can put your pictures and text in Animoto and it will create this beautiful video that looks completely professional. You can add audio too, so the videos are totally engrossing by the end. All you have to do is upload your pictures and or text. If you just want to create a 30 second video, its free, but if you want longer than that you must pay a fee. This is totally understandable for such a service. However, I did run into a few problems. The program offers music choices but none of them are that great. Also, when I was finished creating the movie, I had to do the publishing part several times before it would work without any errors. So with any type of software or website, there are always problems. But overall, I think this could be a great tool for teachers to engage students and for students to use for projects as well.