OVERVIEW:
I created a short, 30 second video highlighting a trip to Hawaii using Animoto. This was the first time I have ever used this site. After creating an account, I found it quite user-friendly. I liked how you could include photos from different areas (photos on your computer, Facebook albums, Picasa, Flickr). Music and background or themes were also customizable. In the end, after simply choosing photos and uploading them, with a simple click Animoto did all the "work" and automatically put everything into a quick slideshow presentation.
PROS: The entire site was pretty user friendly. It didn't take long to create a quick, fun show.
CONS: Since this was the free or "lite" version, my video was limited to 30 seconds which amounted to only about 10 photos. In addition, while I liked that the photos were set to music, again, since this was the lite version, all of the song choices were unfamiliar to me. While I liked how Animoto then did all the "work" of putting it together, if I needed a specific order or defined structure to my presentation beyond just looking at pictures, this would not be the site to use.
If I were going to use this in my classroom, I would definitely need to be a paid subscriber. Just looking at the website, it does seem quite reasonable (approximately $5/month).
