In this class we've discovered a lot of new tools, and almost all of them have been useful and well crafted. Unfortunately this weeks tool, Animoto, falls well short of the mark. I found Animoto very clunky, unyielding, and just straight up annoying to use. While I'm sure much of this comes from using the "free" version (a number of ads recommended paying to upgrade to Pro), it doesn't hide the fact that this version has a number of severe limitations.
Right off the bat I noticed that placing text on a screen was limited to less than 50 characters! While this might be helpful for those tempted to write essays on their slides, it was highly restrictive for what I could put on the slides. So as you can see, the above slides are very simple. This doesn't leave any room for a Reference Slide, so my references are pasted below.
Also, the watermark that they place on every slide is really distracting. Again, this could be solved by paying for the full version, but this trial run left me so frustrated that there is not a chance I pay for the full product! Microsoft Powerpoint or Google Docs is a much cleaner and powerful tool, so I'll stick with them when it comes to slideshows.
As far as learning about copyright, this assignment did teach me some valuable tips about acceptable uses of copyrighted material. Being free to use resources is important, and while giving credit is also important, these six "free" uses of content allow us as a society to remain informed, educated, and resourceful, without fear of legal troubles and company harassment.
Slide 4: theunquietlibrarian. (2015, March 29). 21st
Century Research Tools (Online Image). Retrieved from https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7168/6813559141_4634407366_b.jpg
Slide 6: Helen Beetham. (2015, March 29). Digital
Students (Online Image). Retrieved from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/sites/default/files/digital-student.jpg
Slide 8: Spongy444. (2015, March 29). Spongebob Movie
Review (Online Image). Retrieved from http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/038/4/5/spongebob_review__the_spongebob_movie_by_spongey444-d8h3jre.png
Slide 10: Canadian Light Source Inc. (2015, March 29). Peter
Mansbridge (Online Image). Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mansbridge_at_CLS.jpg
Slide 12: Bago Games. (2015, March 29). Stephen Colbert
(Online Image). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagogames/15678684406/
Slide 14: Hans. (2015, March 29). Lecture (Online Image).
Retrieved from http://pixabay.com/p-318123/?no_redirect
I really like your slideshow, specially the music in the background. But I agree with you, the ads were everywhere for us to upgrade it, and it isn't cheap. I think, though, that even with all the limitations, it works well and nicely.
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