{Cross posted on TechLearning Advisor Blog}

Anyone who owns a vehicle will probably be able to recognize this picture.

It’s a car’s front tire, unevenly worn due to a bad wheel alignment.

It’s a great metaphor representing something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, as I have grown personally and professionally, and have had time to reflect on my own vision and mission as an educator in terms of the larger context of my school.

photo credit: renaissancechambara

I’m fortunate; things are pretty good here. We have a new superintendent, our former elementary principal, now guiding the ship. Our new elementary principal is settling in as our instructional leader, getting to know us, making his presence felt, making sure we know what his expectations are – and that he’s there for us. Sure, there are times when I wonder about a particular issue or two, but by and large, we’re directionally correct – on the right path, headed where I think we need to be.

But enough about me. How about you, your school, your district?

photo credit: Ballistik Coffee Boy

Hillary Clinton’s now-infamous “3 am phone call” ad was the talk of the 2008 presidential election for quite a while. Politics aside, the mental image resonates for me. Imagine it’s 3 am and YOUR phone rings. On the other end, it’s President Obama. Or Arne Duncan. Or your state Governor. Or CNN, The New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Associated Press. (Hey, education reform is on EVERYONE’s mind right now.) Seemingly oblivious to the time of day, they want to know:

“What are your top three priorities as an education professional today?”

What would you say? Hold that thought…

Now, what if the same call came to your principal? What would they say?

Or, your superintendent? How might they respond?

See where I’m going with this?

The answers would of course be different – the question is – how much would they have IN COMMON?

This, to me, is the essence of alignment: how our personal priorities match up with those of the organization as a whole. If you had several chips – one for you, each of your colleagues, your administrators … and had to stack them based on the amount of overlap (or commonality) that exists in your top three views, how tall would the tower of chips get? Clearly, in order to stand at all, the amount of overlap would have to be very significant. Otherwise, you’d be left with a messy, unorganized, random pile.

Seems to me the same is true for any organization – including our schools.

photo credit: dcJohn

We in the edublogosphere often decry the progress schools are making relative to the role of educational technology in our schools today. I don’t know anyone who is totally, completely, 100% satisfied with the way their district leverages edtech in the classroom or supports it with high-quality professional development. We wring our collective hands about this;  wonder about the impact on our kids’ future competitiveness in the global marketplace; ponder looming budget shortfalls and funding problems; obsess about the impact high-stakes testing has on our ability to teach the way we know we need to; the list goes on.

But here’s the reality – how many of these issues we are so concerned with are also at the top of  our school’s priority list? If the variances are significant, you can be sure that lack of alignment will take its toll over time. It will wear you down, impeding your effectiveness as an individual (not to mention the organization as a whole). You’ll burn out, and the organization will, at best, struggle to achieve.

Fortunately, those of us lucky enough to have a classroom of our own have a secret weapon in the fight against burnout. A weapon of such incomprehensible power that it can overcome virtually any amount of discord or conflict. A weapon each of us uses every day, in one way or another. A weapon so simple that it has existed since the dawn of educational time.

photo credit: Looking Glass

That weapon: our own classroom doors. I don’t know about you, but, I’m the most aligned – as close to 100% as one can be – when I’m teaching. In fact, when I’m teaching, I’m more than 100% aligned. I’m 1,000% aligned, meaning my weekly interactions with the 525 human beings known as my students do much more than get me back to an even keel. They supercharge me, powering me through the day, carrying me through meetings, administrivia, difficult conversations and more. These interactions give me superhuman strength. Phenomenal power. Endless endurance.  (If you ever wondered where I get the energy to start my typical workday at 3:30 am, now you know.)

photo credit: Picture Perfect Pose

A closed classroom door can be dangerous, though. It doesn’t deal with the root cause of the problem – poor alignment. To work on that, ask yourself some questions:

• What is my district’s mission, expressed in terms meaningful to me as an educational professional?
• How can the things I am passionate about support that mission?
• What can I do to make my instructional leader more successful?
• What do I need from my instructional leader to be more successful?

photo credit: Marcus Vegas

We live in a world of vivid, seemingly infinite color, not binary black and white. Every district has in its own place on the “spectrum of innovation.” Districts have limited resources, especially with regards to technology, and can’t be all things to all people. Decisions have to be made, priorities must be established, budgets set and observed. As members of these organizations, it’s our job to understand our district’s mission and how we can support and move our districts forward in the complex environment we live in. But in the end, a lot comes down to us personally and the choices we make: what do we need to do that we’re not doing? What do we need to stop doing? How much of the situation you face every day is a result of YOUR contributions (or lack thereof). In Scott McLeod’s words, “why aren’t you having a bigger impact?”

In a perfect world, our priorities are the district’s priorities; or, enough of them are for us to feel truly valued, respected, and part of something greater than ourselves. In a not-so-perfect world, when that alignment is so far off that adjustments can’t be made to correct it, the only solution is to interpret that image above – the hand reaching for the door – in another, more figurative way: it’s time to move on … and find another organization that’s a better fit.

Now, don’t go resigning from a tenured position on MY account – this is, after all, just a blog post – but I think we should all monitor our alignment and make periodic adjustments. Otherwise, we’ll eventually look like the tire pictured at the top of this post – worn out and unfit for the job we’re supposed to do!

Hope this helps,

-kj-

Good morning everyone!

Chances are, if you are doing any group work in your classes, you need to assign teams from time to time. Large inservices and other meetings also require grouping of people to ensure equitable distributions.  Well, I got a random email from Tamara Swedberg, a Rutgers (Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Rutgers Rah!) student who shared a cool tool she and a fellow student developed. It’s called Team Maker:

Just paste in the names (…recognize any of those?) then choose a few other options and WHAMO! Instant random groups!

I don’t know if they are working on it but PERSISTENT GROUPS (i.e., user accounts) would be great, as would the ability to select your own team names. I know the Google Teacher Academy does this with famous inventors – maybe those could be added to the list? Tamara? Chirag? What do you say? :)

-kj-

Good morning all,

I usually keep a low profile in the shameless self-promotion department, but, I just have to share this … an article I wrote this winter with Mary Ann Devine, a 6th grade colleague here at Northfield Community School, has been published in the February 2010 NJEA Review – and it’s the cover story!

“How to use backchanneling in your classroom”  tells how Mrs. Devine’s 6th grade social studies students used TodaysMeet.com to enliven a movie discussion, in this case, a documentary about China’s Qin Dynasty. Let’s be honest, folks – movies like this are often not the most exciting learning experience for kids OR teachers – but TodaysMeet.com changes all that.

The inspiration for this project came from a blog post by Chris Webb of Minot Public Schools in Minot, North Dakota. He wrote about how his colleague, Pat Gerding, used TodaysMeet.com in his middle school social studies classroom. As soon as I read it, I knew we had to try it. When I explained the concept to Mrs. Devine, she enthusiastically agreed!

You can view the article right here (on the web) entire issue here online (it’s pretty slick – a ‘virtual PDF’ that gives you tons of viewing options) or just read our article here (4.4 mb .PDF). It’s so cool seeing our students pictures in this magazine! They’re going nuts, too! (I know, it’s not as impressive to your average middle schooler as a viral YouTube video, but we’ll take what we can get…)

I’d like to thank Chris Webb and Pat Gerding for the inspiration, Mrs. Devine for her willingness to try something new, and our administrative team including Superintendent Dr. Janice Fipp, Middle School Principal Maria Caiafa, and Supervisor of Instruction Dr. Carol Ferguson for their help making this happen!

-kj-

Good morning all,

Heard about World Maths Day recently from Vicki Davis – check this out!

Schools register … kids from all over the world compete in 60-second math challenges. (They are limited to 500 [!!!] per day.) Each correct answer earns a point. Points are tallied and PRIZES are awarded in the following age groups:

• 5-8,
• 9-13 and
• 14-18

…as well as to CLASSES that participate.  They do say they verify ages of all winners, so, anyone pulling shenanigans is likely to get caught! Just some words to the wise!

Anyway, check out that leaderboard – as of this writing – USA’s not even in the top 10!

We can do better!

Sign your kids up today!

-kj-

Good morning all!

Chances are you are already familiar with the PBS | Frontline project, Digital Nation. I met the producer, Rachel Dretzin, at NECC in 2009, and have since then had the pleasure of interacting with Rachel, her team, and many others in the PBS family (notably Malinda McCormick of KLRN-TV of San Antonio, Texas) in a variety of ways including working together in Second Life.

Well, Rachel’s DIGITAL NATION project, the follow up to her acclaimed 2008 report, GROWING UP ONLINE, launches TONIGHT at 9:00 pm EDT (check your local PBS listings).

What’s this all about? Read the press release or just push play below.

This is important work exploring the impact of technology on youth, youth culture and society in general should be required viewing for EVERYONE but most especially educators, school administrators, parents, politicians / policy makers, and business people.

Best, kj

(p.s. Those of you who know me personally are probably wondering … the answer is yes, I’m going to DVR the show or have to catch a rebroadcast – no way I’m staying up until 10:30 on a school night!)

Check it out – coverage in The Philadelphia Inquirer!
Big screen and bigger ideas by Carolyn Davis

The cold, windy, bright walk to SLA on Sunday morning was invigorating (if you had the proper outerwear) or positively brutal  (if you didn’t). Even a hearty breakfast from the Midtown III on 18th Street wasn’t enough to keep my walking partners Elizabeth Helfant and Brian Crosby warm. (Elizabeth, in typical understated St. Louis style, said only, “I wish I’d brought a hat.” Brian, wearing what appeared to be a light North Face fleece windbreaker of some kind, said nothing. I think his teeth were frozen together.) [Image credit: TonyBaldasaro]

The morning panel go underway right on time as the moderator Kevin Hogan, Editorial Director of Technology & Learning Magazine (shown below, top left), expertly guided the distinguished panelists through the mental minefield of a question: “What Is The Relationship / Disconnect Between Policy Reform and Pedagogical Reform?”

The panelists were:

• Doug Levin, Executive Director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (and former Deputy Director of the National Association of State Boards of Education)
• Michael Horn, co-author of Disrupting Class and Executive Director of Innosight Institute
• Torch Lytle, Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
• Jolley Bruce Christman, Senior Research Fellow, Research for Action
• Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, Professor of African American Studies at Temple University and author of over 70 books including Afrocentric Infusion for Urban Schools.

Honestly, I wish I had something intelligent to offer about the content of the panel.I enjoyed the discussion but felt like an intellectual midget – these folks were in WAY deep – I’m just a computer teacher, after all! (lol)

I must say, this panel moderating business is hard work. Kevin did a terrific job guiding the discussion. I am now living in fear of the panel I am scheduled to moderate at ISTE 2010 in Denver. I am not kidding.

The impossible task of choosing sessions was somewhat easier this morning as Gary Stager set up shop in the front of Room 204 for Papert Matters: Thinking About Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. Unfortunately my photographic skills regressed to new lows as the shot below is the best of the bunch I took.

Fortunately the event wasn’t a photo-op, it was an opportunity to listen to one of my favorite critical friends share passionately about a topic that defines him. Gary’s digital handout (in his words, poorly formatted) is worth the price of admission alone. Spend some time with a few of those links and you’ll come away with newly activated neurons, guaranteed.

Gary presented Dr. Seymour Papert’s beliefs and life work with a unique mix of admiration, invective and humor that is his trademark. He shared great quotes, video clips, and fascinating personal anecdotes that showcased Papert’s beliefs and lifelong battle against the educational (and political) establishment. They came so fast I couldn’t even keep up posting them on Twitter. It was classic Gary. I enjoyed learning even more about Dr. Papert’s work and getting a glimpse into an intellectual relationship that clearly means so much to Gary.

Session 5 for me would be David Jakes’ On the Development of Learning Spaces. This is a topic I find fascinating, even though I’m not designing any schools, classrooms or libraries (yet). David’s “Old Skool Paper Handout” ran against the “green” grain at Educon (I think I saw Will Richardson shaking his head disdainfully) but is a great illustration of how David operates: if it works, he does it. He puts the cutting in cutting edge, gleefully separating the intellectual wheat from the chaff with less effort than it takes to raise one of his (trademarked?) eyebrows. Well, ok. More effort than that. Here’s David’s slide deck:

Just click your way through the slides above. What makes David’s delivery so powerful for me is that he is a practitioner. He’s an administrator. A former Chemistry teacher. Someone whose passion to serve children hasn’t diminished one iota after so many years “in the system.” (If anything, “the system” has only made him into what he is today. What doesn’t kill you makes you strong, right?) I loved hearing him effortlessly mix theory and practice with vignettes of life at his own school. He’s getting sh*t done. He came to Educon to tell us how he’s doing it, and along the way to challenge us to “critically examine [our] perceptions and biases about what a classroom is.” Hell yes. That’s what I signed up for…

It turns out David’s talk was the last for me at Educon 2.2; I left early expecting to have to shovel several hundred cubic feet of heavy, frozen snow from my driveway … only to discover that my wife and daughter had already done it for me as a surprise. (It was a lovely gesture; the only thing that would have made it better would be if they’d told me, so I could have stayed for Session 6.)

No matter. It was a very good day, and, an absolutely invigorating experience. A friend asked, via Twitter, “do you feel like you need power brain down time?” The answer: hell no! Hard work is how I relax. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to hit the shower and get ready for school – I can’t WAIT to get back in my classroom – and get to work!

-kj-

Technorati Tags: edcuon, educon22

Educon always begins with a general session where principal Chris Lehmann (photo credit: Sarah Sutter) addresses everyone, setting the stage, centering us … it’s always a brief but powerful talk, filled with deep gratitude and enormous pride, the culmination of countless hours of meetings, conversations, connections and other planning that makes this amazing event possible.

Chris seemed especially proud this day of his staff and students, relating a story about how not too long ago, the Educon community, facing a “difficult time,” a bonafide school crisis, saw his charges step up and provide HIM with support. In their words, Chris said he was told, “WE GOT THIS.” Without saying any more, he painted a vivid mental image of a group of young leaders, well-equipped after years of life in this school culture, to come together, analyze a problem, develop a solution, and do whatever it took to execute. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the essence of leadership.

Chris then introduced the morning’s Welcoming Address speaker Marilyn Perez – his boss – Regional Superintendent – Central Region, School District of Philadelphia, with characteristic brevity, eloquence and power. I’ve often wondered where and how Chris developed such effective leadership skills … was it in the classroom, or as a young administrator in New York City, or here in Philadelphia? To be sure, the answer is all of the above. Introducing Marilyn, he said that when he has an idea or wants to try something new, and he contacts her, she asks three questions in response:

1) Is it good for the kids?

2) Do you have a plan?

3) How can I help?

Just let that sink in for a minute. Three simple questions with such incredible clarity and focus, simultaneously addressing the school’s mission, its value on planning and process, and shared responsibility/teamwork. Oh, Chris is learning on the job at The Science Leadership Academy. The evidence is everywhere you look.

When Marilyn took the podium, she greeted the audience in English and fluent Spanish. She radiated power, confidence and purpose as she spoke of her background, her path to her current position, her priorities for the children – all children – pointing out that she, a product of the Philadelphia school system, knows all too well that the struggles for survival many of these kids endure every day. Because she faced those very same challenges. And yet, she overcame the odds, went on to earn a masters in educational leadership at Temple, and today brilliantly and passionately leads an enormous collection of (I think she said 30) K-12 schools in what has to be one of the most economically challenged and complex urban environments on the planet. Her quiet, determined, firm yet flexible style is clearly leaving its mark on Chris. And SLA is all the better for it.

My first session, “Conversation: Elementary School In The 21st Century – How Does The Pedagogy Change? How Does That School Look, Or Not Look?” was led by Brian Crosby. Though he started with a few Powerpoint slides, the focus quickly shifted (as expected) to a conversation, with the audience (about 75% elementary teachers like me, the rest administrators and others) going back and forth on the value of and necessity for technology in instruction (or not); the role of school, community and teacher leaders; the impatience we all feel with the pace of change; and what is working for us in our classrooms and districts. The 90 minutes was over quickly…

After lunch, I chose Jackie Gerstein’s “User-Generated Education: An Authentic Student-Centric Model of Education.” This outside the box conversation challenged us to debate, using Socratic Seminar protocols, this essential question: “Should a student-centric, user-generated education be the predominant learning model for this era of the 21st Century?” Powered by her session wiki, with a CRUSHING amount of resources and technology, we worked individually and in groups as we reviewed, discussed, debated, disagreed, and logged our thoughts in a variety of forms, facilitated by Web 2.0 tools, all while participating via Elluminate. As expected, we didn’t arrive at neatly packaged answers to the problems facing education today, but we did leave with new ideas and a refreshed sense of spirit to try them with our students. I know I did!

Then, in a dramatic shift back to ‘real life,’ I attended Lucy Gray and Debbie Leslie’s “Using Technology to Foster Exploration and Reflection in Science,” which was a discussion of effective technology integration in a typical science curriculum using readily-available Web 2.0 tools, parent involvement, and guided inquiry. http://www.sciencecompanion.com/ provided the framework for the discussion, which was supplemented by personal anecdotes and techniques offered by the participants, as well as a detailed exploration of the “I Wonder” Circle:

Snow started falling in the early afternoon and by the time I walked back to the hotel, it was truly a winter wonderland, very scenic, as shown below (image credit: Lisa Thumann), a peaceful end to a thouroughly invigorating day of learning.

And today, Sunday, January 31st … we get another! See you at Educon!

-kj-

Technorati Tags: educon, educon22

The whirlwind previously known as yesterday came to a fluttering, exhausted DEAD STOP for me just after midnight, well past my usual bedtime. I couldn’t shake the thought that I somehow had something to do, but in the end, it didn’t matter. At 12:08 am, I  pulled the pin on the Krebstar 2000 Super Sleepmatic Hand Grenade and I was unconscious within minutes. Precisely 6 hours later, I woke up and read Mary Beth Hertz’ fantastic recap of her first day at Educon, and it hit me – craaaaaap – I gotta blog! :)

Checked into the Windsor Suites and found my hotel room had more closets and storage space than my HOUSE, a full kitchen, and sliders to a small patio with a nice view off the 11th floor. Awesome! Shame that most of the time I’ll be here, I’ll be asleep…

Met up with some friends including Julie LaChance, Louise Maine, Alice Barr, Sarah Sutter, Gerald Aungst and some new friends at the Second Life Meets Real Life Dinner. My Cheesy Bacon Cheeseburger came through exactly as ordered, with extra cholesterol. The gastronomical Super Bowl known as Eating at Educon had begun in earnest.

The cold, blustery walk to Panel Discussion @ The Franklin Institute — “What is Smart?” was mercifully quick and in no time we were all enjoying the prototypical Educon kickoff, a thought-provoking discussion by a distinguished group of [I'm gonna say it - really smart] folks with passion for education. The discussion was fantastic, and so intense that blogging or tweeting didn’t seem like the right call. So I didn’t. I just let it all soak in, still exhausted from leading a day-long workshop exploring the intersection of learning, teaching, student engagement & Web 2.0 tools with educators from several  NJ vocational-technical high schools & the Atlantic County Alternative High School … all members of the South Jersey Regional Center for Service Learning, a group I’ve been advising on social media strategy and technology professional development.

Anyway, after taking a variety of crappy pics (here’s one) the planetarium reception was a chance to see many friends I hadn’t in a while (and take more crappy pics, despite the expert tutelage of my Photo-Sensei, Sarah Sutter. (Anyone seen my Samurai sword? I need to fall on it. MY. SKILL. IS. NOT. ENOUGH.) It was awesome though connecting with everyone, some old friends, some new, some I was meeting for the first time. I was wiped but knew I had to stick around nearly to the end, which I did.

Walking back to the hotel with Sarah and Louise, my Photo-Sensei tried to continue my schooling, casually stopping and snapping portrait-quality pics. I give up. I might have a Nikon D5000 someday but it’s not the equipment anyway, I’ll never have her skill…

Back in the room, I caught up on email and started looking at the session schedule – the new website is SO amazing. You can be overwhelmed with session choices even faster now. :) Hit the wall just after midnight and called it a day.

My Educon Day 0 was good, but could have been GREAT if I’d spent the day at the Science Leadership Academy with so many others, but, it just wasn’t in the cards. The next two days are going to be awesome – I’ve got nothing to do but learn – no presentations, no commitments, hell, even my lesson plans are done – so, Educon? BRING IT.

-kj-

Technorati Tags: edcuon22, educon

{Cross posted on TechLearning Advisor Blog}

photo credit: yuheitomi

Every tech-savvy educator has heard it before – a colleague’s plea for a great program or interactive website to use in a particular lesson.  Often the requests are easily answered with a shouted-out URL; other times, not so much.

That was the story for me, last week, as not one, but two colleagues asked me if I “knew any good math sites.” Well, yes, I know quite a few, in fact I have an entire category devoted to the subject here on NCS-Tech, but I don’t think they read my blog. Much. Or ever. :)

It’s not entirely their fault. They are busy people. Who has time to read blogs? :)  They know I live and breathe this stuff, that I’m constantly finding and sharing great resources, hanging out on some street-corner in Twitterville like the knowledge junkie I am, waiting to score my next hit. So um, yeah. I know some good math sites! :)

Then there’s always…

Although its great fun for gently teasing people (and making a point about being self-reliant) … lmgtfy.com wasn’t the answer here. (They wanted MY insight, not Mother Google’s.) Besides, I wanted to shift the conversation, to get them thinking less about specific websites and more about what students need to know and be able to do. So I asked: “What are they working on?”

One colleague, on her way out the door late one afternoon, tried to answer as she was gathering her things -  a “two ships passing in the night” fleeting style of conversation typical in these situations, at least for me. But I got this response via email from the other:

“in Math we have covered: whole numbers to millions (place value); adding and subtracting whole numbers to thousands; column addition of up to five numbers to thousands; solving simple algebraic expressions such as x + 5  =   ___  or  t  -  m  =  __  ;   word problems of addition and subtraction;  and we are just beginning multiplication by one number.

Aha! Armed with that information, I was able to suggest some specific activities on the free and fabulous IKnowThat.com:

With selectable grade levels and subjects leading the way to engaging interactive applications that capture kids’ attention, IKnowThat.com is a sure winner. She enthusiastically agreed and is trying the site this week.

There is a problem with how I handled this – the entire conversation was 1:1 and occurred via email. No one else benefited from the exchange of information. So my challenge now is to move these conversations from email (or face to face hallway chats) onto the online learning community we’ve built for our school using a Ning. So when a request for help came in from one of my second grade teachers, I gently encouraged her to post it on the Ning, which she did:

Now we’re getting somewhere! I was able to answer her question publicly, simultaneously providing the answer to her and anyone else who might happen to see it:

My goal: encourage people to ask questions in our Ning so that answers can help as many people as possible,while giving everyone a chance to contribute to the conversation.

But, it’s easier said than done. Why?

photo credit: tibchris

Teachers, by and large, just like their students, are shy.

In my experience, it takes a special kind of person to stand up and publicly ask, “hey, can you give me a hand with this?” Totally understandable! These are accomplished professionals with years of experience. Maybe they think they should already know these things (not necessarily!) Maybe they fear their peers will think less of them for asking the question (um, no, can you say ‘model the learning?’) Maybe they’re not comfortable writing the question in what they think will be an intelligent fashion (it’s not as hard as it seems!)

But like the journey of a thousand miles, it all begins with the first step, asking for help. As our elementary school’s computer teacher/technology facilitator, being a source for that help is a big part of my job. What I’m finding after seven years in this position is that I need to broaden the conversation – involve more people in the process – to help my colleagues help themselves, and each other!

-kj-

In my post the other day about Ann Leaness’ terrific MLK Day project, I made a brief reference to the tool she used to produce her video, Stupeflix Studio. I first heard of the site via a post on Richard Byrne’s fabulous Free Technology for Teachers blog, but hadn’t had a chance to try it myself. Inspired by Ann, I created an account and gave it a go.

It didn’t end well.

In fact, more than a little frustrated by the interface, I felt *I* was putting the “Stoopid” in “Stupeflix!” (See? I’m not infallible, I struggle with this stuff too sometimes!)

I don’t consider myself intellectually lazy, far from it – I pride myself in being a lifelong learner, and most especially, a visual learner. So when I struggled with Stupeflix, I had to wonder … am I losing my edge? Am I getting too old for this stuff? Is 47 old? Most people who know me will tell you I act like I’m 12 most of the time (when it comes to learning, I’m child-like, not childish. Big difference!)

Anyway, my problem is I’ve been spoiled by Animoto, the 1,000-pound gorilla of video making sites. Animoto makes it so easy. Point, click, done. Literally.

But therein lies the problem – and the opportunity for Stupeflix.

Animoto’s strength (and fatal flaw) is that *IT* decides how to animate and transition your pics. Most of the time, the final results are positively stunning, thanks in large part to their huge library of ready-to-use music. Here’s an example, a quick demo I literally did in about three minutes for a workshop I’ve got coming up. [N.B.: Julia Marcell's "Carousel" is AMAZING.]

Stupeflix Studio doesn’t have music … but what it does have is something Animoto lacks – an incredible amount of control over the style of your video. Transitions. Effects. Placement. Grouping. More!

If I had a nickel for every time I had to recompile an Animoto because something wasn’t “perfect,” I’d be a rich man. My average for a “serious” project is something like 10-15 remixes. Seriously!

Stupeflix Studio solves that problem by giving you much more creative control. That control comes at a price: your intellectual horesepower is required in the process! Ann tells me she finds the interface natural and intuitive. For some reason, I don’t. But don’t let that stop you!

The biggest drawback I see with Stupeflix Studio is the lack of music available to incorporate directly into the video. Sure, you can provide your own, but it adds a layer of complexity.

That said, I really, really like Stupeflix Studio. Its ability to produce stunning videos – with input from you – is unmatched.

I’ll close with Ann’s movie from my original post. Even if you already just saw it, watch it again – it’s that good.

Hope this helps!

-kj-