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"The art of animation - a series of related images that depict movement - is arguably several thousand years old. The use of equipment that could display animated images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion is a more modern phenomenon that gained wide popularity with the development of motion pictures. Cartoons and animated movies from the studios of companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and others have had a tremendous impact on modern culture. Production of an animated movie requires skilled artists, expensive equipment and an investment of countless hours of labor. No longer. Mobile devices with built-in cameras such as the iPad enable budding animators to use a variety of easy to use animation apps to capture and stitch together photos of characters and objects into seamless, fluent animated movies. Further, the process of designing, scripting and staging animations has tremendous educational potential. Animation can be a wonderful mix of art, science, collaboration and problem solving."

"ABCya Animate allows students to create animated GIFs containing up to 100 frames. On ABCya Animate students build their animation creations by drawing, typing, and inserting images. Students can change the background of each frame, include new pictures in each frame, and change the text in each frame of their animations."

"Whiteboard animation videos are videos that draw themselves. They involve an animated use of images, shapes, characters, sounds and voice-overs to create a clip. This form of video production has been very popular recently and is widely used by some leading educational YouTube channels such as TED Ed and RSA Animate. Creating a whiteboard animation video is no longer a graphic designer's job. There are actually several web tools that allow you to easily put together an animated video with as simple tools as drag and drop. As a teacher, you can  use these animations to create and share tutorials,  presentations, step by tsp guides, and many more. Below are three  of my favourite tools I would recommend for you:"

"In Pieces is a neat site that features the stories of 30 endangered animals around the world. Visit the site and you will be greeted by a little animation that comes together to form the shape of a whale. After the animation plays click through to see the stories of the 30 animals featured in the site. Each animal's story is told with text, images, and video. You'll learn about the threats to each animal, its native habit, and efforts to save each animal."

"Some of the animation links catalogued here will give educators very basic tools and histories of animation while others have the animation already created and set in motion, it's just a matter of sharing it with students. Educators need to decide which tool is best for them. If you want to create your own animation from scratch, then you want to go to sites such as Animwork. If you want to select from animation that's already set up for you then perhaps Explainia makes more sense."

"Making animated videos is a great way for students to bring their written stories to life on screen. Those could be fiction or nonfiction stories. Some nonfiction animated video topics include making a video to illustrate a historical event, making biographies, and explaining complex concepts in simple animations like Common Craft does. In the fiction realm you might have students make an adaptation of a favorite story or an animation of their own creative writing. Whichever direction you choose, the following five tools offer good ways for students of all ages to make their own animated videos."

"Creating animations can be a fun element to add to a creative writing project. Creating the animation could be the final piece of the project in which students bring their short stories to life. You could also have students create short animations to use as story starters for their written works. Here are five free tools that students can use to create animations."

"WWF Together is a beautiful iPad app and Android app that features interactive stories about endangered animals around the world. Each of the interactive stories includes beautiful images and videos, facts about the animals and their habitats, and the threats to each of the animals. Some of the animals currently featured in the app are pandas, marine turtles, elephants, tigers, polar bears, bison, whales, gorillas, rhinos, and snow leopards."

"Animation Desk is an iPad app (free and premium versions available) for creating short, animated videos. The app allows you to create drawings using just your finger on your iPad's screen."

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student's first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects

"Adam Savage is no stranger to mixing science with whimsy. With his hit show Mythbusters, he and partner Jamie Hyneman have tackled everything from shark attacks to death rays. Of course, that show can't film all the time. To fill the other hours in the day, Savage runs a web series called Inside Adam Savage's Cave, where he does experiments, shows off oddities, and generally makes merriment. In today's episode, Savage has invited animator Marty Cooper into his cave to talk about traditional hand-drawn animation and augmented reality cartoons. The best part? All of the animation is made with an iPhone. Using the app StopMotion Recorder, a series of by-hand drawings made on transparencies, and a little bit of time, Savage and Cooper are able to create a few glorious stop-motion cartoons that delightfully float in the real world."

"As part of the Infinite Versatility of Cardboard last week, we made new cardboard pieces on the laser cutter to use with our stop motion animation stations. We found the animated shorts that resulted so surprisingly delightful that we've continued to offer these cardboard pieces at the animation station a week running! Some of the new cardboard pieces are abstract shapes, not much different than what we usually offer in wooden shapes. We also cut out silhouette objects, including planets, houses, and trees. "

"Here you will find the fifteen apps we consider to be simply exceptional for both the quality and contextual use of animation for storytelling in an iPad book app for children. None of the apps to make our list of "Top 10 Animated Books for iPad" in 2011 have been included, so please also check out last year's post. So, without further ado, here are our very favorite recommendations for polished, story-enhancing animation in an iPad storybook app:"

Stykz is the first multi-platform stick figure animation program in the world (as far as we know!), and it is COMPLETELY FREE!

The first multi-platform stick figure animation program. Stykz supports exporting animations in QuickTime Movie and Animated GIF formats

"Animation Desk is a creative app for creating frame-to-frame animations and storyboards."

"The students had to select an environment and then decide on an adaptation that would help them survive in the conditions of the environment, help the animal eat, or prevent the animal from being eaten. Students worked on paper first and then chose either Audioboo and recorded a podcast and added the picture, or worked on Educreations. "

"Today's Best Educational Apps for Kids list is Natual and Animal Science Apps for Kindergarden and Early Elementary School Kids (age 6 to 10). There is another list of science apps for this age group but on other subjects, such as astronomy, physics, or chemistry. For this other science list, you can visit an earlier post HERE. Please add your favorite nature and animal science apps in the comment area. I will update the list periodically. I"

"Inspiration waits for nothing and no one. Once it strikes, you have to be ready to capture the ideas borne from it; otherwise, all you will be left with are vague impressions of the brilliant images and animation ideasthat, if transformed into the screen, would have been your best creations yet. Are you ready to grasp and hold in your hand each and every dazzling idea that comes when inspiration strikes? Then use the following iPhone and iPad apps designed for animators on the go"

"Fotopedia Wild Friends is a beautiful iPad app that takes students on a photographic tour of Europe and beyond. The app features more than 2,400 images of animals. The images can be viewed on their own or as parts of slideshows. At any time students can tap an image to open a short passage of text about the animal(s) they're viewing."

"I'm about to board my flight home from the BETT Show in London. The flight home is going to be nearly two hours longer than the flight to London. That's the effect of the jet stream on air travel. The Department of Earth & Climate Studies at San Francisco State University offers a tool that anyone can use to create a simple animation of the jet stream based on current conditions. Prior to having students look at the animation, you might want to have them view this DNews video about the jet stream."