Is Animation Useful in Learning? ...

A recent lesson was about creating animations by slightly changing the picture between frames to give the impression of movement. This is called Stop-motion animation. Within the lesson we got to experiment with creating our own. Mine was about a couple walking through the country side.

Animation of the center of the earth

The topic for discussion is the relationship between animation and learning. Animation as described by Ainsworth (2008) is an energetic process which differs over time with it increasing in its use since the 80s. Its convenience and complexity grows each year as the software increasingly develops (Ainsworth, 2008). 

Lowe (2003) discusses that within animations there are three different areas of change. The first is form changes (Transformations) e.g. changes in the animation properties; size, shape, colour and texture.  The second; position changes (Translation) which is the movement from one place to another and finally inclusion change (Transition); this is where the object is either presence or not and either in full or part, it is also about whether they move in or out of the borders and either appear or disappear (Lowe, 2003).  

Example of a weather map

There is a growing conviction that in using animation it increases people capacity to learn difficult concepts (Ainsworth, 2008). Lowe (2003) conducted a study that looked into animation and how it affects learning.  Lowe (2003) looked into weather maps and had participants draw predictions either using the animation or without; looking into the amount of information they removed from the experience. They found that they extracted information easier with the animation. It was also discovered that the more vibrant the change was in the animation the more information was extracted from it. Additionally if the animation appealed to the participants either more or less than the surroundings affected the amount of information extracted. More information was extracted, as well, if the form and position change was different to the context as it fascinated the participants more (Lowe, 2003).

There are problems with this study as there was a limited opportunity to show what they have learnt and that even though the participants may have gotten a lot of information there is no information on whether they remembered that information in the long-term and assimilated it into their schemas. Finally the participants had no prior knowledge to draw upon and help them in understanding the animation.

Overall, I believe that animation is useful in learning as it helps in understanding complex information.