Animoto is an astonishing tool for student creations. There are a few easy steps to create classroom accounts for your students. With this method, all the finished videos will then be sent to one email account. This works well for younger students (who are too young for an email account) and also provides some oversight. My students know that I will see everything- this discourages potentially inappropriate behavior.
1. You need to apply for your Animoto educator account (go to www.animoto.com- scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and select the education link and complete the form.)
2. While you are waiting for your account, set a Gmail account. Even if you already have one, you might want to set up one only for Animoto emails. This will make it easier to locate student work and not overload your personal inbox.
3. Within a few days, you will get an email with your class code (this include a link that will enable you to set up student accounts).
4. Once you get the link, you can set up your student accounts. Here is where you need your new Gmail account.
5. Using the account code link, you can form the student accounts using the following format for the email requirement:
emailaddress+1@gmail.com
emailaddress+2@gmail.com
emailaddress+3@gmail.com
and so on.
Let’s say your Gmail account is bsdanimoto@gmail.com. Your student accounts might be
and so on.
6. When you are completing the registration process, you create the name and password for each account. Since I share my accounts with many classes, I make the password the same for all the accounts. I also use fairly generic names as well. Then the students can change the name during the finishing process.
Thank you for posting this. I didn’t really get it with the explanation on the animoto site. This made it click for me – who knows why! Thanks again!
Kristy,
I didn’t really get it with their directions either- I had to ask for help!
Please share some of your animotos- I love seeing creative projects!
Hi there,
Thanks for this – but I still don’t see where we actually type in those student emails! Can you help?
Is this tool for all grade level – concern about giving email/gmail acct to kids below 13 y.o.
LT,
When you create these “dummy” accounts, they only work in animoto. The students cannot use the accounts for email (they are not valid accounts but only work for animoto). You (the teacher) own the account. The password the students use for animoto is not the same as the gmail account. Only you will be able to access the gmail account to see their animotos.
I also can not seem to figure out where you set up the student accounts? And if the students are under 13 do they ask for their birthdate when setting up the studnet accounts?
Anne Marie,
You set up the student accounts using your account code. Go to the main animoto site (www.animoto.com), and select the sign up. I use the same birthday for all of them (since the email will always come to me, I don’t need to worry about what they will be doing). I you have another question, please email me at barbara.dedsantis@sayrevillek12.net
I’m so glad to find your post, Barbara! I’ve had an Animoto for Ed. account since August but am only now setting up my student accounts. So…tonight, I set up another Gmail account; now, I’m wondering about how many student accounts to set up. (I have 127.) Suggestions?