Learning through animated characters

Brain POP is a website that houses a group of other websites for learners K-8+. There is also a section for learners younger than K-3, called Brain POP, Jr. Brain POP has animated videos that teach about subjects from Basic Addition to Cloud Computing. This is a subscription based program that can be purchased by a school or an individual. Brain POP's main characters are known as Tim and Moby, and they can be seen in every video from one grade level to the next.

Mastery

When learners are provided with the proper tools, skills, and resources, they are likely to be more successful and have the confidence that they truly know what they have learned when they are given an assessment on a subject. Brain POP not only provides learners with information in their chosen subjects, but also gives them practice activities and quizzes to test their knowledge. Animation can enrich students’ mastery of diverse subject matter. Through various lessons and units, educators and students can use simple animation techniques to create visual, animated representations of numerous concepts (Technology Teacher). By using animated characters that the learners can get to know and remain familiar with from one grade level to the next is a great way to keep learners interested and excited for the next lesson.

Meaningful

Learners who are younger often enjoy connecting with animated characters and getting to know them. They are intrigued by the character's personality and want to know what they will be up to next. Animation in learning creates a sense of friendship with the characters on the screen. According to Reiser and Dempsey, "having opportunities to enjoy friendly interactions with people, or being successfully engaged in challenging activities" helps to create feelings of relevance in learners (pg. 80). Animation in learning, through platforms that offer those challenges and interactions help to create meaningful experiences that connect learners to what they are learning. Those moments expand beyond the learning process and helps to build memories that are used when taking a assessments to recall what was being taught.

Self-regulation

When learners are have stress free learning environments, they are more naturally susceptible to curiosity. Learners can function under a certain level of stress that can be helpful when problem solving, but too much stress will deter them from the task at hand. According to Donald Norman, “Positive emotions are critical to learning, curiosity, and creative thought.” By using design to support positive emotions in learners, we’re creating an environment that better supports their learning. One way to do that is through aesthetics, and in fact this very principle plays a part in usability (Peters). Animation not only gives the learner something positive to look forward to, but can create a bit of that "positive stress" to encourage problem solving and improve their critical thinking skills. This emotional regulation will connect learners to learning in a positive way.

In conclusion, animation in learning promotes mastery in learning, creates meaningful connections to learning and allows learners to self-regulate under stress. Animation in learning, using characters that learners become familiar with has often been used for several years, even on children's TV programming. Using similar animations in classrooms creates successful outcomes and has positive impacts on the learning environment.

References

Harrison III, H. L. (Hal), & Hummell, L. J. (2010). Incorporating Animation Concepts and Principles in STEM Education. Technology Teacher, 69(8), 20–25

Reiser, & J.V Dempsey (Eds.). (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.) (pp. 80-81). New York, NY: Pearson

Peters, D. (n.d.). Interface Design for Learning: Design Strategies for Learning experiences. O'Reilly Online Learning. Retrieved from https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/interface-design-for/9780133365481/ch07.html#ch07lev1sec4