Animation is one of the fastest growing entertainment forms in the market. It has been a part of education since ancient times and has been used as an effective teaching tools.
More than 50% of kids in the world are exposed to animation at some point during their schooling. This is because it has the power to elevate your students’ learning experience. Exactly why that may be possible is no one knows for sure, but there are many theories out there.
Though we have seen animated films and videos before, a new way of teaching children through animation has been discovered and implemented by teaching schools across the globe..
The truth is that there is so much data supporting animation’s effectiveness supports the effectiveness of animation in teaching that we could never cover it all. However, a few important studies that stick out to us are a few significant studies that stick out to us as demonstrating how beneficial animations are for learning.
Because of two criteria, educational psychologist Richard Lowe discovered that cartoons assist both children and adults learn and remember information: 1) How they influence us. 2) How they assist us in processing information.
Animations affect us in four key ways:
- They tap into our instinct to pay attention to moving things. Evolution taught us to track moving animals and scenes for our survival and those instincts are hard to shake even now without sabre tooth tigers!
- They appeal to two of our strongest memory sensors – vision and sound. Our experience of the world is perceived 83% with sight and 11% with hearing, making up 94%, with smell, touch and taste way behind with just 6%.
- The novelty factor intrigues us and holds our attention.
- They’re fun and can include humor that lifts our mood and makes us more attentive.
Animations help us process information because:
- We store words and images in different parts of our memory, meaning we have multiple copies of the information to call on.
- Visual cues in animations can help learners focus on specific pieces of information more easily.
- We can process visual information over 60,000 times faster than text and infer a lot more meaning. Just think, one minute of video is equivalent to 1.8 million words! Making animations very effective at explaining complex topics in a short amount of time.
The fact is that there is so much evidence that illustrates how good animation is for teaching that it is impossible for us to discuss it all. However, a few significant research that stand out to us as indicating how useful animations are for learning are a few significant studies that stand out to us.
Educational psychologist Richard Lowe discovered that cartoons help both children and adults learn and recall information based on two criteria
1) How they affect us
2) How they help us process information.
Animations have four major effects on us:
- They appeal to our natural desire to pay attention to moving objects. For our survival, evolution taught us to monitor moving creatures and scenes, and those impulses are difficult to overcome even in the absence of razor tooth bears!
- They play on two of our most powerful memory sensors: vision and hearing. Our perception of the environment is 83% visual and 11% auditory, totaling 94%, with smell, touch, and taste trailing at 6%.
- The new factor piques our attention and keeps it.
- They’re enjoyable and may contain humour that uplifts our spirits and increases our attentiveness.
Animations help us process information because:
- We store words and images in different parts of our memory, meaning we have multiple copies of the information to call on.
- Visual clues in animations can assist learners in more readily focusing on specific pieces of information.
- We are 60,000 times more likely to digest visual information quickly than word and can infer far more from it. Consider this: one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words! Making animations that are extremely successful at explaining complex topics in a short period of time.
Dr. Wiseman recorded a video of himself speaking about a subject and then animated the same information. He randomly assigned two groups of people to see one of two videos and then assessed how much of the content each group retained. The end result was amazing! Participants who viewed the animation remembered 15% more information than those who saw the talking head version.
With all Lowe’s results, additional explanation for these results is that animations make fulfilling the three best practice criteria for creating and planning great learning movies simple:
On-screen visuals and graphics that guide the learner’s attention and highlight the precise information that needs to be digested are referred to as signalling.
Segmenting: separating content in the video into bite-size portions to make it easier for learners to comprehend.
Matching modality: the use of visuals, text, and voice to simultaneously target various information reception channels. This decreases channel overload and promotes overall retention.
As you can see, animations are extremely helpful for learning for a variety of reasons, and the results speak for themselves. Plus, animated information benefits educators in addition to students; let’s have a look! Matching modality: the use of visuals, text, and voice to target various information reception channels at the same time. This decreases overburden for any one channel while increasing overall retention.