What the heck is normal anyway, and how can I get Xtra?

So last week we were introduced to the website "XtraNormal", where people create internet movies featuring pre-rendered characters in pre-rendered settings. I had seen these videos used before, but never in an academic setting. I believe it does say something about your close circle of friends when they use decent educational tools to see how humorous it is to listen to a computer enunciate swear words. Still, having seen this site being used in an academic setting, I was very taken in by the potential this site has.

One of the problems I ran into when I was teaching my grade 9 students was having the students tire of hearing me explain things. While I never had anyone fall asleep on me, I could tell that certain subjects were about as dry as a Thanksgiving turkey that was cooked with a tiger torch. However, after seeing this software put to work, I immediately recognized this site as a teaching tool.

With 20 000 characters of text, I discovered (by playing around and making a few movies) that I could explain simple topics by creating little animated movies. What's more, by posting these videos on Youtube, I can encourage my students to revisit the videos to answer any questions they may have. This way, the information is always at the student's fingertips. I figure, if my students are going to be on facebook, on Youtube, or the internet in general, they might as well be exposed to some educational videos along the way.

Of course, the dangers of using this as a teaching tool is relying on it too heavily. Obviously a teacher cannot use these videos to teach everything. Since there are no pauses for questions, students may become completely overwhelmed with content and forget any questions they have if a video is too long. Furthermore, students may become distracted by the mannerisms of the "actors" in the movies.

As it relates to my class, I believe the importance of using this site is to give the students a different voice to listen to, and a different stimulus to view. The typical "stand and deliver" style of teaching, while useful, can become draining on the students and the teachers. Xtra Normal is a simple way to give teachers and students a break that is both visually entertaining and mentally engaging.

*NOTE* I saw Avatar last weekend. With all the color and computer animation in that movie, it really made me wonder if human beings actually get ADHD, or if we're subjecting ourselves to it by using technology? Honestly, that movie had so much visual stimulus that I nearly started drooling half way through the film. Albeit, 3D technology is very new to me, I can't imagine I was the only one completely blown away with the film. Still, are we intentionally giving people short attention spans by making videos, movies, video games, etc. more visually stimulating? Furthermore, does this mean that the future style of learning will rely more heavily on visual stimulation versus auditory and kinesthetic learning styles?