General procedure

• A two weeks period of introduction to fluxtime may be needed before the project starts
• Virtual animation teams are created from students of each school
• Animation teams collaborate to produce animated stories
• Animations circulate in each team and each member adds to each story

Lights, Camera, Action

First week:

• Each pupil writes a story line – max 50 words – and begins an animation illustrating the story
• At the end of the first week the animation is passed on to the next team member

Following weeks:

• Each pupil continues the animation s/he received and adds to the storyline
• At the end of the week the animation is passed on to the next team member
• This continues until each animation comes back to the pupil who started it

Last week:

• Each pupil now sees how her/his original story has developed
• Pupils now have the opportunity to add an ending to the story they started
• At the end of the last week pupils send in their animations for the online exhibition

Optional additional whole-class sessions

• Teachers can introduce new features of the software if some of them appear to be under-used
• The most advanced students can share their “expertise” with the less advanced ones
• Discussing tools and techniques as fluxtime can be used in many ways

Some of the benefits are

• Raw creation, both in conceptual and technical terms
• Improvisation, having to follow someone else’s steps
• Peer review, through discussion in class sessions
• Co-operation, responsible action and interdependence teams

The project relies extensively on the willingness of the teachers to see it through, especially in the beginning. As it happens, every storyline has to be translated into the language of the following pupil in the team, adding along the way a little touch of chinese whisper to the whole affair.

One of the difficulties encountered by anyone involved in a pedagogic project is to keep the students stimulated throughout. It seems difficult to find something better to keep them focused than the arrival, every week, of a new animation to take one step further and to see, at the end of the project, the completed animations to which they contributed.

Finally, and on a technical note, it appears inevitable that each animation, will in time, become slicker and slicker as every participant becomes more and more comfortable with the handling of fluxtime. So much the better!