Idioteex

Posts Tagged ‘Tool’

I think we would all agree that humor sells. Just look at television commercials as an example. The ones we remember and don’t mind seeing over and over again are the funny ones.
There was a study done a few years ago which looked at the attention and retention of academic content by university students. The results indicated that both retention and attention increased significantly if the professors used humor in their lectures. If these results are accurate, and I believe them to be, they validate my long held belief that if you want to make people listen to you and remember what you said make them laugh.

When you apply this to marketing and sales you realize that the use of humor not only gets your customer’s attention, but also helps them recall you and your message long after you have left the scene.

A happy, humorous, smiling company representative is a powerful promotional and selling agent. So hire people with these qualities and train those working for you who don’t. Remember a sense of humor is a learned response, it isn’t genetic. People are attracted to those with a great sense of humor and a cheerful disposition.

Have you been told that you have a good sense of humor throughout your life? Do you find that things are easier to understand when they are described in a humorous way? Humor helps us appreciate the good times and smile through the bad times. Humor is a good memory tool. It is part of who we are as humans.

Perhaps you enjoy a good joke every now and then, or you find yourself seeing the funny side of things. Did you ever think that you could use humor to make money? Many people use humor as a marketing tool to make money, and not just stand-up comedians and television writers.

If you are an exceptional observer and commentator, if you spend time analyzing jokes and why they are funny, if you want to spend many years working hard to make it, then you very well may have what it takes to be a successful stand-up comedian.

For most of us, however, getting on stage and speaking in front of people is not something we want to do. Some people are terrified of speaking in front of a group; it’s the number one phobia world-wide.

There are many other ways to make a good living using humor. Try to think of commercials that are particularly effective. Chances are the commercials you thought about were funny. This is because a good joke is memorable. Advertisers have understood this for decades.

Behind every great funny commercial, there is an ad writer. The ability to find the funny side of things is a hot commodity in the advertising business. Talented ad writers make a good living. Even in political campaigns, humor is used to make a point, or get folks to pay attention to a person or issue.  Read more...

In more recent years a certain Nick Parks reinvigorated 3d animation with his Wallace and Gromit characters. This form of 3D animation is often referred to as Claymation or Clay Animation. While Nick was not the first by any means to introduce claymation it certainly brought in back in to mainstream entertainment. In 1912 one of the first claymation movies using stop motion was released to great critical acclaim. It was called “Modeling Extraordinary”. In 1916, the first female animator, Helena Smith Dayton, began experimenting with clay stop motion. She released her first film in 1917, Romeo and Juliet.

Claymation in School

The introduction of computers to schools at all levels has brought the art of stop motion animation and claymation software within reach of all students. The prevalence of inexpensive stop motion animation software allows the student and teacher to become active participants in ICT that is both creative and more alive than ever before.

In general while students have good basic ICT skills and an interest in technology. ICT is not as integrated a component of a school curriculum as it should be. ICT is often judged as having a narrow focus, emphasising the tool rather than the curriculum or learning outcomes.

With 3D stop motion animation claymation and the right stop motion software activities can combine a number of ICT methodologies. For example “audio documentary creation”, “storyboarding” and “audio soundtrack creation” are all used with animation to create a coherent end result. Evidence from a wide range of schools participating in claymation animation projects observe students successfully bringing a numberous aspects of ICT together to complete projects.

The projects require students to cooperate in small teams.