A cartoon created for use in classrooms, educational television programs, and other settings where people want to provide information to people of all ages in a clear, accessible, and informative manner is known as an educational animation. A number of companies specialize in producing educational animations, including shorts that can be used as clips or inserts in longer works. These cartoons are frequently available on company websites or video sharing sites.
Information is broken down into chunks that are easy to present and understand in an educational animation. To present the information, the animation could include a story with characters interacting with one another. It could also just be an animation of the information, such as a volcano explanation. Prompts such as discussion questions, as well as tools such as mnemonic devices, can be included in the animation to help people remember key pieces of information presented in the animation. Cartoons aimed at children’s audiences may include songs and rhymes.
Instructors can use an educational animation in the classroom to provide students with a more dynamic learning experience during a teaching unit. When presented with this type of video, some students learn better through visual and audio information, such as that found in animations, and will remember the course material better. Animations can also make the classroom more engaging capturing students’ attention and keeping them engaged. Animations can also be used to educate the general public, such as in a public service announcement about recycling that is accompanied an educational animation.
People may be able to interact directly with educational animations on the computer, manipulating variables to change the circumstances. People can see how different factors affect a situation changing the settings, and they can apply this knowledge to their understanding of the real world. People studying weather systems, for example, could alter the speed and direction of the wind in the educational animation to see how different climate factors interact.
The age range for which an educational animation is intended is usually provided the producers of the cartoon. Instead of assuming that viewers understand basic information, animations aimed at younger audiences will use simpler language in their explanations and will establish learning building blocks. To appeal to teens and adults, animations for older audiences will be more complex and presented in a different tone.