I think having English Language Learners create short online animations is a great benefit the Web provides. Students can work individually or in a group very methodically by making well-thought-out storyboards and then implement them, or they can make “quick and dirty” ones right on the spot.

Their creations can then be posted for all to see and comment on, both online and in-person.

Because they can be so useful to English Language Learners, and to other students, I’ve decided to create another “The Best…” list — this time highlighting the sites that I think are most accessible to English Language Learners (and are free).

All of these sites are very good (or else they wouldn’t be on my list!). However, there is one that stands-out among the rest. So even though I’m not ranking them all like I usually do, I will be highlighting one as the best.

Here are my picks for The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations:

I Wish You To lets you easily draw and create your own Ecards, which you can post, embed, and/or send to someone — and no registration is required.

Flipanim lets users easily create short animations.

Powtoon

Biteable

BrushNinja lets you easily make an animated GIF. You have to download it in order to save and share, though.

Cloud Stop Motion lets teachers create free virtual classrooms where students can easily create stop motion videos. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog.

ToonClip lets you easily make simple animations.

Scroobly lets you create online animations by turning your web cam on and moving around.

Wick Editor looks like a nice and free tool to create animations. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog.

Powtoon: introducing cartoon videos in the classroom is from the British Council and has some nice student-made examples.

Facebook has created an online tool called Sketch Canvas that lets you upload of a simple drawing, and then it will animated it.

Moovly looks interesting, and has an education plan.

ABCYA lets you make simple animations and share them.

Render Forest

ADOBE EXPRESS “ANIMATE FROM AUDIO” MAKES IT TO THE CLASSROOM VERSION

Wick Editor “is a free, open-source tool for creating games, animations, and everything in-between!” Here’s a video from Richard Byrne about it:

Feel free to offer feedback and suggestions.

If you’ve found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free. You might also want to check-out my other “The Best…” lists.