Visual rhetoric in educational animations; An analysis on TED education Lessons

Abstract

Today, developments in the field of computer technology have facilitated the application of animations in computer environment and also led to the widespread use of animation in the scope of computer-aided education. Educational animations engage the learners of all ages and make the learning experience enjoyable in many areas such as physics, chemistry, biology and social sciences. Thanks to the possibilities of animation, many concepts that might be difficult to learn with static images can be described very attractively and catchy. At this point, rhetorical figures can be applied to animations in order to increase the effectiveness of the messages. TED Education can be given as a successful example of educational animations in this field. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Education is a set of lessons run by a private non-profit foundation, under Lessons worth sharing slogan. These lessons are 3-10 minutes of educational and enjoyable animations, which are created with the collaboration of professional educators and animators. There are various animations on Ted Education webpage aim at learners starting from the age of primary school and higher. Through TED Education lessons, this research examines how education takes the advantage of animation and how animations benefit from the rhetorical figures. Keywords: Animation, visual rhetoric, rhetorical figures, educational animations, TED Education.