Can I make edits made in edit mode appear in animations? I'm currently working on a character which I want to be able to do most the animations a normal person could do (talk,blink,etc). However, in order to make a character do something such as talk, I would have to go into edit mode and move the mouth, except that I cant figure out how to make this a keyframe to put into the animation. Do I have to make the the head and the jaw/mouth separate parts and move them individually?Or is there something else I have to do to make it so edits appear in animation?
Yes, there is a way, called shape keys.

Other question, where shape keys are explained: How to animate a mesh that changes through editing?

Select an original pose and do the first shpe key, then do your facial expression, or whatever, in editmode and add another shape key. One Shape key by, eg facial expression. By changing an expressions value, the expression whichs vallue you make the highest dominates. Shape keys can be animated by holding the mouse over the value and pressing "i", setting a keyframe.