Thursday, September 30, 2010

Students Speak Their Minds Through Digital Media

This is a great short video that shows student engagement and active learning with digital media.


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A Cute Example of Digital Storytelling


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZdLszBXFJQ&feature=fvst

The Educational Goals & Objectives of Digital Storytelling

Hi All:

The University of Houston has laid out the educational goals and objectives of Digital Storytelling. Please see below an excerpt from their Web site: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/educational_goals.html

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Educators at all levels can use Digital Storytelling in many ways, from introducing new material, to helping students learn to conduct research, synthesize large amounts of content and gain expertise in the use of digital communication and authoring tools. It also can help students organize these ideas as they learn to create stories for an audience, and present their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way.
Educational Goals of Digital Storytelling
Teachers can:
  • Create a digital story for use as an anticipatory set or hook for a lesson;
  • Enhance current lesson plans with the use of a digital story within a unit;
  • Assign student-created stories which requires students to research a topic from a particular point of view.
Students can:
  • Learn to use the Internet to research rich, deep content while analyzing and synthesizing a wide range of content;
  • Develop communication skills by learning to ask questions, express opinions, construct narratives and write for an audience;
  • Increase their computer skills using software that combines a variety of multimedia including: text, still images, audio, video and web publishing.

Educational Objectives of Digital Storytelling

Although not a comprehensive list, digitial storytelling can be used to:
  • Appeal to the diverse learning styles of students by using Digital Storytelling as a presentation media;
  • Generate interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" kids in our classrooms;
  • Capitalize on the creative talents of your own students as they begin to research and tell stories of their own;
  • Publish student work on the Internet for viewing and critiquing by others;
  • Promote the accomplishment of cross-curricular academic standards and learning objectives.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Resources for Digital Storytelling

Hi All:

In my research about digital storytelling, I found out that extensive preplanning should occur before one starts on constructing a video/movie. Using storyboards or regular pen and paper, one should plot out the story with a script. All of your visual and audio needs should be predetermined and sort into their order of presentation as well. Below are listings of various resources that could get on started on the path of telling one's personal story.


Royalty-free Media

Sound Sources

Image Sources

http://www.freesound.org/
www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html
http://www.archive.org/
http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/
www.parntersinsrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml
wwww.pacdv.com
www.macloops.com/sounds
www.nmc.org/jampack
http://www.pics4learning.com/
www.pdphoto.org/
http://www.archive.org/
http://www.creativecommons.org/
www.freefoto.com/index.jsp
http://www.flickr.com/
http://www.morguefiles.com/
http://www.commons.wikimedia.org/
http://www.google.com%20image%20search/
www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

General Resources

What makes me                                                                                         
A great project sponsored by the Australia Council for the Arts

Quick fixes in Photoshop: A bluffer's guide | Photo Answers

"Need to learn Photoshop fast but can’t be bothered with boring books and long tedious explanations? You’ve come to the right place. Photoshop needn’t be a complicated and time-consuming place to spend your time. In this video we’ll teach you some really simple and fast ways to edit your pictures. Specifically, we’re going to look at correcting colour, boosting the contrast and cropping and straightening your image."

MemoryMiner - Digital Storytelling Software For Mac & Windows

MemoryMiner is the award-winning Digital Storytelling application for Mac and Windows used to discover the threads connecting peoples’ lives across time and place. It lets you zero in on the stories depicted in your photos by linking them to each other based on people, places and time. Using simple drag and drop actions, you specify who is in the picture, where the picture was taken and when.

Story Circles

A viewer-submitted collection of digital stories hosted by the center for Digital Storytelling.

KQED Public Broadcasting - Digital Storytelling

KQED is a national leader in community created digital content. We hope to shepherd in a 21st aesthetic by providing training in story theory and the use of multimedia and digital technology.

International Day for Sharing Life Stories

Listen! - International Day for Sharing Life Stories will be held on May 16th 2008. The day will be an opportunity for people around the world to gather iin live and virtual environments to hear each other’s stories.

Fifty StoryTools

A collection of 50 web-based storytelling tools put together by Alan Levine.
                                                                
                               

Reference
All of the above courtesy of UMBC - An honors university in Maryland.
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/studio/digitalstories/resources.php

What is Digital Storytelling?

An emerging term

"Digital Storytelling" is an emerging term, one that arises from a grassroots movement that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally engaging form. These stories usually take the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes) and can involve interactivity.

The term can also have broader reference to the variety of emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games). It is also sometimes used to refer to any type of film-making, and now often used for advertising and promotional work on behalf of both commercial and non-profit enterprises.

As an emerging area of creative work, the definition of digital storytelling is still the subject of much debate.


Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling

Sunday, September 12, 2010

AC: Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words



Source: http://www.kollewin.com/EX/09-15-11/synchronous-vs-asynchronous-collaboration-by-Ramius.gif

The End: Asynchrounous Communication

Today, Sunday, 9/12 marks the end of of my role as facilitator of the Discussion Board for the topic Asynchronous Communication (AC). The class discussion went well with a number of my classmates discussing the benefits and challenges associated with this particular communication delivery system. Over the course of the week, other important topics and issues emerged from the DB comments such as workload, time management, blended platforms, online vs. face-to-face classroom student interactions and engagement, student role and evaluation as well as teaching and learning in an AC platform. Overall, I truly enjoyed my time as the DB facilitator and I want to personally that all my fellow classmates, Professor Lei, and Leigh for this rich educational experience. ~Aja

Monday, September 6, 2010

Asynchronous Communication and Student Engagement

Hi All:
There is a debate going on in the educational realm as to whether Asynchronous Communication (AC) does or does not foster student engagement in a classroom setting. I have attached 2 website links: Asynchronous Learning Trends & Using Blogs in the Classroom. Both links provide instructional advice for an AC platform. I hope you find the information useful. ~Aja

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Getting Ready!: 9/6 - Discussion Board Facilitator

Well, Monday is the day, 9/6: I start my facilitation of the IDE 611 Discussion Board (DB). I am feeling a little nervous, but I think everything will go well. I emailed and spoke on the telephone with my co-facilitator, Jennifer Rosas. She is an amazing person with prior DB facilitation experience. I look forward to touching base with her over the course of the week. In terms of my fellow classmates, I look forward to interacting with you on the DB. Take care.