Hi Chicos! :)
What makes a digital storytelling digital? I explored what digital storytelling is and how to make that happen. Particularly, this week's reading was beneficial for me to grab more constructs of "digital" storytelling. BABR clearly narrates what makes digital story telling digital story (or how to). Well, basically, this is more about "how to," but, I think I can get the ideas from that as well. According to them, to make a digital story (by using one app called Adobe Voice), students can:
- select the story type among the options of explaining something, following a hero's journey, promote an idea, tell what happened..etc
- upload images, photos, icons, texts...and even videos (added by me)
- record commentary as well as music about the contents
- publish their video using e-mail, FB, Twitter...etc.
There are more info than these four aspects, but to me, these are good & straightforward constructs of a "digital storytelling."
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| 4 Steps (Constructs) of Digital Story Telling (drawn by John) |
Alright, here's my example using the app! I love it, you must give it a try. haha.
Epics In Ma Camera Roll - by John
Here's a hyperlink of the Adobe Voice storytelling video I made. Because Blogger does not have any direct uploading option for Adobe Voice, so I ended up embedding a code of the video on the HTML version of posting. It was a good learning moment. :)
Please click the hyperlink below for the original file if you want. :)
--> John's Digital Storytelling (original video)
My quick review for Adobe Voice is:
Pros
- really easy to use (takes about 10 mins to learn)
- well organized templates
- good/simple graphics
- easy to share (twitter, FB, e-mail ...etc)
Cons
- not compatible with blogger (as YouTube)
- no doodling
- iPad only (no iPhone nor PC version yet)
- no sharing option with YouTube
So, here's my reflection question:
Jacqueline asks us to think about any challenges when making a multimodal texts. To me, this thing always pops up: I can't find "the one" image, videos, or gifs that perfectly fits my intention. For example, I found out an moving gif with the toy story characters to give you the idea of digital storytelling (I hope it worked as I planned), however, frankly I was searching better options. Also, the four steps arrow is what I made because I couldn't find any perfect images out there. Well, this could be a good side of multimodal texts making, because which prompts our creativity based on the nature of lackness of the sources, which we hope ideally fit an author's taste. So, again, this challenge has both sides. What do you think about this thought? What challenges have you found when you explore your topics??
One more drawback of Adobe Voice: it takes time to finalize the video. 10-20 minutes are needed to finalize one video of 2-3 minute contents. Sounds fairly Okay, but still it is a quite amount of time.
ReplyDeleteJohn! I'm so impressed! I love that app! We now know the secret! We face time, and when I don't understand what you are telling me to do, I point my phone to my laptop screen and you walk me through it step-by-step! Just as you did today! You are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI think you have a good point John about the outcomes of searching for the "perfect" image, gif, or video. I can't tell you how much time I've searched for the perfect picture or gif. It's fun and each image and source brings a new awareness to the extensive range of possibilities to construct multimodal communication. It's fun, but frustrating at the same time (you got a bit of it today--after many attempts to post since yesterday).
Your question about the challenges in finding multimodal ways to express our topics is a pertinent one. This is where you are forced to think beyond printed text on a whole other level. You begin to think do I input what is a reflection of my personality, my understanding, or do I put in what I believe others will interpret with more clarity. That was my biggest challenge. Do I put an image that is what I'm really wanting to convey based on my views, my experiences, and my personal likes, or do I take others in consideration in the hopes they see and understand my message. I need to reflect on that one for a while---a teaching moment ocurred.
Yeah, like we said, we exactly experienced the beauty of New Literacy/new literacies recently. FaceTime, modeling, releasing the responsibility, critical literacy...everything was there. Again congrats on your, oh no, OUR (wannabes') leveling up! haha. (adding one's digital storytelling story would make it better, would you all?? lol)
Delete"This is where you are forced to think beyond printed text on a whole other level." I love this phrase Barbara. Yeah, this can be another unique aspect of NL I believe. Wow. Indeed, we were prompted to think beyond the given text when trying to find a multimodal text - what an awesome concept behind the multi-modality it is! I often ask my students to draw a picture when they learn a new vocabulary word (e.g., stereotypical). Some love that, but some hate that. But, this discussion has made me feel more "determined" to give that kind of prompts that facilitate my students "thinking-beyond printed text." Thanks Barbara!
So, creation, we already know the importance of this but, will play the significant t role when we deal with multi-modality, because it will positively push us to think about the diverse kinds of materials (e.g., the dancing Sponge Bob). At this point, I am thinking about asking my students to add at least one moving gif image or a picture to represent their ideas about a given content at a class forum. What do you think about this idea? :)
Wow!! Adobe Voice? I think I own the app through the Creative Cloud but I have sure never used it. I will now though! That was amazing! (Not many things are compatible with Blogger, by the way, so if you blog for a class of your own, you may choose Wordpress for a wider range of compatible apps.)
ReplyDeleteYour photo with Leo . . . aww. Such an amazing moment. I am totally going to try making a video now to share with you all too. I think that's a great exercise in remembering what to be grateful about and remembering what's important in life (and I think I may have lost track of all of that myself), so truly thank you for sharing what's important in your life. You did digital storytelling proud on this post.
And Barbara, I thought about the same things. I think the best way to communicate, multimodally or statically, is to convey things from our points of view in the best way that we, ourselves, would find to make sense of it all (and then make sure we answer questions to address anything we might have missed). Who is to say that when we set ourselves completely to the side to try to be absolutely "objective," we'll be more successful? We could end up completely missing the mark and then also wipe the personality, vulnerability, fallibility, and humanity from the communication, making it daunting to approach.
Thanks Jacqueline! :) Yes, Adobe Voice was an truly awesome and easy app. Thanks for assigning me this topic. This work and my thoughts along with it really made me think outside the box regarding digital storytelling. I didn't know that but, I presumably have this idea before - I thought storytelling should be something special, huge, academic, sophisticated, or a book-review type of thing (really don't know why). However, as BABR and the Storytelling article said, anything could be the ingredients of our story. Hmm...so, I chose "Tell What Happened" option for my topic and start from there. This experience will make me more comfortable to answer my students questions, "teacher, storytelling? what story? I don't know what story to tell you."
DeleteWith this in mind, "Humans are natural storytellers" (Shelby-Caffey et al., 2014, p. 192) becomes one of my favorite quotes, which is from the Digital Storytelling article.
So, I was thinking about having my students make at least one digital story for their e-portfolio project. What do you think about this idea? :)
PS. I can't wait for your digital storytelling story Jacqueline. :) I may try Wordpress later, yeah, getting out of your comfort zone John.
Wow, you guys are just so awesome! I have learned so much from you, as you have pushed me through this entire process (sometimes with my heels dragging, and other times with me kicking and screaming) and I truly appreciate it.
DeleteBarbara I think that our voice is important in many respects, and perhaps not so much in others. As I wrote (and am in the process of revising) my Practitioner Article for ILAC 6013, I realize that within a Practitioner Article (or blog, website, advertisements, etc) voice is an extremely important aspect. I realized this as I was searching for the "perfect" video, image, page, article. You know what I mean. We look through dozens, hundreds, and sometimes thousands of items to find one that "speaks" to us. I think that what we are really looking for is one that we can relate to, on that speaks in a similar voice as us.
However, when we are looking for or writing with a researcher's hat on, voice plays less of a role. We have to be more objective, relying more on evidence, and letting less of our personal opinions and beliefs reflect in our writing.
I could be totally wrong here, but it wouldn't be the first time! lol :)