Week 3 - Digital Storytelling

Assignment Title: Digital Storytelling

Uses in the Classroom
Movie trailers are an instructional technique that has been taught to graphic design students for years. It’s a great way to get students familiar with the combinations of audio and video and have them create a polished piece of work that they can be proud of. However, Digital Storytelling allows teachers to use the same techniques that film companies have been doing for years to grab the audience and apply that to a lesson plan.

While there’s a big difference between a movie trailer and a digital story, I envision this tool as used to illustrate something very simple or to introduce a larger lesson or unit. I think this tool has real potential as a grabber for students and would get them excited about learning a new concept. I also believe this tool aligns well with the idea of learning goals, an assessment technique that gives students real life friendly expectations for a specific lesson and lets them keep an “eye on the prize” throughout the lesson. Digital storytelling could potentially function as a form of learning goal, showing the students the concept of a topic or topics before the lesson even begins.

Finally, there’s a possibility to return to the tried and true method of using small videos in the classroom by having the students create their own stories using digital storytelling. This would add a human element to something mundane like writing an autobiography or a family history and allows us to bring visual elements to the classroom. We could also use this concept to illustrate difficult scenes from literature; imagine having students act out Romeo and Juliet in their own language rather than ye ol’ Shakespearian language.
Issues to Consider
Videos are a great tool, but like most multimedia projects we always have copyright to consider when making any type of shared video. Although the creative commons has done a good job of trying to make royalty free content available online for free, particularly with education, the temptation is to use the much better content that’s easy to find in a google image search. For instance, when looking up images for this project in particular, I had significant difficulty finding good images to support my theme as most technology images are protected under copyright. To overcome this, I found the google image search feature that allows you to search for creative commons images helpful, but with younger students I doubt they would bother.

Like most computer multimedia projects, this type of a venture is somewhat vulnerable to technology requirements. For instance, I worked in a school that had Pentium 4 computers up until last year. In the eyes of the Administration this wasn’t an issue as the students mostly did “word and excel” and the antiquated technology was more than sufficient to run Office 2003…*facepalm*. However, when working with digital media the instructor must be sure the technology is present and available.

Copyright
All images were located using copyright free websites crawled using the Google image search “distribution and manipulation” setting which returns only properly licensed images. Music related to this video rendering is used with permission and downloaded from freestockmusic.com which is linked from the Creative Commons music distribution page, a second musical recording is a stock recording shipped with Apple iMovie.

Week 3 - Screencasts

Assignment Title: Screencast

Uses in the Classroom
Screencasts are at the center of my life…sadly. As an instructional technologist for a large university, I cannot possibly reach every faculty member and show them how to do things. There are simply not enough hours in the day. Therefore, I’m faced with two options: first, to live in meetings and have the faculty show up on my front lawn after hours, or secondly:  to use screen casting to show users how to accomplish things step by step.

For a classroom that’s attempting to do any kind of computer related project this is a must. With screen casting we have a really great ability to show the students exactly what they should be clicking on and the process for completing their tasks. Also, especially with students that have trouble with technology they may need to be told things two and three times. This can make for a really long lesson for the teacher and take time away from students who might just need a quick fix. With screen casting videos the students in need of assistance can watch the video as many times as they like as well as rewind, fast forward or even pause to take notes.

Finally, a real benefit for my teaching in computers is the number of screencasts that are available on YouTube for anyone to watch. There are processes as complicated as “Installing Microsoft Exchange Server” or as simple as “Creating documents with Microsoft Word” all free and community driven, some are better than others but that’s an aspect of any community driven project. Users can just type virtually any computer related task into YouTube and find quick and detailed answers easily. Therefore, staff may not have to spend the time making their own videos, but simply link to ones already created.

Issues to Consider
With any computer based project or any lesson where the instruction of how to do things with a computer is critical, one of the most important aspects is consistency. It does you absolutely no good to show a user how to accomplish a computer based task on your computer, and then expect them to be able to do the same thing on a computer at school with possibly a different version or operating system. To be successful as a good teaching tool, screencasts have to be relevant and consistent with the look and feel the students will see when they login. For that reason, I always try and push for a separate machine that acts exactly like the ones in the lab or try and record my screen casts in the computer lab itself. This way I can be sure my screens will look exactly like the students.

Another issue to consider is the issue of accessibility when dealing with screen casting. Videos with narration are great for the vast majority of students, however when dealing with students that have hearing or visual disabilities the process can seem useless. Transcription of your videos with text can assist, but that can only go so far. Thought must be given to accommodation and audience before the video is published.

Copyright: TrueCrypt is a free and open source GNU project with provisions in the license to allow for graphical representation of the software screens and windows.

Week 1 - Talking Photos

Assignment Title: Talking Photos with Fotobabble.
Uses in the Classroom
Fotobabbles have multiple uses in the classroom that may not be apparent on first glance. The common thought with a talking picture for use in the educational setting is to use this solely as an introduction tool. The idea of putting a picture and a voice to someone who may only be a name or a small avatar is an appealing one, especially for the issues faced by distance education or correspondence only courses. This is ofcourse a very compelling use for this software, and in my opinion is a must have for any distance learning course. 

However, the software could have uses for other more traditional educational settings too. Often when I think of technology that brings in a human element I draw back to my early teaching placements where part of my job was to teach religion courses. Although the sterotype is that these courses often involve the study of religious texts, the realitiy is that they're mostly based on morality and moral responses to certin situations. I think in this context a fotobabble could be easily used to conveigh emotion, vocal tone, infection and word use could easily help understanding and help students remember concepts when talking about topics like poverty, descrimination or human rights. 

Fotobabbles offer us a unique way to connect with each other on a visual and audio level. This connection could be used whenever an emotional connection is needed in the classroom to really drive home understanding and insure that students remember. 

 Issues to Consider
I hate the sound of my voice recorded...anyone else in the same boat? Most people do, I've been told it's common with everyone but I still can't escape the feeling that I don't sound right on a recording. This, and other issues around self esteem are huge when dealing with this kind of a multimedia. The act of recording voice for posterity and the ability to replay it many times at will is, for some, a scary and stressful thought. This is something teachers need to take into account when working on assignments like this. 

On another purely technical note, the sale of webcams and microphones are often an after thought for anyone not buying a laptop. School administrators might not be inclined to order extra parts when already springing for new computers.
 
Copyright: Images and multimedia shared in this post are original creations of Ian Thomson