Saturday, July 21, 2012
Reflection - week 5
This week we completed our Pecha Kuchas. I had difficulties getting started, but once I started the storyboard, it got easier. Doing the planning up front made the actual recording of my audio extremely easy. The biggest problem was trimming what I wanted to say to stay within the 20 seconds per slide. I used Photostory as the tool to create my Pecha Kuchas. The tool must be downloaded to your PC, then you simply load your images, record your audio and add music, if desired. I can't wait to watch my classmates' stories.
The Pecha Kuchas format is great. It keeps you focused on your message. It helps meet the zen principles we discussed: keeps it simple, focused on my audience. I think this would be a good format to use with students.
Another focus during this week was rubrics. If we share the rubrics with our students, we let them know what makes a good project and focus them on the correct things. There are many great tools available online to create rubrics.
The thing I need to work on, is continuing to collect all these great resources into a single location and keep it organized so that I can find them when I need them!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Digital Storytelling - Week 4 Reflection
Wrapping up another fun week of new knowledge! This week we took a look at Prezi. I had used Prezi before and HATED it. I now chalk that up to not reading the directions on how to use the tool (aka. user error). After viewing the short video tutorials, I set right to work and created my own Prezi for my top 6 photos from my picture-a-day assignment. Once I saw how to create the path, I was sold on this new tool for my toolbelt.
The Zen reading and video was great advice, as usual. Focusing on the Delivery Stage, I need to be fully engaged in my presentations in order to connect with the audience. One of the best pieces of advice from this segment was to "leave the audience hungry for more." Do not go over your allotted time, use humor to connect and view every presentation as a performance.
The DigiTales chapter this week was about technical world of digital media. Great website resources were shared (they've been added to my ever growing resources list), discussion of the vocabulary used (i.e. dpi, jpeg, tiff, wav, etc.) and some tips on how to search the web for images and sound (i.e. Cow + sound or Cow + jpg). It is impossible to know every piece of technology that is out there, so you just need to focus on what your need is and find available resources to help you meet that need. I embrace the philosophy of "learn as you go" when it comes to technology. It is also great to learn with a group of friends, as you can help each other along the way!
In our groups we tried Face Flow this week. For our group it was not very successful. The audio quality was poor and someone was always getting 'dropped' from the group discussion. I am looking forward to hear what other groups thought of this online tool.
After much thought about the Pecha Kucha, I finally settled on my topic. I struggled with how to lay it out initially, but once I got going on filling in the storyboard template, it started falling into place. I still have some fine tuning to do on this, but it is finally coming along. I like the approach of writing down (pen & paper) what type of image I want, before I start looking. This will keep the presentation focused on my message I wish to convey. It will be fun putting it together in the coming week(s).
Off to take some pictures. We got a tiny bit of rain this morning and the wildlife is on the move this morning. The squirrel has visited the bird feeder several times, as well as the chipmunks and the little rabbit. The birds are also enjoying the birdbath and feeder, along with their friends!
The Zen reading and video was great advice, as usual. Focusing on the Delivery Stage, I need to be fully engaged in my presentations in order to connect with the audience. One of the best pieces of advice from this segment was to "leave the audience hungry for more." Do not go over your allotted time, use humor to connect and view every presentation as a performance.
The DigiTales chapter this week was about technical world of digital media. Great website resources were shared (they've been added to my ever growing resources list), discussion of the vocabulary used (i.e. dpi, jpeg, tiff, wav, etc.) and some tips on how to search the web for images and sound (i.e. Cow + sound or Cow + jpg). It is impossible to know every piece of technology that is out there, so you just need to focus on what your need is and find available resources to help you meet that need. I embrace the philosophy of "learn as you go" when it comes to technology. It is also great to learn with a group of friends, as you can help each other along the way!
In our groups we tried Face Flow this week. For our group it was not very successful. The audio quality was poor and someone was always getting 'dropped' from the group discussion. I am looking forward to hear what other groups thought of this online tool.
After much thought about the Pecha Kucha, I finally settled on my topic. I struggled with how to lay it out initially, but once I got going on filling in the storyboard template, it started falling into place. I still have some fine tuning to do on this, but it is finally coming along. I like the approach of writing down (pen & paper) what type of image I want, before I start looking. This will keep the presentation focused on my message I wish to convey. It will be fun putting it together in the coming week(s).
Off to take some pictures. We got a tiny bit of rain this morning and the wildlife is on the move this morning. The squirrel has visited the bird feeder several times, as well as the chipmunks and the little rabbit. The birds are also enjoying the birdbath and feeder, along with their friends!
Friday, July 6, 2012
Digital Storytelling - Week 3 Reflection
This week our focus was on design. Zen provided great guidelines to use when organizing your presentation, in order to make your message clear and easy to understand; design keeps the end-user/audience in mind throughout the entire process.
It was exciting and very useful to take an existing powerpoint presentation I had and use the design principles to revamp and improve the presentation: 1) reduce noise, 2) picture superiority effect, 3) empty space, 4) contrast, 5) repitition, 6) alignment and 7) proximity. All of these principles make perfect sense; however, implementing them was not always as easy as I thought it would be. Space for example was difficult for me. I am the one that likes to use every available spot on the slide, with a goal of fitting everything on one page if I could! I had to take a step back, think about what my message was and how best to convey it to the audience, remembering that if my slides have absolutely everything printed on them, then why am I there?
Animoto.....love it! I can see how this would be easy, fun and educational to use in the classroom. What a powerful tool for students and teachers. I've got several project ideas swirling in my head.....biography, autobiography, history projects, book reviews or trailers, etc... I created a video of my daughter's 8th grade graduation, using a song in Animoto's library and it was just perfect, the combination of song, text and images! I can't wait to share it with my family.
As always, the wealth of ideas and feedback from the class and professor is great. The various websites we've used in class, gotten from the textbooks and have shared in the forums will help me build a list of resources that I can use in the future.
Lastly, I continue to have fun with the picture-a-day assignment. It's fun to see what creative images my classmates have taken.
It was exciting and very useful to take an existing powerpoint presentation I had and use the design principles to revamp and improve the presentation: 1) reduce noise, 2) picture superiority effect, 3) empty space, 4) contrast, 5) repitition, 6) alignment and 7) proximity. All of these principles make perfect sense; however, implementing them was not always as easy as I thought it would be. Space for example was difficult for me. I am the one that likes to use every available spot on the slide, with a goal of fitting everything on one page if I could! I had to take a step back, think about what my message was and how best to convey it to the audience, remembering that if my slides have absolutely everything printed on them, then why am I there?
Animoto.....love it! I can see how this would be easy, fun and educational to use in the classroom. What a powerful tool for students and teachers. I've got several project ideas swirling in my head.....biography, autobiography, history projects, book reviews or trailers, etc... I created a video of my daughter's 8th grade graduation, using a song in Animoto's library and it was just perfect, the combination of song, text and images! I can't wait to share it with my family.
As always, the wealth of ideas and feedback from the class and professor is great. The various websites we've used in class, gotten from the textbooks and have shared in the forums will help me build a list of resources that I can use in the future.
Lastly, I continue to have fun with the picture-a-day assignment. It's fun to see what creative images my classmates have taken.
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