Digital Storytelling Assignment
When I first read the instructions for creating our digital storytelling experience, I was excited to learn that we could choose to create it on any topic as long as children were our intended audience. However, I still had difficulty coming up with an topic idea until I viewed Marie Lovejoy’s moving digital storytelling tribute to her father, Resaved, from StoryCenter while watching our week 10 class learning module. Resaved prompted me to realize I could tell a story through my pictures, something I already had plenty of as a scrapbooker.
I then had to decide what topic to build my story upon. At first, I selected a broad focus of motherhood. Upon further reflection I decided that zeroing in on the experience of my youngest son, who is 8 years old, would be more relatable to our young target audience. The next step in the process was to write the story, which I roughly based off of the chronology of my son's scrapbook. After I had a rough draft of the text, selecting and matching the pictures to the text that accurately conveyed the intended message was the most difficult and time-consuming task of the project. Once this was complete, whew(!), I was onto recording.
After viewing some classmate’s more
professional looking projects, I wish I had spent a bit more time selecting my digital
storytelling platform. I created mine in PowerPoint and recorded screenshots
and narration with Screencast-o-matic, a webiste I have used in many of my other USC classes. A benefit of using Screencast-o-matic was that it
has a free option, but the downfall of using the free program is that it doesn’t
include video editing (you get what you pay for); therefore, I had to create my project in one recording,
which required what felt like about a million re-takes.
While the process of creating this digital storytelling experience was at times trying, it has provided practice of a skill I can add to my future library-teaching repetoire. It has also given me a new respect for the effort
involved in creating cohesive, entertaining, digital stories. Viewing my
classmate’s projects has shown me how varied and creative digital storytelling can be, from those
that are hand-illustrated, animated, or told through photography, as
mine is. A plus from my experience is that I now have a digital family keepsake, The Youngest Brother: A Story about Family, that we will be sure to enjoy for years to come (albeit its amature videography).
References
Lovejoy, M. (2012). Resaved - by Marie Lovejoy [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GZ0ouK6xBBA
Michelle, I love that you’ve made something that serves as the assignment and a family keepsake (and think you did an outstanding job making the most of the limits that exist with the free services!). Great story and a beautiful family - tell Maddox a southern stranger in class said “go Pats!” - Angie Brooks
ReplyDeleteMichelle,
ReplyDeleteI really like that digital storytelling can be so personal! I also chose to use photographs and videos to create my story, particularly because I am not much of an artist. I've tried illustrating my dog many times for my students when we are writing in class, and she never quite looks like herself. It would be fun to have students create their own videos after watching yours to see what they come up with- what a great way to get to know each other!
Elizabeth Ford