Digital Storytelling - Week Five

I have a new found appreciation for film makers and all the upfront work that goes into making a movie. The biggest takeaway for me is to storyboard everything in advance - reflect for a few days - and then modify the storyboard before going into production. Last week in DigiTales we read about creating a Digital Storytelling toolkit and this week we read reviews on what to look for when selecting the various hardware and software components. Understanding ones' level of technical proficiency and the tools available drive what one can actually produce. I had to go back to my Pecha Kucha storyboard and change the flow due to my personal technological constraints.

I was just thinking that I needed more experience putting together rubrics. Our class has us creating a Multimedia Rubric that could be used by students in a project. A rubric serves not only as a way to evaluate student performance but also helps the students organize what they should be doing. So often in the MEIT program I have referred back to the assignment rubric and this has helped me know what I need to do and where I should focus my effort.

At the UW-Hoofer's Sailing Club we are in the process of creating short videos that will be posted on YouTube for access by sailing students. I decided that my multimedia rubric would cover this latest club endeavor and include elements from the Digital Storytelling course: presentation design and delivery a la Presentation Zen, storyboarding and working within hardware/software constraints. In effect, it will serve as a project template providing direction to guide each group in their production and help them tell a great story in the process.

I am wrapping-up my Pecha Kucha which is about an introduction to sailing covering the basic points of sail, leaving the pier and landing. I've gone through this so many times in a face-to-face class that I found myself recreating that environment. At the eleventh hour I wanted to change it into something that would be more of a story about going sailing rather than a 'how-to sail' approach. I have kicked it into high gear taking more photographs and redesigning slides and voiceovers.

Our study group work met earlier this week and evaluated SlideSix and authorStream. I was a bit down on SlideSix but after our group meeting I wondered if I could use it for my finished Pecha Kucha. I tried using the audio for narration and it seemed klutzy - but I kept at it and I think it might work. My fallback is VoiceThread, but I think I will push SlideSix just to see if I can learn a new online tool for sharing presentations with recorded audio.

Here is my Intro to Sailing Pecha Kucha