Saturday, June 15, 2013

Podcasts...Some Fun, Some Frustration!

Week two had two assignments: making tutorial podcasts (one audio, one video).  The audio podcast, a "how-to" on use of Audacity, was fairly easy and fun.  The video "how to" was very frustrating...I tried using a screen capture program, but file format issues made that a nightmare.  My finished product wasn't as robust as I had hoped.  But that's all part of the learning process, right?  See my master's program website for the files and links to these projects ...

Friday, June 7, 2013

Creating a story...

I enjoyed reading about the art and impact of storytelling using digital tools.  This is an inspiring topic that I know I'll be using in the future with the adult learners that I teach.  As one of the authors we examined this week [Lambert] said:



Finding and clarifying stories helps people to understand the context of their lives. This process of self-reflection helps move from an awareness of “I am” to a deeper awareness of “I have been ... I am becoming ... I am ... and I will be....”

 
It's easy for me to see the chain of stories that have made up my life, but it was eye-opening how challenging it is to pare down even a small story into a 2 minute video.  I started with a paper script that while only a page long was 500 words.  Way too many words!  I had to do some serious editing.  Other nuances, like layering sound and narration, balancing the narrated script with the image and text flow, were also new experiences.  I used a public-domain piece of music (Sleep Away, composed by Bob Acri and provided free with Windows 7) and images available to me from Lee College and the professional associations I belong to). I had developed the written script first, but I was surprised at how the images I collected and arranged influenced my edits to the final narration script.  I used captions to the images to include some of my other thoughts and some of the "background" to my story.

While my final product is far from perfect, I learned a lot, and I know my students will enjoy trying their hand at this way of sharing even a small piece of who they are.  I just have to develop a lesson plan to take them to a computer lab room and get them started with the technical tools.

Citation:

Lambert, J. (2007, February). Center for Digital Storytelling. Retrieved May 26, 2012, from http://www.storycenter.org/