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Organise properly and the story will tell itself.

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Organise properly and the story will tell itself.

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"Ultimately,it also constitutes a useful way of working on how to arrange information. As Robin (2006) points out, “students who participate in the creation of digital stories may develop enhanced communication skills by learning to organize their ideas, ask questions, express opinions and construct narratives” (p. 712).

I selected this topic because it is helpful for me.  If you organize your thoughts, it helps in every step of the process, including very importantly, revisions.  Don’t be afraid to critique your own work and cut or add.  However, just thinking of how to organize it adds music, the plan, the story, the pictures, and the content. It is my opinion that careful consideration in planning will allow for a productive production process!  From our Ohler text on the same subject: “Develop a media list. Developing a media list is analogous to making a list of everything you need to make a cake before you go shopping for ingredients.  There are no shortcuts for this step” (pg 191).  Well, I agree absolutely with no shortcuts in the beginning, proper organization makes for an ongoing time saving generative process. The more organized you become, the further you realise you have to go, or the further you can organise the smaller details. - Matthew McPherson
References:

Torres, Agustin R., Ponce, Eva P., and Pastor, Ma. (2012). Digital storytelling as a   pedagogical tool within a didactic sequence in foreign language teaching. Retrieved on June 27. Retrieved from https://usfca.instructure.com/courses/1553178/pages/m5-assignments-and-activities?module_item_id=16182443

Ohler, J. B. (2013). Digital storytelling in the classroom: new media pathways to   literacy, learning, and creativity (2nd ed.) Kindle Edition.

Image:

(Artist Unknown), (Date Unknown) : Retrieved on June 27, 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.turtles.org/trans.htm

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“…[S]tudents want to do what they want to do with their
media pieces, without much thought about whether audience members understand what
they are trying to say. This causes immature media makers to use images, photos,
or music that don’t necessarily make sense to anyone else.” (Ohler, p. 227)                                                                                  “Ask yourself whether your
media resources are decorating, illustrating, or illuminating.” (Porter, 2015) 

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“…[S]tudents want to do what they want to do with their
media pieces, without much thought about whether audience members understand what
they are trying to say. This causes immature media makers to use images, photos,
or music that don’t necessarily make sense to anyone else.” (Ohler, p. 227)                                                                                  “Ask yourself whether your
media resources are decorating, illustrating, or illuminating.” (Porter, 2015) 

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Ohler points to many aspects that we as teachers often take for granted as known. He continues through out the chapter to mention similar issues with students using unnecessary wild effects (p. 241). Although he calls himself “Captain Obvious” when he points these issues out, it is not obvious to many students. When teaching my students about presentations, my students struggle with these issues, as well as the use of colors for text and backgrounds, fonts, and contrast and visibility of images, text, and background. A good way to approach this is to use Porter's tip above: ask the student what the media, font, color, transition, music or photo is there to do. Is it serving a purpose? Is it doing that well? Is it distracting? Can the audience understand why you chose it? Does it make everything come together smoothly? -Jen Vered

References:

Ohler, J. B. (2013). Digital Storytelling In The Classroom: New Media Pathways To Literacy, Learning, And Creativity (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin: A SAGE Company.

Porter, B. (2015). Take Six: Elements of good digital storytelling. Retrieved from Creative Educator :http://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v04/articles/Take_Six Image:

Beachy, William (2007) Become a Master Designer: Rule Three: Contrast, Contrast, Contrast :http://gomedia.com/zine/tutorials/rule-three-contrast-contrast-contrast/

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“…what adaptations are required for Digital Storytelling
with individuals and communities that lack a written literacy or even a written
version of their first language?” (Lambert, 2013, ch. 11).

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“…what adaptations are required for Digital Storytelling
with individuals and communities that lack a written literacy or even a written
version of their first language?” (Lambert, 2013, ch. 11).

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This is a really important question for me because I have been teaching Oaxaqueño students for the past three years. The majority of these students speak Mixteco as their first language which is only an oral language. Recently, Mexico has created a written version of the language with dictionaries and books as well; however the Oaxaqueño community does not know the written version of the language and may not even know that it exists. Therefore the Oaxaqueño students in the entry class at our school wouldn’t be able to provide a written component such as a story board, or incorporate subtitles in their digital story. Like Lambert, I also wonder how the digital story could be modified so that they could do it.

In February, listened to a presentation which described a city in Guatemala in which a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) came in and attempted to help that community preserve their language. They created a school where Guatemalans from the community who had, gone to college, teach. Members of the NGO and teachers worked with the community to create a written version of the language and the community wrote stories in that language which were shipped to the U.S. and printed as books. These books are used as curriculum materials in the school. The students are taught to read by reading a book that their parents or grandparents wrote, and at the same time the parents or grandparents learned the alphabet of their native language.

I wonder if something similar could be done as a digital story and what it would look like. Maybe the teacher could use the already existing written version of Mixteco and share that the student and his/her family. The student could work with his/her family to write a story that their family has told them. The digital story could be a fictional story, a story told within that culture, an autobiographical story, or even a biography.

References:

Lambert, J. Digital storytelling capturing lives, creating community. New York: Routledge,

2013. Kindle file.

Image: https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5251/5518522680_8c9681167a_b.jpg

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"At the community-based level, digital stories have played a critical role in social marketing campaigns for individual and community-wide behavioral change" (Lambert, 2013, p. 128).

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"At the community-based level, digital stories have played a critical role in social marketing campaigns for individual and community-wide behavioral change" (Lambert, 2013, p. 128).

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Pictures can paint a powerful picture of reality and awareness in a person's mind. I came across this turtle picture and website on Facebook awhile back and it immediately triggered an ache in my heart and an immediate change with this new awareness. The week after, my husband bought a six-pack and I saw that plastic ring sitting on the kitchen counter. I instantly grabbed the scissors and cut up the plastic rings into tiny pieces, saddened that I couldn't just recycle them in my town, but at least I could prevent future suffering in the animal kingdom. If this Earth Porm organization put these pictures of suffering animals into a digital story, maybe even with their voices of agony, they would have an even greater impact in society.

I follow a number of international relief organizations, particularly Samaritan's Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org). Although they frequently upgrade to just video clips, rather than still pictures, of the natural disasters and its other programs, their stories of the events and situations make individuals and communities aware of what's going on around the world. Sometimes the stories motivate donations, volunteer service during disasters, and fundraising by kids creating a lemonade stand. Pictures and stories together can be hugely powerful in creating a motivation of change in humanity. -- Jacqueline Vulcano

References:

Lambert, J. (2013). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community (4th ed.)

[Turtle stuck in plastic garbage] [Online image]. Retrieved from http://www.earthporm.com/heartbreaking-photos-of-pollution/?ts_pid=2&ts_pid=5