Storytelling-the digitial way

I never been introduced to digital storytelling until now. What a fantastic concept! There were so many website Dr. S. supplied the class with on all aspects of digitial storytelling. One website that stood out to be above all the rest was Tips for digital story telling,
here is a section I took out that I thought will be extremely helpful while creating my visual effects when I start to create my digital story:

• Transitions between images help tell the story. Students need to know what different transitions imply. I use a punctuation metaphor to teach transitions. A "cut", or no transition, is like a comma or no punctuation mark, and serves to quickly move between two closely related ideas. A "dissolve" resembles a period, and suggests a change to a related idea. A "fade" is like a new paragraph and suggests a change of topics or passage of time. A particularly effective technique is the use of a black screen for several seconds: with or without sound. Beyond these, most transitions are superfluous and distracting and should be discouraged.
• Pans and zooms can add movement to static images, focus the audience, or give a sense of place for an object. In most cases, slow movement is best so as not to distract the audience.
• Text as art can be an effective method for focusing the audience on a particular line, by using actual text on the screen. Select lines that are particularly important and use a plain font. Text can be used in lieu of narration or in addition. Printed words can also be used to emphasize song lyrics.

I still have not decided what my digital story will be about. It has to be something we would use in our classroom,however, I am not a teacher yet so I don't really know what I could focus on. I downloaded PhotoStory3 so I will be using that to create my story. Stay tuned to see what my digital story will be about.....

Puzzling Week

I found this week's assignment enjoyable. Creating the crossword puzzle in excel was a bit challenging, however, the end product came out perfectly! The directions outlining how to create the crossword puzzle in excel was easy to follow. I had no trouble with them(and believe me, I do have trouble with following long directions at times). I did my crossword puzzle on the topic of nutrition and this concept in usually taught in fourth grade. Here is a snapshot of it, let me know what you think...


Also, I did another crossword puzzle utilizing a website, DiscoveryEducation.com. This website is associated with the cable channel, the Discovery Channel. This web 2.0 tool was so easy to use. On a scale from one to ten, 10 being difficult and one being super easy. I give it a one!! It was very user friendly! All the user has to do is input the word and the clue into a box and it is all set! I will make sure to bookmark this page in my Diigo! If I were to pick which program that I would use again to create a crossword puzzle, I would have to decide what I would use it for first. For example, If I wanted to create one with graphics, for students most likely in the younger grades, I would use excel. However, If I did not care about graphics and I did not have a lot of time to create one, Discovery Education would be the best bet!

Here is a snapshot of my crossword utilizing the web 2.0 program-discovery education!

Mind Map- Mind Meister

For the HA2 assignment, I chose Midmeister to create a mind graph all about me. I looked at all three of the web 2.0 mind mapping tools Mrs. S, recommended to use. I did not like Mind42 because I felt like I could not be creative with it. I thought Gliffy looked too "corporate" and it did not appeal to me. It took me a while to get the hang of how Mind Meister works. For one, I was not used to having webs instead of boxes to indicated different topics. After creating the mind map, I have mix feelings about it. I like the webs but if someone we create a large one without using the "notes" function, it may be too busy and too much text for someone. However, I feel if the mind map is done correctly, utilizing the notes and other capabilities it has to offer(hyperlinks, attaching documents, images, etc.) it will be visually appealing. Do you think mine is visually appealing?!

Webquest

This past week my group, Technologists, started the Constructivism Webquest assignment. I did not have any prior knowledge to this topic so I when I read about it, I found myself very interested. I am a believer in constructivism to an extent. I think if students can relate any new concept their prior knowledge, they will have a much better understanding of the topic. The Technologisits have created the powerpoint and during our next session, we will create a mind-map outlining the strengths and weaknesses of Constructivism.

I came across a new web 2.0 productivity tool that I am sure I will use in the future, SlideRocket. While browsing through the list of web 2.0 productivity tools(Slideshare, 280Slides, SlideBoom, Authorpoint Lite, AuthorStream Lite) Mrs. S. posted, I found SlideRocket more visually appealing, right away. The large graphics and bold colors captured my attention instantly. I felt like my HP computer morphed into a Mac. for a split second. As I viewed the Demo I noticed that this program incorporates the Microsoft Powerpoint program as well as Mac's Keynote program. Like some of the other productivity tools, SlideRocket allows users to publish their presentations so others can view and use them. Everything can be tagged, searched, or and sorted for easy access. I really like how users have the cability to give the slides effects like a reflection or a 3D rotation. Lastly, having the ability to publish the powerpoint on this site and being able to present a powerpoint while people view it remotely is wonderful. It's great not only in the education field for in the business fields as well. A businessman can conduct a presentation to a potential client in Japan from the United States. Again, this is just my opinion but I do favor SlideRocket more than any other program.