Well this last week of class included creating a rubric, finishing our Pecha Kuchas, and a group assignment evaluating some gadgets.
I like rubrics a lot and have started using them more lately. It just takes a bit of time to create the good ones. That is part of the advantage, though. Creating a good rubric for a project or assignment means sitting down and spending time internalizing what the project is meant to be doing. You are essentially analyzing the worth of your assignment. When creating rubrics I find myself either adding or subtracting components of a project after the deeper analysis. Rubrics are great for eliminating any obscurity as far as what is required of students and it helps guide you in the grading process as well.
Pecha Kucha was still a painful assignment for me. I thought it would get better once I was done with the storyboard but it was still a struggle. Timing was still an issue. My fluency and smooth talking was just not there. You know how people say "you have a face for radio"? Well, I "have a voice for blogging", haha. I did like my picture selections and think they really added to the presentation but the rest of the Pecha Kucha was very hard to piece together. I wouldn't choose this method for a presentation - it just doesn't cater to my strengths. I'm glad I was exposed to it, though.
Overall, I liked the texts for this class and I have a strong feeling I will reference them again. Especially the sections of Presentation Zen where they provide and display examples of good presentation techniques. I'm happy that I got a chance to experiment with Animoto and I absolutely loved using VoiceThread. I am currently planning a collaborative lesson with another teacher using VoiceThread - can't wait to use it with the students. Posterous was neat but I'm taking a break from it right now...I have a few ideas for future use but the picture a day looming over my head forced me into some pretty lame pictures just so I could have something posted. With the freedom to take pictures in the moment I think it will be much more effective. I just looked back to see if I missed anything and I wanted mention the quotes research we did. I actually used a quote in my Pecha Kucha and look forward to adding more to presentations. Fun class.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Digital Storytelling CEDO 530 - Week 4
I again enjoyed reading the next set of chapters from both of our texts. Presentation Zen had some really good caveats. I particularly enjoyed the idea of "making them want more" which naturally tied into the idea of finishing a little early (don't go over your allotted time). It is probably easier said than done but I'd love to have the audience looking at the clock noticing that it's a little early and thinking "wait, that's it? I want to know more about...". The hard part would be conveying the important aspects of your message while building up to an exciting conclusion where the audience feels like there should be more.
I also enjoyed looking through the examples of slide shows and images. When I revamped my original PPT presentation I was reluctant to stray from my style of plain white background because I thought there should be a repeated theme to the presentation concerning style. After viewing some examples I saw that alternating dark backgrounds with lighter backgrounds did not adversely effect the presentation and even added a little variety.
The Digitales chapters that we read this week made me realize that there is a lot of technical skill that goes into creating a powerful presentation. You almost need to have graphic design skills, web design skills, or something similar to really be able to cover the whole gamut of creating an earth-shattering presentation.
Now to the brutally honest part of this blog. I am having a heck of a time with the story-boarding for the Pecha Kucha. Perhaps it just doesn't fit with how I'm used to organizing a presentation but it just seems extremely redundant. If I was doing this the old fashioned way by taking physical boards or post-its and planning this out by hand in an effort to "step away from the technology" I could maybe give it a little validity. Sitting down at the computer and creating a storyboard electronically, only to repeat the process in another electronic format once we get done with it just doesn't make sense to me. It is not allowing me to enjoy the Pecha Kucha itself. Can't wait until I'm done with that...ugh.
The Prezi assignment will be fun...once I get to it.
I also enjoyed looking through the examples of slide shows and images. When I revamped my original PPT presentation I was reluctant to stray from my style of plain white background because I thought there should be a repeated theme to the presentation concerning style. After viewing some examples I saw that alternating dark backgrounds with lighter backgrounds did not adversely effect the presentation and even added a little variety.
The Digitales chapters that we read this week made me realize that there is a lot of technical skill that goes into creating a powerful presentation. You almost need to have graphic design skills, web design skills, or something similar to really be able to cover the whole gamut of creating an earth-shattering presentation.
Now to the brutally honest part of this blog. I am having a heck of a time with the story-boarding for the Pecha Kucha. Perhaps it just doesn't fit with how I'm used to organizing a presentation but it just seems extremely redundant. If I was doing this the old fashioned way by taking physical boards or post-its and planning this out by hand in an effort to "step away from the technology" I could maybe give it a little validity. Sitting down at the computer and creating a storyboard electronically, only to repeat the process in another electronic format once we get done with it just doesn't make sense to me. It is not allowing me to enjoy the Pecha Kucha itself. Can't wait until I'm done with that...ugh.
The Prezi assignment will be fun...once I get to it.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Digital Storytelling CEDO 530 - Week 3
I have to admit that the first thing I had to skip through to try was Animoto. I had seen a few other people's finished products and they were really sharp looking so I was eager to try it. The assignment actually allowed me to justify setting aside the time for me to try it. As I expected, it was very easy to do and the results were very rewarding. I was impressed by the ability to flip pictures around and the option to upload your own music files. I ended up using one of their music selection but having the option to upload your own music was nice. It was easy to adjust the layout, order, and timing of the pictures. The only knock on it was that I thought there would be more video styles available for free. I'd say about 50% of the styles needed the paid subscription in order to be used. That is a very minor issue considering all of the other excellent features.
I enjoyed doing some more reading in our 2 books for this class, Presentation Zen and DigiTales. I'm getting a better grasp of the whole process of both giving more effective presentations and delivering good stories. What I'm also learning is that there is quite a bit of planning, organizing, and time-consuming work that goes on behind the scenes for both.
In DigiTales we were introduced to the 7 step process of planning out a good digital story. I mentioned that I was a little intimidated by the scripting the written narrative step and then the subsequent recording of the voice for the story. You're writing things down verbatim and trying to make it seem natural yet you are later reading from a script. I think I mentioned in a forum that I would likely use the script as a guide and just practice it enough times where no two deliveries were the same yet it felt somewhat spontaneous.
My last insight is regarding the old slideshow that we had to revamp. I had a pretty good time transforming it using the Presentation Zen principles but man did it take a LONG TIME. I think looking for pictures/photos took the longest time for me. I would get a vision for a slide and then I was very picky when searching for a picture to complete the vision. Some pictures were too low quality and got pixelated when trying to re-size them. Some pictures didn't have the transparent background I was looking for. Some pictures needed to be cropped or edited in a graphics program before I was satisfied to put them into my presentation. I think I went back and changed my slide design like 3 or 4 times after not being satisfied that it had a steady flow. All of it was very gratifying when you find that "perfect picture" or achieve the "perfect spacing" but all of it was very time-consuming. I'm guessing with practice that the process would move along quicker but there are often time constraints involved that would make these dreamy presentations hard to accomplish. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to create that "Thirst" presentation that we saw as an example.
I enjoyed doing some more reading in our 2 books for this class, Presentation Zen and DigiTales. I'm getting a better grasp of the whole process of both giving more effective presentations and delivering good stories. What I'm also learning is that there is quite a bit of planning, organizing, and time-consuming work that goes on behind the scenes for both.
In DigiTales we were introduced to the 7 step process of planning out a good digital story. I mentioned that I was a little intimidated by the scripting the written narrative step and then the subsequent recording of the voice for the story. You're writing things down verbatim and trying to make it seem natural yet you are later reading from a script. I think I mentioned in a forum that I would likely use the script as a guide and just practice it enough times where no two deliveries were the same yet it felt somewhat spontaneous.
My last insight is regarding the old slideshow that we had to revamp. I had a pretty good time transforming it using the Presentation Zen principles but man did it take a LONG TIME. I think looking for pictures/photos took the longest time for me. I would get a vision for a slide and then I was very picky when searching for a picture to complete the vision. Some pictures were too low quality and got pixelated when trying to re-size them. Some pictures didn't have the transparent background I was looking for. Some pictures needed to be cropped or edited in a graphics program before I was satisfied to put them into my presentation. I think I went back and changed my slide design like 3 or 4 times after not being satisfied that it had a steady flow. All of it was very gratifying when you find that "perfect picture" or achieve the "perfect spacing" but all of it was very time-consuming. I'm guessing with practice that the process would move along quicker but there are often time constraints involved that would make these dreamy presentations hard to accomplish. I can't even begin to imagine how long it took to create that "Thirst" presentation that we saw as an example.
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