bp14_2009103_Week 3 Peer Comments

Original post by Elizabeth:

BP9_2009103_Digital_Storytelling

As anyone who has seen the history channel, or The Civil War by Ken Burns, you have experienced digital storytelling. It is almost like watching a picture book, but there are no words to the pictures, except what the narrator is sharing. It is a very interesting concept that is fairly easy to accomplish even with minor skills with a computer. Put together pictures, you know, those things that say 1000 words, and tell a story using the pictures to ensnare the audience. The benefit is that you can touch people on an emotional level, even if you have only a base knowledge of things like iMovie.

This is much more meaningful if you give this as an assignment for your students. They get to voice their learning in a better environment than just a plain old PowerPoint. Especially useful in Language Arts and Social Studies, there are many reasons to assign this as a project. There are actually ways to use this in a scientific sense, maybe as the start of a debate, an persuasive piece about why to fund stem cell research, or as an advertisement on why you should visit Cell City and the sites you'd see there.

This could also be assigned to explain a scientific theory; who came up with it, how they did the research on it, and why was it significant. Since I am moving on to genetics soon, this might be a way for them to explore and explain about Mendel and his explorations using pea plants. Though it is better if there are a lot of options as to what to story tell. This is because storytelling is a personal thing and to do it right, it is vital to be emotionally involved, or at least interested in the telling. This would make a better project and one that many would be interested in seeing and learning from.

My Comments:

Alicia Kalb said...

Hey Elizabeth,


I love the idea of digital storytelling, it has so many wonderful applications in education. Last month one of the media assets that I created for class involved digital storytelling. Students are constantly asked to write stories, but we live in a time where they should also be able to visually tell stories. In researching media literacy last week, I came upon a number of articles that stress the importance of educating students about media. Most significantly, teaching students how to interpret and analyze visual media. What better way to teach these elements than to have the students create their own projects.

Digital storytelling is the perfect medium for media literacy education.
I am not a science person at all, it was definitely not my favorite subject as a student, but if I had projects like you suggest I might have enjoyed it more. It's time for teachers to start thinking outside of the box.



I am sure that you have visited these sites, but if not you should check them out, they are great resources for digital storytelling. Edutopia.org and http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html. They are amazing sites.

October 14, 2009 9:51 AM

Original post by Therese:

BP12_20093_Web2.0_Tools_Screentoaster

http://www.screentoaster.com

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Screenflow. It is such a great tool for creating tutorials—I think it’s my favorite tool I’ve learned about so far in this program.

The only problem is that I’ve been wanting to create tutorials for some of the software that we have at school, but I don’t own on my personal computer. For example, SmartMusic. I’ve been toying with the idea of purchasing this program for myself just so I can create tutorials using Screenflow. But I’ve not been that excited about spending the money. Then, I found Screentoaster.

Screentoaster is a free, online tool that allows you to capture your screen in real time. This is exactly what I need! I can use it to create tutorials for Smartmusic (without having to spend the money to purchase it for myself). I can also use it when I have time to create tutorials at school, instead of always having to do it from home on my Mac.

Screentoaster allows you to record all or part of your screen. Users also have the option to add audio and an embedded webcam to their videos. The easy to use toolbox allows addition of subtitles and editing of audio.

Videos created using Screentoaster can be downloaded for offline viewing (or further editing in other software), shared via e-mail, or uploaded to Youtube, social networking sites, blogs, or web pages. Vidoes created in Screentoaster are pretty high quality, but the file size is not too large.

In playing with Screentoaster, I noticed that the audio recording and screen recording aren’t always in sync. It’s easy to compensate for this, though, by moving the mouse after you speak.

For a free tool, I think that Screentoaster is very powerful. It seems very easy to use, and I plan on using it for creating and sharing tutorials, demos, and lectures (for my students AND my colleagues), when Screenflow is not available to me. Once I’ve used it more and have played with all of its features, I could even see having students use it to create their own tutorials and demos!

Here's an example of a movie I made using Screentoaster:

References:

Screentoaster (2008-2009). Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.screentoaster.com

My Comments:

Alicia Kalb said...

Hey Therese,


After reading your blog, I had no choice but to test our Screentoaster for myself. What a cool name, who wouldn't want to use it. I love Screenflow as well, but if it wasn't for this program I would have never purchased the software. Now I have a free option that I can use at school or on any other computer. 



I love how Screentoaster is compatible with all of the other Web 2.0 tools, that is a huge convenience. If audio/video syncing is the only issue I can live with that. Most of the time with Screenflow I end up importing it into iMovie to edit it anyway. I also usually use Garageband to create my voiceovers, so for a free program Screenflow is the way to go.



Also, and I feel like I'm repeating myself, but this is great for students to use because they can use it at home to work on projects. This is a great way for students to show their work or practice explaining how they came up with their final project. There are so many options to using this program, thanks for sharing.

October 14, 2009 10:15 AM