For one of our final adventures in the OWP Digital Writing Institute, we have been asked to engage in some form of digital storytelling. For me this process has largely involved experimenting with several different types of movie making software (Windows Movie Maker, Photo Story, etc.). This has been and continues to be a challenge; I'm currently between a rock and a hard place, so to speak ("I want the computer to do 'XYZ,' but it repeatedly insists on doing 'ABC!' My computer is mocking me!").
The story that I'm attempting to illustrate digitally is both extremely important and deeply personal to me. It's a story that I've been wanting to put together for a long time, yet I'm still rather uncomfortable about sharing it (I suppose that that's all the more reason to share it, really). This makes my technical difficulties seem even more frustrating to me considering that I not only want to share this story, but to do so in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing to me (for therapeutic purposes).
From here, I think I'm going to completely scrap the first draft of my project and start over using both different hardware and software ("Okay PC, I'm going to go hang out with Mac for a while. Call me when you're ready to behave"). We'll see how it goes from here...
Friday, July 20, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Catching Up, and Photo Essays
Others in this class will have noticed by now that I've been a bit behind in getting all of my assignments uploaded to this blog. There are several reasons for this, and none of which should be taken as excuses. It's mostly because all of the stuff we've been doing over the past few days is so new and unfamiliar to me. Of course, this is a good thing; my potential in the realm of technology has been stretched over the past few days, and my confidence with it. I'll try to stay on top of things from this point on.
After working on the first draft of our photo essays, we
were then directed to a photo essay by Phillip Toledano called “Days With My
Father.” Toledano meant this photo essay to be a sort of “time capsule,” a
record of and reflection on his father’s last days of life. This essay was
tragic, humorous, odd, and unashamedly tender in every way. More than once I
had to fall back on my well-honed, manly emotional repressiveness while reading
it just to keep the ‘ol eye balls from “sweating.”
On Tuesday (7/17) our assignment was to experiment with creating
photo essays. With mine, I attempted to chronicle my relationship with my
fiancé. The catch is that we were first limited to five photographs, or frames,
with which to build our essays. Using Windows Movie Maker, I toyed around with
some photos of Katie and I that I pulled from Facebook (why yes, thank you, it
is creative and original). My intent was to illustrate how Katie and I’s
relationship began with a shared taste in eclectic (weird) humor; from hanging
out in cemeteries to making “guido” faces in pictures, our relationship evolved
from a merely goofy one to one that is truly wonderful in every way.
I have never nor do I ever expect to one day bill myself as
a filmmaker, or even a film expert, but it seems to me that Toledano has accomplished
with this photo essay exactly what successful filmmakers are seeking to do; he
forces us to empathize with him and with his characters. Before reading/viewing
the essay in its entirety, I might have been rather disgusted and put off by
the sight of Toledano’s aging and decrepit father. By the end of the essay, I
found myself wanting to love this old man with the same fierceness that
Toledano evidently loved him; I felt sorrow at his death, and empathy for the
author’s grief.
My own attempt at a
photo essay is nothing like Toledano’s and is certainly not as polished or
powerful, but it’s an attempt nonetheless.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Ira Glass on Storytelling
We were assigned to watch two short YouTube videos in which broadcaster and radio personality Ira Glass details his thoughts about the structure and the production of what he feels are great stories. In the first video he focuses on the structure of engaging, entertaining stories, and tells us that we ought to steer clear of traditional plot structures (e.g. beginning, middle, and end, in that order). I tend to agree, as I'm reminded of several films that I deeply admire which feature these unconventional arrangements in their storytelling (Quentin Tarantino's films are coming to mind at the moment).
I also appreciated Glass's idea of encouraging writers to begin their stories "in the middle" of the plot and to go from there as an example of departing from traditional plot structures. For students, I think this would be helpful to any extent that it gives them a sense of freedom with their writing; if they are assured that they aren't being asked to produce a piece of writing that amounts to a structural "carbon copy" of that of the student next to them, then they might feel more free to create something that is both meaningful and aesthetically pleasing to them.
I'm not sure if this is what Glass intended for viewers like me to derive from his comments, but at one point in part one of the video Glass provided an example of a story about an old man. This old man woke up, got out of bed, walked down the hall, and presumably did other things as the story progressed, and at that point Glass proclaimed "That is a good story because it is suspenseful" (any paraphrasing is my own, by the way).
Listening to Glass I found myself thinking something different; his "mini-story" was suspenseful and engaging because he was reading it out loud! Even the mild voice inflection that Glass exhibited in this case added something unique and potentially powerful to it. I then considered along these lines how it might benefit my students to read their stories out loud to themselves and hear the reading played back to them (podcast!). This could lead students to new experiments and discoveries with figurative language, tone, mood, and even "palatability" in their writing! This is an avenue that I could travel with my students even without having quick access to advanced technological resources.
I also appreciated Glass's idea of encouraging writers to begin their stories "in the middle" of the plot and to go from there as an example of departing from traditional plot structures. For students, I think this would be helpful to any extent that it gives them a sense of freedom with their writing; if they are assured that they aren't being asked to produce a piece of writing that amounts to a structural "carbon copy" of that of the student next to them, then they might feel more free to create something that is both meaningful and aesthetically pleasing to them.
I'm not sure if this is what Glass intended for viewers like me to derive from his comments, but at one point in part one of the video Glass provided an example of a story about an old man. This old man woke up, got out of bed, walked down the hall, and presumably did other things as the story progressed, and at that point Glass proclaimed "That is a good story because it is suspenseful" (any paraphrasing is my own, by the way).
Listening to Glass I found myself thinking something different; his "mini-story" was suspenseful and engaging because he was reading it out loud! Even the mild voice inflection that Glass exhibited in this case added something unique and potentially powerful to it. I then considered along these lines how it might benefit my students to read their stories out loud to themselves and hear the reading played back to them (podcast!). This could lead students to new experiments and discoveries with figurative language, tone, mood, and even "palatability" in their writing! This is an avenue that I could travel with my students even without having quick access to advanced technological resources.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
First Day, and First Podcast!
The material posted to this blog over the course of the next few weeks will represent my learning and thinking processes involved with a graduate seminar at Missouri State University. This seminar is about digital writing, and is intended to provide participants and educators with a wide variety of technological tools to be implemented in their classrooms.
Our first project was creating our very own "podcast." I listen to at least one podcast of some sort almost every day, but until now I have not had any experience with creating one. Working within our assigned writing groups, each of us took turns recording the other participating in a short conversation.
Our prompt for this podcast concerned our feelings surrounding digital writing. Possible inquiries included "What are your thoughts about digital writing? What questions do you have about digital writing? How does digital writing differ from writing with traditional print resources?" and so on.
In our case, my partner and I made note of what question(s) would be asked by the "interviewer" in the podcast, and then took a minute or so to think about how we would answer the question once we started recording. This planning process, short though it was, caused the recording process to proceed much more smoothly and with less intimidation.
The question I referred to in my podcast was one that I had discussed earlier with a different group of my colleagues; "How do we as teachers implement digital writing into our instruction in a way that is meaningful for students while working with relatively few technological resources?"
This project certainly changed the way I think about podcast that I listen to often. Making a podcast and perhaps more importantly making it sound good is a complex and laborious process! I also was made aware of certain mannerisms in my speaking voice. Although these mannerisms might not be as easily noticed by someone listening to me, this is something that I will try to be more aware of in future podcasting endeavors.
You can find the "rough draft" of my podcast here.
Some time later, I went back and made a second podcast focusing on one aspect of the previous podcast. This draft focuses on the use of technology as a means of making students' thinking more visible to them. You can listen to/view the second podcast below.
Obviously, I've experimented with different ways of uploading and embedding the podcast. You'll also notice that I've attempted to add some music to the beginning and end of the recording. Covering this process was extremely frustrating for me at times; there were several occasions when I would be absolutely certain that I had the answer to a particular problem, but would soon after discover that I hadn't made nearly as much progress as I had thought. For this reason, I view the building of this podcast as a rich and valuable learning experience.
Our first project was creating our very own "podcast." I listen to at least one podcast of some sort almost every day, but until now I have not had any experience with creating one. Working within our assigned writing groups, each of us took turns recording the other participating in a short conversation.
Our prompt for this podcast concerned our feelings surrounding digital writing. Possible inquiries included "What are your thoughts about digital writing? What questions do you have about digital writing? How does digital writing differ from writing with traditional print resources?" and so on.
In our case, my partner and I made note of what question(s) would be asked by the "interviewer" in the podcast, and then took a minute or so to think about how we would answer the question once we started recording. This planning process, short though it was, caused the recording process to proceed much more smoothly and with less intimidation.
The question I referred to in my podcast was one that I had discussed earlier with a different group of my colleagues; "How do we as teachers implement digital writing into our instruction in a way that is meaningful for students while working with relatively few technological resources?"
This project certainly changed the way I think about podcast that I listen to often. Making a podcast and perhaps more importantly making it sound good is a complex and laborious process! I also was made aware of certain mannerisms in my speaking voice. Although these mannerisms might not be as easily noticed by someone listening to me, this is something that I will try to be more aware of in future podcasting endeavors.
You can find the "rough draft" of my podcast here.
Some time later, I went back and made a second podcast focusing on one aspect of the previous podcast. This draft focuses on the use of technology as a means of making students' thinking more visible to them. You can listen to/view the second podcast below.
Obviously, I've experimented with different ways of uploading and embedding the podcast. You'll also notice that I've attempted to add some music to the beginning and end of the recording. Covering this process was extremely frustrating for me at times; there were several occasions when I would be absolutely certain that I had the answer to a particular problem, but would soon after discover that I hadn't made nearly as much progress as I had thought. For this reason, I view the building of this podcast as a rich and valuable learning experience.
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