Discussion Assignment Six-Final Project Plan
For this week's assignment, you should select a topic for the final semester project you will be creating and begin creating a draft version of the project. As mentioned above, you should select some aspect of digital storytelling and create content on that topic. The project can be new content or a modification of existing content, but either way, it should include material that can be added to the Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website.
At this point in the semester, you should select the topic you will use and begin developing a draft version of the project. You may create the final project in any format you wish, such as Microsoft Word, PDF, PowerPoint, as an HTML page. You may also create a digital story on your topic or use a digital story (or stories) to supplement a written document. Additionally, you may use any other type of media or Web 2.0 tools of your choice as the whole or part of the final semester project.
In the Feb. 21st class, I demonstrated a resource page for a presentation I will be giving at the Texas Library Association meeting in April. You may want to refer to this page as one possible guide for how a final project that you develop might look. The page is at: http://faculty.coe.uh.edu/brobin/TLA/
Post a comment here in which you briefly describe the project you are planning to work on. You may also include questions you have about the content of project, the techniques you plan to use, or any other related issues.
Posts
32 comments:
Dr. Robin... I am interested in the movie maker tutorial being put on the website. I like the moviemaker program because you can add video clips. However, it is more involved because of the clips and how to manage the sound. I think we definitely need a tutorial placed on the site... maybe even several... a beginners guide to moviemaker and a more advanced guide to moviemaker. I would like to develop this into my final project. Since I missed the optional Saturday meet due to other obligations, I am not real clear on how I should proceed. Any guidance you could give me at this point would be great since I am in a bit of anxiety now over all that I have to do not only for this class but others....it is time for this old gal to get down to work.
Hi Lynda,
You might begin by reviewing the page I used last semester to introduce some of my students (who were not IT majors) how to do some technology things that went
beyond Photo Story. Take a look at:
http://courses.coe.uh.edu/brobin/7358-lit/class11/class11-lit.htm
You will see that there's a very brief introduction to Movie Maker but it might be a good place for you to start with and perhaps you could add to it.
I like using screen captures when I create a tutorial and I generally use Snagit, which is a very easy to use screen capture program. It's not free, but you can download a free 30 day trial version from:
http://www.techsmith.com/download/snagittrial.asp
You might also try cataloging the best Movie Maker tutorials that others have already created and creating a resource page that would be useful to visitors to our website. You could provide annotations about the various tutorials as well as categorize them do that it would be easy to see which ones are for beginners, which ones for more advanced users, etc. And you might see what, if any YouTube or similar video tutorials are available that could be included.
Of course, other students are welcome to contribute their ideas to this discussion too!
Dr. Robin,
Thanks for the ideas and links. I have started the work but have not gotten to the actual tutorials yet. I have spring break the week before UH spring break and will have lots of rested time to work on this project. I hope to create something that will blend in well with the rest of the site and would appreciate all the input I can bet from the class.
Dr. Robin,
I'm thinking of tackling the topic of using DS in teaching ESL/EFL. I idea originated from my studying EUODS, which I think does not offer large resources on this theme. This is a hard nut to crack because there is not much of this in the literature (at least as far as I have found). I would like to develop it into a paper. The frst part of my paper would be literature review and the rest of it would explore how DS has been used in the area of ESL/EFL. I may use digital sories from the EUODS or other places to support my arguments.
There may be changes to this first idea as I start working on the paper, but I hope I still can follow this direction.
I could not come to the Feb. 21 class,so my question now is a paper would be OK for the project or if I need to aim at something more technical.
Dr. Robin, as we talked about earlier in the semester, I am working on a survey for my middle schoolers to take that will evaluate our website through their eyes. Ideally, I would like to see a section dedicated to K-12 students, written by educators specifically designed for these learners.
At our F2F last week, we discussed some changes to the new website. I still commented on the aeronautical theme of the website. I had suggested taking the pictorial examples of the previous website (Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling), and posting them in the squares of the new website where the astronaut and moon are shown. There was also discussion about adding new topics under the DS Website portion and putting in a new topic(s). I had mentiond combining some of the tabs. There was a suggestion to have Web 2.0 tools and Software as one tab.
As for my contribution to the website and my final project plan, it was decided that the Med group would work on the Health/Medical page. Tatiana and I will work on the Dental aspect. I had suggested on the previous posted entry from Deidre on the "New Dates Selected for Remaining Face-to-Face Classes" Post that we may want to change the title. The group at class on the 21st (Jen, Lauren, Tatiana and I) discussed we each construct about 2-3 sentences for the creation of the introduction. Tatiana and I have also discussed having an educational tool for patients and students (dental and/or dental hygiene). We talked about having examples of the tools by way of DS or powerpoint. We are still in the working on this.
Dr. Robin, do we submit our phases of the introduction statements, or do we submit the entire collaboration at once from both contributors (medical and dental)for the website?
as mentioned by Margo, I will be working with her for the dental section and also coming up with an introduction paragraph once you click on the link for health. I think we are wanting to possible change the name of the acutal link. My hopes is to be albe to add a DS done on Photostory about Early Childhood Caries that is a story to be viewed by parents of my patients. I would also like to add a DS using voicethread. This DS is an introduction to my clinic for dental hygiene students coming to do a rotation. It is used as an educational tool to prepare and ease the students prior to them arriving and seeing our patients.
As mentioned by others, I'll be working with Jen on the Medical part of the Medical/Dental Education section. Where my thoughts are right now is that we could write up some various ways of using DS with students and patients which would apply across specialties, and then possibly add a DS (or more...I have several from previous courses) within our specialty areas.
Dr. Robin, I'd appreciate your thoughts on this and if this is along the lines of what you had in mind. Also, I'm not entirely sure what would constitute a "draft" for this...maybe an outline of the write-up and some ideas for DSs to add?
klrutter,
I like the idea of having a separate K-12 section for the website. DS would have totally different uses in K-12 than in higher education.
Ahn,
I like your ESL idea...that's another great area for DS to be used. I wonder if, in addition to looking at how DS is already being used in this area, you could add some ideas of your own about other ways to use it with this population?
I think my final project may be to make a digital story explain how biology can be more relevent in the class room and not just a class learning about vocabulary
Thanks, Deidre. But I haven't heard back from Dr. Robin because I would like to develop this into a paper. I'm wondering if I need to change the direction to writing a web page on the topic or doing something more technical.
klruter,
I like the idea of a K-12 section for DS. But this is going to be a huge site because you may have to deal with different subjects. Anyway, it would be a great source of materials for the teachers and students.
The K-12 thing does not have to be necessarily that large. It is probably going to need to be a project in the works though beyond the scope of this course. I don't know that each subject taught would have to be dealt with necessarily. The reasons a teacher/student would use digital storytelling are pretty generic across the subjects.
My thinking would to be to have a link for teachers on articles related to the benefits etc.. of digital storytelling, a listing of how it could be used with a few examples, ie. journals, about me, historical, teaching, summarize learning, introduce topics
And then perhaps links to directions for students that are each enough to follow for the creation and rubrics as well.
Okay... so it is pretty massive but alot of what is on the site could be used but maybe just linked to from the K-12 page.
My idea is about using DS in forensic science education. The purpose of FS education is to provide practical skills, knowledge and problem solving ability for students. According to National Institute of Justice, a variety of skills are essential for FS profession such as critical thinking, decision making, computer proficiency, public speaking, oral and written communication and etc.
In online learning environment, it's much more difficult to develop these skills than traditional face-to-face learning environments. My final project will be using DS as a anticipatory set and the tool to boost student's learning motivation and interest, and foster the essential skills of FS profession in an online FS course. I am working on it and hope this will generate a new domain of the use of DS in education.
I am exploring the use of Digital Storytelling in multicultural education. I would like to research how digital storytelling is used to teach students about diverse cultures and lifestyle, value systems, language and basic experiences that embody a particular culture. With growing emphasis on inter-cultural communication and focus on catering to the needs and abilities of diverse learners, digital storytelling can be used as a tool to bridge the gap between school, community and home of a diverse learner. Understanding different cultures can sensitize teachers as well as students towards various norms, rituals and culture of such diverse learners. Digital stories that show such aspects of diverse cultures can help teachers differentiate instruction to suit diverse learners and understand their own cultural identities. For the time being, I plan to develop a paper on the above topic, pretty much like Anh. But I would surely like to create a story that helps understand multicultural diversity for educations professionals as well as learners.
Leon, I really like your idea about a Forensic Science DS. That was one of the aspects that we haven't seen on the site. Forensic Science is a very interesting field (am a huge CSI fan), and Digital Storytelling is the perfect means to teach students about this field. All the best!
Tatiana, I really like your idea of using DS to orient students on how to deal with dental patients. Very apt use of this amazing technology. You could also make a DS on dental hygiene or certain dental procedures specially for kids or younger patients.
Originally, I was going to help Jen with the Medical Education page. After an exhaustive search of the web and not finding good examples of DS in Medical Education, I think I'm going to let Deidre and Jen work on the section, since it's more applicable to what they do. I think three people working on this section may be too many.
I'd like to contribute to the DS site by helping to develop the foreign language education section. Dr. Robin, you had mentioned at the last meeting that a foreign language education page is in the process of being added, but as of now lacks content. I've found a couple of good examples of DS in Foreign Language Education. I could also help write an introduction for the page. If time permits I would also like to create a digital story. I'm currently still exploring ideas for the DS project. I'm open to hearing others ideas on the subject.
Lauren, I think your idea of contributing with the Foreign Language Education would be a good idea. Maybe you could incorporate your beautiful pictures of Italy that we've seen from past courses into this section.
I have a question about the project.. I am reading through alot of peoples comments and I am wondering what the final project is suppose to look like. Is it a paper, powerpoint, movie maker or whatever. Also is it something that has to be presented. I missed the in person meeting on feb. 21 so this might have been discussed then.
In response to the questions regarding what is a final project supposed to look like, here are my thoughts:
You may create the final project in any format you wish, such as Microsoft Word, PDF, PowerPoint, or as an HTML page.
You may also create a digital story on your topic or use a digital story (or stories) to supplement a written document.
Additionally, you may use any other type of media or Web 2.0 tools of your choice as the whole or part of the final semester project. This would include projects that use audio and are created with tools like VoiceThreads or other similar programs.
You may also develop tutorials that demonstrate how to do something, like Lynda has been discussing about Windows Movie Maker.
The most important thing is that you select content that will make the EUODS website better. So, this also means that you can take content that is already on the site and modify and improve it, if there is some material that interests you on the site that you feel you could make better.
Or, you may create entirely new content as several of you have discussed.
If you feel that your best contribution to the website will be in the form of a paper, which might also be an article about some aspect of the educational uses of DS, that's fine, but think about who the audience will be and what you think they will want to know and try to write the paper with this audience in mind. Also, remember that you are creating content that will be delivered via a web page, so if you end up writing a long, more scholarly article, you should also create a brief introduction to the paper that many visitors to the site may read and we can include a download link to the full paper, which in all likelihood, will be read by a smaller number of viewers.
Also, several students seem to be wrestling with the idea of creating one or more digital stories and I think this is a great idea! It will take some additional work to be sure, but after all, most visitors to the site will probably be interested in watching digital stories and this would be a terrific way to present information on our site.
And finally, in areas such as using DS to teach ESL/EFL, or the use of DS in Medical/Dental eduction, or using DS to promote multiculturalism, you are the experts in this area, or if not experts, you probably already know more about these topics than most people who visit our site, so anything you create will probably be helpful to someone.
We will continue to discuss these ideas on the blog and in our upcoming face-to-face session this Saturday, March 14.
I am thinking that I will use DS to get kids excited about summer reading. I may want to use some movie tie ins, Lynda, if you are going to be at the face to face this saturday I would like to talk to you about it. I may even have a few of my students work on thier own reading digital stories.
I am also headed to Scotland in 3 weeks, so I may decide to practice making a digital story about my trip.
thanks that helped alot.
After reading Dr. Robin's comments I feel like I'm leaning towards creating a DS on multiculturalism or diverse learners. However, I have never made a DS before and will be needing a lot of help. That was why I was skeptical about it in the first place, but let's see I guess a few face to face sessions with help clear things up for me.
Anita... if I have to try to create a tutorial for movie maker (which I have only used twice) then you can make a digital story on multiculturalism. Of course, there is that added pressure we now have because Dr. Robin earned the site that Merlot award. Thanks Dr. Robin for making things so easy for us!!! :)
Thanks for the encouragement L. I guess I will go for it then. It will surely be a good experience before I take the actual DS linked course in Fall.
Diedre, thanks for the support on this! Also, LKieler, you are correct, this would be a very large undertaking. It could be something that is started here, then worked on with future classes as well. I feel with all the resources our site has, it would be a waste to not have K-12 students utilize it.
I thought I previously responded to this assignment. I don't see my comment placed on this page. Well, here it is. The MEDCEN students are going to work together to improve the Health/Medical section under the Examples tab for this project. I'm interested in producing an instructional educational video either for the anesthessia residents or for the pre-operative evaluation nurses in my clinic.
Using DST as a tool for learning English is a good direction. But what's the difference between DST and video media? I mean what's the most significant advantage of using DST for ESL should be clarified at the very first beginning.
Movie maker tutorial will be really helpful for educators when produce digital stories. But there are hundreds of resources we can find on google or youtube since the movie maker is really popular. I would suggest Kieler emphasize on the "educational tutorial" of movie maker. Maybe an example to illustrate how movie can be used in educational purpose.
Given the longitudinal nature of my involvement with this project, I will continue to work tirelessly on the DS site’s redeployment (from static to dynamic). Though we have certainly come a long way since we began this process, some of the underlying problems appear to be related to the technology management of the college’s web services, the lack of appropriate specialized personnel within the college, and the ability to establish migration timetables so that final editing and transformation can occur. I plan to present the finished version at the final, highlighting the new functionality and the power associated with this more efficient delivery method.
Post a Comment