Discussion Assignment Twelve
Review the EUODS website find at least one place on the site that you feel needs to be updated because the material is either not relevant to our audience, contains inaccurate or outdated information, or does not include information that was discovered this semester that you feel should be included.
You may find it helpful to take a look at a page from the EUODS site that was recently updated.
First, take a look at the original page on search engines at:
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/Copy%20of%20search_engines.html
You will notice that this page includes links to several common search engines. However, this information is not very helpful because many visitors to our website would probably already know about these resources. Also, a rating in numbers of stars is included for each search engine but this is confusing since there is no indication about where this ranking came from, what the stars are based on, whether this ranking was from another website or simply made up by the author of the page (a student in one our earlier IT courses) and it includes ranking of news search capabilities, which probably have less interest to our web visitors than searches for specific content. In addition, there is no actual connection to digital storytelling in any of the text on this page.
Compare that original page to the same page that was recently updated:
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/search_engines.html
When you have completed your exploration, post a message in which you describe the location you feel should be updated and discuss what type of new information might be contained on the page you are writing about.
Posts
28 comments:
First, let me say that this is a very difficult assignment, as the updated site is very good, up to date, and targeted to our audience.
That said, if I were going to make a major change, it would be to get rid of the software players page. I think our audience has two main types of people: 1) low-tech folks who will just use whatever default player their computer has, and 2) high-tech folks who already know this stuff.
I can see some arguments for keeping this page for completeness, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but to me it seems to be the least useful thing on the site.
I also notice that a lot of stuff we've found for our assignments hasn't yet been added, but I'm assuming this is because Dr. Robin is super busy, and not because he has rejected all of our ideas.
A quick look and I am not thrilled about the red text on the purple background. It takes time to adjust my eyes.
In response to Deidre's comment that most of the material from this semester's assignments has not yet been added to the EUODS site, it's because I've been waiting for work on the new dynamic/database version of the site to be completed.
Unfortunately, this work has taken much longer than anticipated and II have not wanted to make too many changes to the existing site since these changes will all need to be made again when the new site goes live, which hopefully, will be in the next few weeks.
So, the plan now is for the material students developed this semester to be added to the new site over the summer, and completed in time for my presentation at the MERLOT conference in August, where I plan to showcase the great work all of you have done and emphasize that one of the greatest strengths of the EUODS site, as Deidre posted so nicely back in March, is "how it's developed, and that this class (and past and future classes) are collaborating on the content. It's sort of a meta-educational process -- we're learning about how to use this technology, we're generating our own ideas, we're teaching each other, and we're working to make the site better to help teach others."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
i am one handed and under influence of drugs so excuse my lowercase typing. i think the links page is better now, and changing the site to a dynamic one is genius...thanks to the brains working on that. i do think we can get caught up in fancy graphics and lose the heart of site, i liked the consistent color scheme that has changed. i know that seems small but it served to connect the site. i will look at it more as i have energy but now i am tired
I just spent the last 40 minutes looking at the website. I could only find one section that I thought needed updating. Under Links/Research, perhaps we could add some new articles on DS, since a couple of the studies were done in 2005. I don't know if you're already in the process of updating that page. Perhaps you could include articles that were posted from one of our previous assignments which include studies done in the last couple of years. Also, there seems to more and more studies emerging in DS.
lauren,
i did that for midterm... there is a plethora of articles dr robin has to review ..i suppose as he said it will be added this summer
Deidre,
I quite agree with you that we have two types of audience in terms oftechnological skills. However, there are also folks of intermediate level who may find the software players page useful to some extent.
As for the stuffs we have found but not uploaded yet, I came to the f2f meeting last Saturday and learned that Dr.Robin has planned to spend part of his summer working on the site. This acknowledged how much we have ve found.
Lauren, I quite agree with you that we need to update the Link/Research page. I had the idea myself when I was searching for research on DS to write a literature review on the topic. I came across quite a few good papers. The Link/Research section currently does not have many research and theoretical articles on DS.
Deidre, I think I am going to disagree about getting rid of the software page. I am not so sure that there are only two main types of people that will use this website. I can personally speak for individuals such as I that are not computer savvy (clinicians) that will find this page very useful. I think the more informaiton about software we can present with its educational tools, the better. There may also be some people and/or future students that fall in the middle of the technology learning curve, that will benefit from the information the website presents. Just my two cents.
Dr. Robin, I think once the implementation of all the material we have been working on is placed into the website, everyone will be quite pleased with the outcome. I am sure not everyone's requests or contributions will be used but just to know that we had a part in the collaboration of this website is quite gratifying. Especially, since some of us are getting ready to graduate and know that some of our work will be a part of a website that will be instrumental to educators and students for the future.
I know that L.Kieler has chosen this topic for her midterm, but as I responded to Lauren, I would like to add to the Research/Link section of the current EUODS links to good papers I have found. Some of them were published in 2005, but they deal with theoretical framework, and some draw on socio-cultural perspectives of Bakhtin, Bruner,or Vygotsky. These are excellent papers, and there are theoretical aspects originated in classic theory, so I don't mind if they are a bit dated. And, the more papers we have, the more choices we get for better resources. These are some of the links:
Co-authring identity: Digital Storytelling in an urban middle school
Engaging student voice
The World of Dital Storytelling
Developing literate indentities
Lynda, will you share the links to some of the articles that you thought were worth putting on the EUODS site? I'm very interested in the research that has emerged on DS.
Margo and Ahn make some good points about the software players page; I now agree that it probably should stay. I was just struggling to find something to change/update on an already fabulous site!
I agree with Lauren about updating the Links page. I know this is in progress as part of people's projects, but it will also need to be an ongoing project for future classes as new articles are published.
Anh, I found "Developing Literate Identities" very interesting as it deals with english language learners and new literacy practices. I like its emphasis on literacy as a social practice. I was considering adding links to couple of articles on the foreign languare section that I am putting together for the EOUDS site. I think this could be a good one to add.
i would be happy to share it but it is a large file includes articles that would be good to read just about using storytelling in class, research articles and even books...also i am taking 12 grad hours in final mode and am under influence of much pain meds and only one handed so computer typing is laborious ....how do you suggest I share it, I can bring it along with my final to our last meeting.
Lynda, no worries... I just hoped that if you had a couple of good articles on hand, you could share them; but, you seem pretty overwhelmed with everything right now. I can definitely wait until they get posted on the website. Good luck with finals!
okay later then ... i really dont know how to post what i did. there are about a total of 23 articles and 6 books
This was a hard assignment. I think that the website is easy to follow and well organized. I sat some friend's who know nothing about DS, down to persue the sight, and they all felt it was easy to understand and navagate through. People seem to loose interest quickly reading the long paragraph on the homepage. It could perhaps be more concise, or punchy. The website seems so dynamic, then you have to slow down to read that.
Dr. Robin, I am not sure if you are wanting after all to add voicethread to the section of tools to create DS. It is another option to creat DS and it is simple to use. This may be something that some people may want to use.
This was a difficult assignment but I thought I would also have my husband sit down and take a look at it. He was impressed with the layout and all the information that is available and how easy DS can be done and all the uses for them.
About the Links/Research updates, maybe we can provide some data base link for users for further research.
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling – DS
Site Technical Information and Administrative Items
The EDUOS site has undergone significant change over the past several months. During this time, the original site was totally redesigned, and primary delivery technologies have been updated to reflect modern web technologies and site publishing standards.
The following information specifies the technologies behind the site and administrative details for maintaining the site once published.
From HTML to PHP/MYSQL
The digital storytelling site is coded entirely in PHP with MySQL, although it must be noted that the site started out as a static site created only by HTML. Hence, its parts were statically delivered and there was no remarkable logic or dynamically delivered content.
When the DS site was converted from a static to dynamic site, static parts were surgically removed and replaced it with PHP code linking to MYSQL components.
All pages connect to the " mysql_connect.php " file, which is the sole link to the MYSQL database from the PHP. If you are having database connection issues, this is the file that should be fixed.
Control Panel - Administrator
The administrator side has a control panel where they can edit the contents of each page. This was done using the INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE command familiar with MYSQL. Because the site is large and complex, multiple tables were created to support various things. There are probably over 50+ tables in the database for this reason alone...an unusually large number.
Each part of the control panel links to a separate table, but to the administrator looking at the control panel itself, it's cleanly organized and simple.
The control panel also allows the administrator to add other administrators or delete them. They can also change their password or retrieve a forgotten password.
PLEASE NOTE: The control panel was designed primarily to change text and video. Any complex graphics will need to be done manually in Photoshop.
Submit a Story Panel
The viewer also has their own panel where they can submit a story that can be reviewed and manually approved by the administrator. This panel is seperate from the administrator control panel and is built on its own table.
Graphics
All layouts were originally designed in Photoshop. Once the photoshop layout is done, it is then flattened and transferred as a layer to the border.psd file. The border.psd file has layers which a designer can use the magic wand, without anti-alias option selected, to quickly cut out the parts. Each part is then coded manually in Notepad in PHP.
The flash graphics were primarily done in After Effects which is then exported to an .swf.
Folders
All includes are placed within the includes folder.
All uploaded items are put within the uploads folder ( all videos go here )
All graphics are in the graphics folder.
Misc.
The pulldown menus from the navigation bar are created by javascript. Because javascript is difficult to adapt with PHP, any changes that need to be done to the pulldown navigation menus must be done in the javascript itself.
The table fields needed for the MYSQL can be found in the word document.
In addition, there are 20 more templates not in the original that can be added on if desired by the owner of the site. Tables and setting for them have already been placed in the control panel. To make them " visible " to the public, all that's need to be done is to make a link into the javascript menu.
Site redesign and development accomplished by:
Dr. Bernard Robin, Center for Digital Storytelling in Education;
Shawn McCombs – Design and Development;
Louis Leung – Graphic Design, Programming, and Site Implementation
The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling is the proud Winner of the 2009 MERLOT Award for Exemplary Online Learning Resources.
One area needing improvement might be better methods for feedback and a section highlighting Dr. Robin and the UH College of Education.
In addition to biographical information, explicit contact info should be made available to all site visitors – as well as an integrated form for surveying site users/visitors in order to begin studying the empirical uses of Digital Storytelling and the EDUOS site as an underlying resource to that end.
I agree with Shawn that there needs to be a section highlighting all the work that Dr. Robin and the College of Education has done with respect to DS. Also the theoretical part of DS needs to be updated as well as Anh pointed out. Educators that are interested in integrating DS in the classroom would definitely want to know how other educators have done so in the past through relevant researches and articles.
Going through the site, I was looking through the Links/Resources section. There are a lot of image editors and generators that do cool things to images and text. However, I did not find any such links/resources on the site. There are many image and text generators and editors like Wordle, Phrasr, Spell with Flickr, Sign generator, Image Chef, Picnik, GIMP etc. that can be added to the site.They could give unique and one of a kind effect to DS images.
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