Presentation at the Texas Library Association Conference

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made a presentation at the Texas Library Associating meeting on April 2 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

I created a set of web pages so the audience members could review my presentation materials later and you can find them online at:

http://faculty.coe.uh.edu/brobin/TLA/

The session was supposed to be a panel discussion with 2 other presenters in addition to me, but one of the folks was unable to participate and so the first presenter did her part on writing and then I followed with my presentation on digital storytelling. I would guess that there were somewhere between 100 and 200 people who attended the session, with most being librarians, although there were some teachers also, and many of the attendees were both teachers AND librarians.  I had about an hour for my presentation so I was able to show several digital story examples and I also demonstrated how to use Photo Story 3 to show how easy it is to begin creating your own digital stories.

After my presentation, there were several questions from the audience that surprised me because we don't necessarily cover these topics on our EUODS website, or if we do, perhaps we should make the information easier to find. Here are some of the topics that were brought up:

• I've heard that you can create titles in PowerPoint and bring them into Photo Story 3. Is this better to do than add title in PS3 and if so, how do you do this? (Easy to do and yes, it does give good results, but we don't show how to do this.)
  
  
• My students are already using Photo Story but they want to add animation. Can this be done? (The answer is yes, simple animation can be added to PS3 by adding sequential still images. I've showed this technique in some of my courses, but I don't think there's ever been any information on the website to show how it can be done.)
  
  
• When recording audio narration in Photo Story 3, can you keep recording over more than one slide? (Again, the answer is yes, you click on the next slide button on the screen and keep talking, but this is not obvious to many PS3 users and we don't address this on our site.
  
  
• How was the Pop-Up books video created? (I told the audience that it was created by using both PS3 and Windows Movie Maker. This led to the next question): How do you use both programs to create one project? (Again, this is something we cover in some of my courses, but is not on the website.)

So, the bottom line is that there is definitley some additional material that people are interested in that we don't currently address on the website, but I think we should.

Please post any ideas or suggestions you have about this.

Discussion Assignment Nine

For this week's assignment, you should try to find examples of Wikis, Social Bookmarks and Social Networks related to digital storytelling that you feel should be added to the EUODS website.
 
Post a message in which you describe the other Web 2.0 resources you found and indicate why you feel they should be added to our EUODS website.

Discussion Assignment Eight

For this week's assignment, you should try to find examples of blogs and/or podcasts related to digital storytelling that you feel should be added to the EUODS website.

Post a message in which you describe the blog and/or podcast resources you found and indicate why you feel they should be added to our EUODS website.
     
Important Notes:

1. Be sure to review the material on these topics on the current website so that you do not duplicate material that has already been included.
     
2. Please limit this week's research to Blogs and Podcasts. For next week, you will be asked to explore the use of other Web 2.0 resources (such as Wikis, Social Bookmarks, Social Networks), so if you find useful resources of this type, please wait until next week to discuss them.

    

Information about Midterm Project

During the Saturday face-to-face class meeting on March 14, we discussed the midterm project that deals with a collection of emails that I have received about digital storytelling and the EUODS website.

I have created a document that contains approximately 75 of these messages which we discussed in class and decided that each student in our course would work on either creating an entry for a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section that we will add to the site, or help develop an idea that was suggested in some of the emails. The list that we came up with and the students who have already selected a topic to work on is as follows:

DIGITAL STORYTELLING TOPIC	STUDENT
How can visitors to the EUODS website submit links to other DS resources?	Leon
What PowerPoint presentations are available for download the EUODS website and where are they located?	Kristi
What is the permission policy for using material found on the EUODS website?
Create a list of tutorials and how-to guides that are available on the EUODS website pus a list o other tutorials related to DS that are available online.	Christina
What equipment is recommended to begin creating digital stories?	Tatiana/Jen
Create a list of bibliographic information, including research results related to DS, available for visitors to our site interested in such information (such as students working on a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation on some aspect of DS).	Lynda
Create a section that includes information about DS workshops offered locally or in other places.	Margo
Create a listing of some of the more interesting "thank you messages" we have received about the EUODS website.	Lauren
How is DS being used in conjunction with e-Portfolios or e-Narratives?	Anh
What are some good sources for copyright-free and royalty-free music that can be used in digital stories?	Anita
Create a section that explains how digital stories from the EUODS website can be accessed through iTunes.	Shawn
Make some Photo Story files available for download. Select which ones and write up description for their use.	Yolanda
Prepare an outline for 90-second introductory audio or video clip where I will discuss what digital storytelling is, how it's being used in education and what visitors can find on our website.	Deidre
Do you have another idea?

Important Note 1: If your name is not on this list, please send me an email (brobin@uh.edu) letting me know which topic you would like to work on. The remaining topics will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and the list will be updated as I receive your emails.
 
Important Note 2: Because the document with the 75 email messages contains names and contact information, I am not posting it on our course website or on the course blog; however, I will send an email message to each student in the course with a link to the document. If you do not receive this email message, please let me know so I can try sending it to you again.
 
Important Note 3: The midterm project may be created a Word document, PowerPoint slide presentation, PDF file, HTML file, etc. and
should be emailed to me (brobin@uh.edu) by midnight on April 5, 2009.

Discussion Assignment Seven

For this week's assignment, you should first read the posting about the MERLOT Faculty Development Editorial Board Award for Exemplary Online Learning Resources – MERLOT Classics 2009, which was given to our Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling website.
 
Then you should review this week's reading assignments, which include the MERLOT Website and the section on MERLOT's awards for Exemplary Learning Materials, including the previous winners.
 
After you have reviewed these materials, post a message in which you discuss your ideas about if and how this award should be noted on our EUODS website.
 
In addition, briefly discuss what information you feel should be included in the 30-minute presentation at the MERLOT International Conference so that others will know about the work we are doing to make our website a valuable resource for educators and students.
  

The AWARD WINNING Educational Uses of DS Website

While I was at the SITE Conference last week, I received the following message which I am delighted to share with you:

Congratulations!  Your learning material, “Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling,“ has been selected by the MERLOT Faculty Development Editorial Board as a winner of the MERLOT Award for Exemplary Online Learning Resources – MERLOT Classics 2009.

As part of the award, we are most pleased to invite you to attend the MERLOT International Conference in San Jose, California August 13-16, 2009.  The awards ceremony will be held during the Awards Luncheon on Friday, August 14th.  We will have an area reserved near the front of the room for you. During the awards ceremony, it will be our honor to present you with the award. You will also be able to showcase your award-winning contribution at the MERLOT International Conference during a 30-minute session.  

MERLOT - http://www.merlot.org
Visit MERLOT Voices - http://voices.merlot.org
MERLOT Conference Website - http://conference.merlot.org/2009/ 

My Response to Final Semester Project Ideas

Hello Everyone,

I'm now back at home after a successful trip to the SITE Conference in Charleston. I had hope that each of you would email me your ideas for the final semester project and I would reply with my comments so the blog would not get too busy. However, I have not received many emails so far, so I will instead try to respond on the blog over the next few days and we can also discuss project plans at our face-to-face session this coming Saturday, March 14. I hope to see you there.