Honestly, I did not have high hopes for the digital stories from 505 for this semester. Students had seemed somewhat reluctant to share their ideas for their stories in class, and both Evrim and I had received few inquiries about the stories while they were in progress. I had the sense that perhaps this group of students had not embraced the digital story assignment as fully as classes in the past. And was I surprised (and Evrim too)!
Each of the digital stories was both personal and informative. We discovered new and interesting things about our colleagues----from torn Achilles heels to adventures in Alaska. We also discovered that we have several students in class who are gifted photographers. From tearing up over Stefan's piece on Iraq to enjoying the humor in Chris's story of his Achilles heel, I was quite enthralled with each of the stories. As I mentioned in class, I had planned to grade the stories (I was even equipped with my rubric!) as I watched them, but I found the stories so compelling that grading them the first time through was impossible. I know I will enjoy watching them again, however! It is clear that digital story telling is a powerful tool for creating learner centered (and knowledge centered and assessment centered and community centered!) classroom environments.
The evening also included a review of Flickr by Ezzie and she mentioned some features (the map piece and the groups piece) that were new to me and looked very useful.
We also spent a little time on "big ideas" from each of the three readings and suggestions for reviewing and tying the readings together.
All in all, it was a memorable evening.
I would like to echo the comments left by Dr.Thompson. I thought each story was compelling and definitely gave me a better understanding of some of my fellow classmates events in their lives. I think I have a few other ideas for producing another digital story that I may do on my own time.
ReplyDeleteI did my first digital story when I took 505 in 2006. I had just come to United States and my digital story was about making a Turkish Coffee. While working on my digital story I did video editing for the first time in my life and also experienced photography and script writing. But more importantly, I put a lot of pieces from myself to the story and that is why I think this assignment is very powerful. Yesterday we were not only informed about different cultures but also explored our peer's unique worlds. Everybody had a unique style, humor, language and way of expressing the stories. I kept doing digital stories after my 505 experience and hope it would be a start for all of you for your journeys in video editing and digital storytelling.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was an amazing spectrum of stories that we had in class. It was wonderful to see the contrast between the emotion and the humor, the various international cultures, and even some topics that were very close to home. It would be interesting to consider a different order for all we saw the other night that would take advantage of this contrast--putting some humor before Stafan's more emotional story, for example. Such things bring out the punch by contrast.
ReplyDeleteI'm anxious to see what this "prize" is and who will vie for it. I do not have any hopes for my own standing in this as my thrilling, entertaining, and educational tale of the International Space Station (the day after our class they barely dodged a piece of space debris that nearly forced them to abandon ship, lest they die) was at the bottom of the lineup and at the end of class. I'm actually quite anxious to vote for a number of my classmates and their outstanding projects.