Storyrobe review

Storyrobe is an user-friendly application that enables you to create a digital story in 3 steps. The first step is the selection of images, and it gives the option to choose a picture from your album, use your iPad to take new ones or record a video, or even use a story that Storyrobe users share. After you put in order the images that will be used, it is time to press record and start the narration. There is also one control to select the next image, therefore they will go along with your narration perfectly. After recording, there is the option to edit your story or publish on YouTube or for others users to see. This is a very intuitive app and makes digital storytelling an easier task. The drawbacks however are that (1) each story needs to be limited to 3 minutes, (2) if you use another user's story, your narration will be over when that story is over, (3) if published, your story will be available for other to see even if you delete it in your iPad, and (4) the app closes unexpectedly a couple of times. But, overall, it is a nice application that can be used to create simple and fast stories.

Storyrobe can potentially be included in classrooms as a tool to facilitate learning and engage students. Students have the chance to create entertaining and/or content-based digital stories to explore certain subjects, and they even have the opportunity to include original pictures or videos to illustrate their narration. A very positive aspect of this app is won't require additional time to teach students technical skills.

Door Scene II

Last week, we were supposed to complete the second part of the Door Scene video. Our group had to come up with a storyboard for the scene, obeying to same requirements of the previous week's project. Honestly, I couldn't come up with a new story, so I ended up making the storyboard for the same story from last week ( what a shame!). I mean, I had some ideas, but they were, hum, not genial, let's put it like that! But I tried to make a decent storyboard using the neuannotate app. I liked that app, by the way, however, it does not have resources to make a good drawing, and the typing box is a little problematic. But it nice to have an app that allows you to open and make annotation on PDF files.

But I digress. After selecting the best storyline from each group, we had to switch storylines with another group, therefore, we all would record somebody else's creation. I liked the twist, because we had the opportunity to evaluate how efficient and clear our storyboards were, based on the final videos. It is easier when you are recording your own, because you can explain what is obscure, and add details that were absent in the storyboard. But when you don't have the opportunity to elaborate using your voice, then you have exactly what you created. And it can be confusing or too general.
This time, my group was much faster, and wrapped it up well before the time allocated for the activity, which didn't happen last week. Perhaps that is because once you have a storyline, a clear one, you just do what you are supposed to, and do not have to think about changes, or it could be that the fact that we recorded a video last week served as a kind of "practice". Or maybe we were just tired. Anyways, it was a much faster and straight forward process.
In sum, I found it an interesting activity, not only it made us use the iPad to shoot a video, but it also gave us an opportunity to elaborate, collaborate, and evaluate the quality of the storyboards we produced.

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Group work

Last week, we were supposed to work in groups to create a video. The activity was interesting - we were given script requirements, and had a certain time to create our story and shoot the video. In addition, we were supposed to team with classmates with whom we hadn't worked previously.

I had a good experience with my group, everybody worked together to create something we all liked, and it can be fun working with different people. Thus, I enjoyed our project.

However, generally speaking now, I honestly don't always see it positively when teachers require us to work with different classmates, because, despite the fact that that gives you opportunities to learn from distinct people with new ideas, I still believe that your level of comfort with collaborators has a great impact on your work. I, for instance, am a very timid person and take time to feel comfortable enough to voice my opinions, therefore, I tend to get quiet and not to be as collaborative as I would in another situation. There is also the personality issue - some personalities just don't go together honestly.

Maybe it is something I must learn to do (getting over being shy around new people in order to be more productive), but I also wonder how important it is to make students comfortable so they can work better. Perhaps, it is more productive to let students choose their coworkers when it comes to work that is going to be graded, and encourage them to collaborate with different people in small projects that don't have a significant impact on their grade.

Reflection on reading

Ohler makes significant considerations about digital storytelling for educational purposes. Among the various aspects he addresses in the 3 first chapters of his book, there are two things that I would like to briefly discuss, that is, the emphasis on the story rather than on the media enhancement and the brief mention of Garner’s multiple intelligences.

In my opinion, it is very easy to be enthusiastic over the possibilities of technology integration, and overlook the principle of a specific task, in the case of DST, storytelling skills. Teachers and students need to emphasize the qualities of a good story, in terms of its development, character transformation, coherence, audience engagement, and so on, and see technology as a way to bring a new dimension to what is a good narration in itself, not overpower it. Therefore, teachers are assessing, and students developing, basic literacy and research skills, but through the incorporation of digital media, which is so important since the current classrooms are populated by digital students.

Furthermore, as instructors, we all know the efficiency of a more diversified and leaner-centered classroom, and how multiple intelligence considerations can optimize and expedite learning; thus, it is important to reflect on the way in which DST can incorporate Garner’s theory. DST gives ample opportunities to truly work skills and talents that may be not used in other types of projects or activities. Therefore, there are different possibilities of media enhancement that engages students with intrapersonal, musical, linguistic, kinesthetic, interpersonal aptitudes, and can work with curricular content in a more creative, interesting and personal way. This is in important aspect because if students are given the possibility to include what they really like in their school projects, they will be more motivated to develop and complete their tasks, and motivation increases and facilitates learning. Besides, I believe our role as instructors is to help students find out their aptitudes and use that to their advantage to become lifetime learners, and, through DST, it is possible to help students be more aware of their own abilities and explore them.

Update on group work

Priscilla, Synera and I have decided to create a digital story about the different forms of media enhancement, such as still images, video, animation, narration, music and so on, for digital stories. Our idea is to compile and illustrate them in a short video, but, rather than an a how-to video format, we want to create a story in a more entertaining way.
Our first task was to create our own definition of the term digital story, and I believe we are satisfied with what we have done. We also brainstormed ideas to create an outline of how the story is going to be told, which is very general, however it enabled us all to have a more clear and common understanding Of what we are doing.
Right now we are looking into programs to create the story, and we have iMovie, ScreenOMatic or Camtasia, and Animoto in mind. As S... and I were not familiar with Animoto, we were supposed to play around with it in order to decide if we think it is useful for our project. I created a little video there just to check the features they have, and it is a nice software, very user-friendy.
Another concern of ours is related to copyright issues, and since we are supposed to model and teach ethical behavior for students, we might as well follow our own discourse! We are, therefore, in the process of finding the media resources we want to illustrate. I am responsible for drawing some of the images we are going to use, and I am using the Adobe Ideas app for that purpose. Another task is to find an alternative for GarageBand in order to create audio.
Regarding how we plan to work together, we intend to use GoogleDocs to write the scrip of our story and to further discuss and develop our ideas

A Historia de Fabio

My general impression on the digital story A Historia de Fabio by Fabio Luis Reis is that it effectively uses media to support an already well developed story. I like how he uses the video to illustrate the transition in his life, and the still images selected, for the most part, contribute to enhance his story. The word Hope, at the beginning of the story, sets its tone and is coherently followed by developmental stages that correspond to change, difficulties, help and connection, and sense of purpose. The length of the narration is also appropriate, as it economically integrates all important details of his story without being too long or limited.

Use in education

A bilingual story can be a more productive way to work with language learners who are not very comfortable in recording audio in their second language. After all, by writing the subtitle, students are still learning and practicing language in a very interesting and creative way.
In terms of the message, I also believe that it is important for students to explore their own culture in a new way, that is, having in mind a global audience that is not familiar with their specific context. I see this as empowerment, as giving students the tools to reflect upon their reality and make it available for others to see, instead of only focusing on the culture of the target language, which is the common practice in language classrooms. Another approach would be a cross-cultural comparison that can help students to make sense of, and validate, both their own and target cultures.
Furthermore, one thing that I find particularly interesting about this story is the personal experience that shapes the opinion on a controversial subject. The MST is highly criticized and negatively depicted by media in Brazil. However, Fabio, for being part of the movement, can attest to its positive aspects, counteracting all the negative attitude towards the MST. Such endeavor, in a classroom, goes beyond the sphere of language learning to deal with empowerment. In my opinion, it is extremely important to show students, who may be part of minorities, how technology can be used to divulge and maintain their culture or organization, and this story can exemplify how to do it.
Evidently, similarly to other digital stories, it also provides language input to students, supported by audio, images, videos as cues to meaning construction, since language learners need different aids for comprehension.

Assessment

I would assess this digital story according to several criteria: purpose and coherence, quality and meaning of images and videos, quality of audio, economy, development, pacing and language usage. Therefore, assessment includes evaluation of both digital media usage and writing aspects. Regarding the story per se, the author sets the tone of the story with the introduction "Hope" followed by the developmental stages: change, difficulty, help and human connection, and sense of purpose, which have to do with purpose, coherence, pacing and economy. Language usage is another important aspect, especially if we consider using digital storytelling in language classrooms; however, depending on the level of students, a teacher may want to consider how effectively the message is delivered, rather than how many errors it was found. In terms of media usage, how images and videos communicate symbolism or metaphors is a component to be assessed, along with their quality and audio quality.


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First words

This page will bring reflections on digital storytelling for educational purposes, along with projects developed for EDT 503: Digital Media Production and Storytelling. As a language teacher, my reflections on technology integration will emphasize its usage as a means to foster language acquisition.