Final Video

Here is my 

FINAL MOVIE

Chapter 15: Stealing?

All quotes appear in Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 199). Kindle Edition. If it interests you, pick up a copy today!!!

"Be perpetually paranoid"
I never like advice that encourages paranoia.  I would say, "always error on the side of copyrights"


Bottom line: Show respect, do your homework, follow the fair-use laws as best as you know them, and ask for legal help when you need it. You'll do fine.
Ahh.  that's better.  Let's relax.  I think students should make their own work.  Teaching them about copyright law is a good way to promote originality.  Maybe they will record their Dad's band for the music if they can't steal the lastest Jay-Z off the internet. 



• Music, video, animation: Students can use 10% or 30 seconds of songs, movies, and other works, whichever is shorter.
 • Words: Students can use 10% or up to 1,000 words from a text, whichever is smaller.
 • Illustrations, photos, graphics: This is more vague. Students can use no more than five images from one artist; they can use 10% or 15 works from a collection, whichever is smaller.

I would show this to my students (with a citation.) Very clear.  If you are using more than this amount, you are not being creative enough.  

Very interesting chapter.  I think Ohler did a great job making a gray area as clear as possible. 

I made my own music and sound effects for my videos this semester, but I know that everyone doesn't make music.  I think music is the hardest to get and where most of the the desire to appropriate comes from.  I don't know what to do except use those websites that have royalty free music. 

Personally, I like that anything I post on the internet has implied copyright.  I did not know that. 

Video Update

I finished the opening animation sequence. I drew a bus, school, and children.  Then I import into Motion 5 and animated the drawings.  Finally I imported that into iMovie.  I took awhile and includes most of the production.  I am working backwards by doing production first because I wanted to.  Sometimes you have to eat dessert first. The other reason is I am still writing my narration, which is the most important part since my video is meant to be persuasive.

Chapter 14: Media Grammer for Teachers

Chapter 14 comments:

all excepts from: Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 178). Kindle Edition. 

"But rest assured that unless you actually create your own media, and do so paying particular attention to how to most effectively engage and convince your audience, then any appreciation you have of media's persuasive abilities will be shallow and theoretical at best."

I don't know if I fully agree with this statement, but I do think that creating persuasive material helps one understand how persuasion works in media.  This might help students think critically about commercials,  political ads, the news, and other modern persuaders. 


effects should "support the story."

I might be guilty of adding effects for the sake of effects but I do try and make it fit.  I was told by a teacher back in undergrad that every effect should push the story forward not just look cool.  I guess I  agree because some effects could may add to the esthetics or add an artistic edge but if they don't "fit" it is just distracting.  

The rest of the chapter...

This is where Ohler is saying all aspects of the video should help push the message or point of the video. Don't add superflous items.  He goes into detail but I think this chapter should be shorter.  Is this cinematography or storytelling.  Teachers are more interesting in if the student can effectively tell a story, not if their camera angles were interesting.  However, its a book and he's trying to leave no stone unturned. Good for him. 

Chapter 13: The DTS Toolbox

Chapter 13: The DTS Toolbox


Toolbox

• First, I want to say that writing about the tools needed for technology in a book is very difficult because it will change by the time someone reads it.  Tools are, however, a large barrier for teachers.  How will they be able to find the latest tools... maybe keeping a blog of new tools would cover this. 

• The first item he mentions is computers running OX 4 or XP...teachers are not going to buy computers for their classrooms, that's not realistic.  They might write a grant, but they are not going to buy computers.  In the computer category, what you have is what you have. 

• I don't think you need a scanner if you have a digital camera.  I am doing a DST assignment and we took pictures of our student art and imported that into iMovie. 

• for software, I would consider the free online apps wevideo and Pixoria.

• I bought these headsets for cheap from amazon.  They will break, but are really cheap compared to others and sound quality is fine. 

Video

preliminary storyboard using powerpoint --> iMovie 

Chapters 11- 12

Chapter 11: The Media Production Process Phase 1

“Tell a story that is strengthened rather than weakened by the media they use”

I think the media he is talking about is film, but inside of film there are different medias. Will I used drawings? Will I use real people? Will I use sock puppets? What type of audio? . The media used can add or subtract from a story.  I think media is underrated in the decision-making. Theses decisions have the lasting influence on the effectiveness of your film.

I do like visuals.  I would like most of my students time spent on the first step of this process.

How many teachers have all of these?

I found most of this chapter to be redundant and repetitive.  We already went over the story development process.  He should have used a real classroom example of a teacher taking their students through phase I.

Chapter 12:  Media Production Stages II-V

“I recently saw a story in which a student displayed the word "confusion" while the narrative was talking about being emotionally and intellectually lost.”

I like tips like this one.  I think students should mix video/drawings/words or any visual that helps bring out the narrative.  Anything is better than boring.

This chapter was better because this is the part (production) where teachers will incur the most problems.

Suggestions like contacting local TV station to air student videos and “get a wireless mike” are unrealistic for most teachers.  If he wants to cast a wide net with this book he needs give more practical solutions.

Media elements portion was nice with good exploration of different options available.  Like I said before, keep all your media options open and don’t be afraid to mix-media.

Reference: 

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity 

Video:  Here is a video I made about a website I enjoy.

Chapter 9 -10

Chapter 9

I think he should rename the treasure map story map to the peaks and valleys treasure map.

Teachers can use story to grade videos.  The student basically outline for you all the parts of the rubric in a story map.

The story spine below is exactly what I was looking for.  I am having my students write their own cautionary folk tales.  These sentence starters will be great for the lower students. If I change the last 2 “because of that” it will work. I am going to have them draw the artwork.  Then they will narrate a slideshow in imovie. Also, I think if they start with moral first it will make for more coherent stories.

Chapter 10

This chapter was interesting. The whole time I was wondering, “What makes a good story if all the rules can be broken?”Although he never directly addresses this, Ohler does give some clues while on the subject of the train video.  He writes, “Like a powerful documentary, the story core plays out within the minds of the viewers, who transform as a result of watching it.” So, maybe a good story transforms the viewer in some way?

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 116). Kindle Edition.

MASH-up

I ripped one of our classmates' video of her dog's shadow and set it against an excerpt from the three little pigs. It's weird. Enjoy.