Digital Storytelling - Week 5

Pecha Kucha. This is what it is all about this week. And boy, will I be glad when this week is over. I am finding this project quite difficult. I found the topic and the pictures without a problem. My biggest issue is telling the story.

I wrote the storyboard without a problem only to find out that when it came to recording the audio that I had way more than 20 seconds for each slide. I had to re-write the storyboard a couple of times. Now I have everything down so it fits in the time limit but I am having a tough time making it sound like a story. Right now it sounds very scripted and like I am just spewing out facts. I need to add more to make it flow nicely but that will cause me to re-write the storyboard again.

I am also finding that 20 seconds goes by really fast. I thought that a nearly 7 minute story would be tough to tell but when I have this many slides and have to squeeze in the info for each slide in 20 seconds the time goes by quickly.

This project is probably one of the toughest that I have run into in this program. That's not a bad thing, it was just unexpected. Even through all of this I am still enjoying the project and am looking forward to the outcome.

Digital Storytelling - Week 4

This week we are finishing up our texts. I am still really excited with the Presentation Zen book. I will take a lot from that book. I am hoping to really integrate these ideas into my presentations as I move forward.

I am starting to storyboard the slides for my Pecha Kucha presentation. I am finding that process a little difficult. It is easy to plan out the slides but writing down what I am going to say on each slide seems to be taking some time. It is especially hard to get that down to 20 seconds for each slide. I am starting to make progress but it is tougher than I thought.

I also spent some time creating a Prezi. I found this process difficult at first because of some technical difficulties. Once I got over that problem I found the program to be easy to use and got some nice results. Although I do like the Prezi format, I think it only fits in a certain place. It is not something that I would like to look at for a long time. I find the same transitions over too long to be boring and repetitive. Don't get me wrong, I do like the format, I just feel that it can be overused.

Digital Storytelling - Week 3

After taking a week off from the homework I have started hitting the books again. I am really enjoying this class. There are so many tips that I have picked up that will help me with my presentations and stories.

Presentation Zen is, by far, the most helpful element of this class to me. It is giving me a whole different way to think about my presentations. I remember in Chapter 5 that it talked about Steve Jobs and his presentation style. I have seen a number of his presentations online and I have always wondered why they stuck with me and impressed me so much. Many of the techniques he uses are in this book. In addition to his slides, he is just a great speaker. He has a way of talking to people and making them see his point of view.

I am also excited to see us use Animoto. I started using this about 2 years ago. I remember uploading my first photos to this service. I was amazed at what I got in return. I have even used it in presentations. I have taken photos of teachers doing group activities and then shown them the end product at the end of the workshop. When I first started using it they did not have an education account. I am looking forward to upgrading my account to the education version.