Digital Storytelling

Don’t forget our EdTech Connect webinar tonight with digital storytelling professor, author, and lecturer Dr. Jason Ohler.

It amazes me how some people can turn a phrase that just captures paragraphs worth of thought and feeling. I just finished watching and listening to the archive of Daniel Pink’s webinar (though I need one more time through to catch up on the chat). “Life integration.” What a concept! Maybe it’s a Jeopardy answer and the question might be “What’s NCLB lacking?”

Another question surfaced about student-centered education, “What are you (the student) interested in?” Quite an interesting concept. Maybe even letting every student have a hand in making their own IEP. That’s probably too much of a paradigm shift for me or this blog. But you just know I’m going to turn it towards making videos. How about “What can I interest you in for this project?” or “What can you interest us in about this concept, formula, scene in literature, period/occurrence in history….?”

So what’s with the Magikist sign up at the top? Chicago area folks (and probably even our resident Hoosier, Hall) will recognize that ancient icon from the two Chicago expressways leading north and south out of the city (yes, Cubs fans, we had our own along the Dan Ryan too). It’s one of the first illustrations I noticed when I started reading through A Whole New Mind a couple of years ago. An image of lips that don’t resemble anything under the nose of any human I’ve ever known, but a sign of expertly and tenderly cleaned carpets to generations of Chicagoans. Almost like the tune that goes with the phone number…

A picture, a sound, an illustrated or concise thought can be worth a thousand words.

P.S. And I’m sure Brad Fountain will be eternally grateful to Daniel Pink for laying the foundation for his “Teaching the 21st Century Student” webinar today.

Here are a few words on and a couple of quick links to some of the things I covered in yesterday’s webinar. They are mostly from past blog posts.

     RATING SCREENS are a good way to set up a movie or trailer. Use any program that gives you a green background. Then find a “blocky” sans serif font and use a transparent table for the box. Add a little film noise or aged film filter for that scratchy old cinema effect.

SOUND - good sound is more than just a special effect. Consider external microphones for both your computers and camcorders (make sure your camcorder has a sound in jack). Use Audacity or the built-in iMovie tools to change the pitch of voices - from the Chipmunks to Darth Vader.

EDITING - use slow motion, speed up a clip with someone walking slowly in a crowd that’s moving at normal speed. Have students walk or run backwards, falling or jumping along the way. Then reverse the clip so they seem to walking forward and defying gravity with those falls and jumps. Try cutting to the action or on the action: someone reaches to open the door and cut to the other side just as the door opens.

CHROMA KEY or green screen effect can be tricky but is well worth the effort. It’s built in to Adobe Premiere, Pinnacle, Ulead(?), and Final Cut programs. You can buy plug-ins for iMovie (not the ’07 version!) or use the free blue screen from Stupendous. Anybody know of a plug-in for MovieMaker? You can also use a projected image or big screen TV to sneak a background in.

Some ideas are also in HARDWARE.

Any FLIP camera users out there with advice on how to import video for either the Mac or PC?

My STAR Discovery Educator copy of WebBlender just arrived so this may be a good test for creating a new web page.

So a few years ago I got to kid Hall about having Lily Tomlin as the warm-up act for his NECC keynote and just this fall when the PETE&C schedule was announced, I kidded Steve about being the warm-up for Daniel Pink. Now it looks like the shoe is on my foot since my Tuesday webinar precedes Mr. Pink’s on Wednesday. Undaunted and even inspired that I may be able to show some actual video clips this time, I’m going to attempt some “next step” tips.
Going by questions I’ve been asked in presentations and some emails I’ve received, it looks like the agenda will include external sound input, the “Ken Burns” effect of moving around a still picture, editing and easy special effects, and a look at the ever popular green screen/chroma key effect. But wait, there’s more! I’d like your input. What would you like to know or try? What “out of the ordinary” things have you and your students done in your movie making? Drop me a line at jbtv@mac.com and I’ll use you as an example or find and example or explanation of what you’re looking for.
Take a break from the holiday madness and register for my or Daniel Pink’s or any of the other upcoming webinars at the DEN webinar site.

Well as it turns out I had some extra time to run from Midway to O’Hare for the webinar. And though I was probably foolishly tempting the traffic and presentation gods, I made it home with half an hour to spare. The only problem was my home cable Internet connection which winked out once, most likely due to all the rain we’ve had here in the Chicago area.
So here’s the laundry list of resources that answer most of the questions I heard. there may be some additions after Steve sends me the chat transcript.

***Breaking news… the $6.99 wireless microphone kit is back in stock at Geeks.com!

First the PowerPoint. Not quite the same without actually seeing the videos run:

| View | Upload your own

Log on to unitedstreaming to see the American Film Institute video clips (2+ hours worth). Just search on “afi” and take your pick. The students’ historical clips can be found in the first episode of the nine. Go to the “video segments” tab and choose “Production/Filming.” Lighting and the rule of thirds is in full video 5 of 9 (wasn’t that a Star Trek character?) as the “Using the Camera, Lighting, and Art Direction” segment. The 88 page PDF manual also is available from any window that displays the videos. It’s “Teacher’s Guide.” Don’t forget your code to join the AFI education community on page 42 of the manual.

The student videos from the San Fernando Education Technology Team:
“Protection” girl and boyfriend in car (close-ups and two-shots).
“Grilled” a little girl gives us a look at her idea of what she thinks she should look like. And while you’re at it check “Sweatshops.”
Google the IKEA lamp commercial, Letterman & Oprah superbowl, and the National Car Rental “quickest” commercials: “Charades” and “The Quickest Internship.” They are probably all on YouTube.

You can make a rating screen in KidPix, PowerPoint or any other program that lets you create a transparent table over a green background. Choose a simple sans serif (no little footies on the letters) font for the text and rating box text. Then export/save your slide as a BMP for MovieMaker or as a PICT for Macs. Import that image into your editing software to kick off your movie.

Here’s a podcast interview I did with Frank Guttler, associate director of AFI’s ScreenEd program, talking about visual grammar.

And just to maintain Steve’s credibility, one more shot of the granddaughter.

     Those are the last few words of the title of the book Digital Storytelling in and out of the Classroom by Kay Teehan. And though she makes a great comparison between digital storytelling and her favorite hobby, scrapbooking, as the outside activity, I think she (and anyone else promoting these kinds of projects) are sharing a life long skill that is extremely applicable outside of the classroom. Students who make and show their own digital stories don’t look at film/video or possibly even television the same. And if you don’t think that making AND sharing your own video isn’t already as common and far more popular than any letter to the editor ever was, then you’ve probably never heard of or visited YouTube.

      On that note, a friend just sent me (it’s back up now!) a link to a video on YouTube in Norwegian or Danish? (don’t panic, it’s subtitled) that is probably very close to the reality of the dawn of two millennia. We can all have a good laugh at the old monk trying to make the transition from scroll to book and having to wait for the IT guy to show up. Do you think in the sequel he’ll need a new scriptorium and have to update his quill and ink? For almost a decade now, I’ve kidded about how this millennium is starting out exactly like the last one - give or take a century or two. I even tried to make a whole presentation out of it once. Where “they” struggled with moving from losing control over who reads, writes, AND publishes (with the appropriate permissions and in Latin, of course), we find ourselves in a similar spot. Language and writing are not always being used according to “accepted norms,” but they are being used constantly. The printing press freed people to write about absolutely anything in their own language. The Internet, cell phones, personal publishing, etc. are doing it in ours. I wonder what the first faculty or board meeting where someone proposed teaching the vernacular was like.
     The genie’s been out of the bottle for quite some time. We can’t stuff him back in, but we can guide him somewhat. And I think that’s where one of the great payoffs of using digital storytelling in education is. That “language” is readily available and pervasive in our students’ world. They need to be savvy consumers and producers of multimedia messages. Especially “…out of the classroom.”

     Join us and author Kay Teehan this Wednesday afternoon at 5:00 EST for the DEN’s February EdTechConnect offering. There is still room and time to register. All you need is a phone and an Internet connection, whether you are in or out of the classroom.