Thinking on the page here. Please forgive me if I ramble unduly.
Digital Storytelling
I spent 24 hours last week to make a 2-minute video. One which still has issues. (I need to move a sound effect and take out a black space. That will take about 15 minutes, I hope, to fix…) Plus, at least some of the people, the people who don’t know the story, didn’t get what the video was supposed to be saying. I guess I need to be less subtle.
I spent 7 hours this week to make a 4-minute video. This also has two problems still. I need to replace a polaroid with something a bit more visible. Also, someone said that my voice isn’t as interesting in this video. –That is because it is an “and then” story. First we did this. Then we did this. Next we did this. After that we did this… I was trying to make some connections.
However, I am still going to show the 4-minute one, even if I don’t have time to switch out the picture. I can’t really change the voice easily and I don’t have time, since the lab is not open this weekend, to work on it. (If my chair had purchased the software for me as I asked, I could have done it at home this weekend.)
The 4-minute video is intended to explain to my students the connections I have with the college. It does that adequately. There are a couple of places where folks laugh or grin, so that is good. We’ll see how it goes over in class.
Syllabus Design
One thing I feel that I can add to the students’ repertoire, and one thing I believe they need, is the concept of design. So, while I am not a designer, I can “spark” up the syllabus. I decided to cheat a bit and use a template from MSWord, “Advanced Newsletter.” The colors match our college, which is useful, and it had a particularly useful section already in it. However, each page has “lorem ipsum” on the top and I cannot replace it. So I have this great, beautiful syllabus I worked really hard on, but I can’t make it work right.
Sometimes tech is “almost there” but not where you need it.
I think, however, that the reason for that is that when tech gets to where we need it to be, we have higher expectations and aspirations for it.
Student Work
I want to have the students do a digital presentation. I was actually thinking of having them do it as a group, even though I have never liked group work. However, I do not know if the Learning Studio, where all the super tech stuff is, can handle 75 freshpeeps for six weeks working on this. I guess I need to talk to the director about possibilities.
I can teach design within the papers and I could use a poster presentation as a way to begin to teach them how to do what we are wanting them to learn. However, I really need a “cool tech” assignment that really speaks to where they are in their lives. I don’t know if the digital presentation would do it, but I do think it would be useful.