Category: Technology

Presentation on Digital Storytelling

I attended a presentation on digital storytelling at the Abilene Writer’s Guild two years ago now. The speaker was teaching a class on Technology as Spirit and discussions of digital storytelling was part of that.

John Weaver introduced the StoryCenter out of Berkeley, CA. They have run several seminars on digital storytelling at Abilene Christian University.

Weaver then presented a theory pyramid showing engagement with technology’s progression for digital storytelling. It is called the Taxonomy of Media Practices

Consumption (bottom of the pyramid)
Intermediated
Constructed in Content
Co-Constructed
Facilitated
Media Creation (The top layer said DIY, but I think that is too broad.)

Weaver also presented the 7 Steps of Digital Storytelling:
1. owning your insight
2. owning your emotion
3. finding a moment of change
4. see the story
5. hear the story
6. assemble the story
7. share the story

I am not sure about “owning insight” and “owning emotion” being first. How can you have an insight if you haven’t thought about your story? But these steps don’t decide on the story until step 3, finding a moment of change.

Weaver said that the StoryCenter has a progressive (i.e., liberal) political and social agenda. This is why, he argues, they focus on change.

Could it instead be that most stories involve movement and change? Characters are dynamic, the plot moves, often even the setting varies.

This is an interesting order for steps as the primary construction of the story begins with images, so that the emphasis is on the visual.

Then, after the visual is assembled, the verbal/aural is created.

Weaver presented an odd description of share the story as he said after the story is assembled (after the video is created) that you consider your audience and the context in which the story will be shared. This is theoretically inaccurate and leaves the story as a wholly author-driven construct, which may not be understood by the audience eventually chosen to receive the story.

FYC Digital Presentations

I presented at Collin College’s Trends in Teaching Composition Conference. Dr. Andrea Lunsford was the keynote speaker. There were three sessions of speakers.

I did not print out all the rubrics and assignment sheets I intended to, so I said I would post them here. This is the first day I have been online since the presentation.

Digital Presentation Peer Review 111 111 = 1301

Digital Presentation 112 S15 assignment sheet. 112 = 1302

Digital Presentation Rubric S15

Digital Essay S15 Prompt 106

Peer review

Listing Significant Events

Storyboard Example Literacy of the British Isles 106 digital essay

Digital Storytelling Presentation

I attended a presentation on digital storytelling. The speaker is teaching a class on Technology as Spirit and discussions of digital storytelling has been part of that.

John Weaver introduced the StoryCenter out of Berkeley, CA. They have run several seminars on digital storytelling at Abilene Christian University.

Weaver then presented a theory pyramid showing engagement with technology’s progression for digital storytelling. It is called the Taxonomy of Media Practices

Consumption (bottom of the pyramid)
Intermediated
Constructed in Content
Co-Constructed
Facilitated
Media Creation (The top layer said DIY, but I think that is too broad.)

Weaver also presented the 7 Steps of Digital Storytelling:
1. owning your insight
2. owning your emotion
3. finding a moment of change
4. see the story
5. hear the story
6. assemble the story
7. share the story

I am not sure about “owning insight” and “owning emotion” being first. How can you have an insight if you haven’t thought about your story? But using these steps the storytellers don’t decide on the story until step 3, finding a moment of change.

Weaver said that the StoryCenter has a progressive (i.e., liberal) political and social agenda. This is why, he argues, they focus on change.

Could it instead be that most stories involve movement and change? Characters are dynamic, the plot moves, often even the setting varies.

This is an interesting order for steps as the primary construction of the story begins with images, so that the emphasis is on the visual.

Then, after the visual is assembled, the verbal/aural is created.

Weaver said after the story is assembled (after the video is created) that you consider your audience and the context in which the story will be shared. This is theoretically inaccurate and leaves the story as a wholly author-driven construct, which may not be understood by the audience eventually chosen to receive the story. I think that considering the audience earlier would probably be better. –I did not ask about this. He probably simply forgot to mention it earlier and put it in that order because he remembered it.

It was an interesting presentation.

Videogame Narrative

Looks relevant:
Narrative in Videogames by Patrick Holleman on The Game Design Forum

Designing Game Narrative from HitBox Team: good graphics too
“In games, you can discover further depth from doing the scene. With interactivity, you now get to experience the story firsthand.”
“Narrative isn’t automatically a crucial component in games, as it often is in film or literature. Interactivity is the defining feature of games – and indeed, games that excel in their gameplay are most often great games.”

The difference between (video)games and narrative, which is an introduction to ludology

Games and Narrative: international research group on interactive and computer game narrative

Plot is Overrated: Game narrative is all about your characters

Narrative in Video Games Are video games an effective storytelling medium?

Narrative in Games, good introduction

NCTE on Videogames in the Classroom and Narrative

Using User Research to Improve Game Narrative
“gamers struggle to remember even their favorite game narratives (in contrast to other media), only remembering big moments or characters in isolation”

Narrative and Ludic Nexus in Computer Games, scholarly paper

Theorising Video Game Narrative, a master’s thesis

A Model of Videogame Narrative Architectures

Less useful to what I am looking for, but interesting:
Narrative, Games, and Theory on Game Studies

Narrative and Videogame Design, English course syllabus

CFP: Spaces of Surveillance

Dr. Susan Flynn, University of the Arts London Dr. Antonia Mackay, Oxford Brookes University & Goldsmiths, University of London
contact email:
antoniamackay@brookes.ac.uk and susan.flynn.1@ucdconnect.ie
Edited Collection: Spaces of Surveillance: States and Selves

Editors
Dr. Susan Flynn, University of the Arts London
Dr. Antonia Mackay, Oxford Brookes University & Goldsmiths, University of London

Call for Chapters
Proposals submission deadline: 1st November 2015
Notification of acceptance: 1st December 2015
Full chapters due: 1st April 2016
Planned submission: June 2016

Introduction
The unique character of our time is increasingly defined as one of surveillance – a period of being watched and policing ourselves and others. Coupled with this, technologies have permeated throughout our lives, both internally and externally, challenging our understanding of privacy, subjectivity and the notion of the individual. Have these developments impacted upon our understanding of geographical and bodily spaces? Has this changed our ability to understand selves, others and what it means to be ‘real’?

The Western world is central to these concerns, foregrounding and championing surveillance technology through Facebook, Google, Apps designed to pinpoint locations, phones which can track your movement; and this accumulation and commercialisation of ‘personal data’, in the wake of a post 9/11 mentality, the gathering of information seems to be pertinent and radically modern influence on our society and culture. Surveillance and technologies take many forms from the relationships between public and private, to the use of art, film, and literature as reflections of sociocultural concern. The aim of this volume is to bring together literary, cultural and artistic studies to provide a multidisciplinary text aimed to generate answers to fundamental questions: how surveillance and technology has changed the literary, the visual and the subjective.

Recommended Topics
Topics may include but are not limited to:
Is there a need for Cultural Studies to address surveillance?
How does surveillance affect our conceptions of the global West?
What is the significance of space in creating identity?
Are there ethical concerns in how surveillance is used in culture?
How is meaning created in this environment?
Can artefacts challenge our understanding of technological influence on the body and selfhood?
Can technologies and surveillance shift notions of nationalism?
How does the presence of multiple ‘gazes’ affect cultural narrative?

Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a 350-500 word chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of their proposed chapter, on or before 1st November 2015. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by 1st December 2015. Full chapters will be requested on or before the 1st April 2016. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. Please submit proposals as Word documents to both antoniamackay@brookes.ac.uk and susan.flynn.1@ucdconnect.ie using the subject line “Spaces of Surveillance”

Publisher
This edited collection has received initial interest from a number of prominent publishers. Contributors will receive full details and submission guidelines on acceptance on their proposal.

Inquiries
Inquiries may be directed to: antoniamackay@brookes.ac.uk or susan.flynn.1@ucdconnect.ie

from UPenn

Working on the LMS

I was revising the calendar, trying to eliminate some daily grades and give the students spring break off. I figured out how to do it, uploaded all the assignments, and put in the new calendar.

Then I started getting panicky emails and text messages from students. At first, I simply responded and moved on. However, I started wondering after a while why they were all asking such odd (to me) questions.

Turns out that (for whatever reason and I don’t think this was my weird computer magic, but who knows) Canvas switched all the dates and made them a week earlier than the ones that I very carefully put into each assignment.

I’d be panicked too if it turned out that a major paper that originally wasn’t due for three weeks became suddenly due in less than 12 hours.

Note: I did move it up, but not that much. I left time for peer reviews and in-class work on the bibliographies.

Personal Literacy Digital Narrative

While traditionally literacy has meant reading and writing, we have begun to discuss math literacy, digital literacy, and research literacy.

Assignment:
The first composition in one of the fyc classes I am teaching culminates in a personal literacy digital narrative. Students are allowed to choose to present on anything they remember learning, though I recommend having it be something that they learned vocabulary for as well.

These can be quite well done. I have received excellent videos on such diverse topics as learning to sight-read music and moving to a new country. One student did one on how she learned to enjoy reading and another did one on how to train Pokemon (which you would have to have learned how to do in order to provide an instructional video).

Problem:
While I had quite an interesting collection of examples to show, I somehow managed to misplace the main USB file the digital narratives were in. Because of that, and time constraints, I only showed three examples before asking the students to think about topics for their own videos. Unfortunately, the topics they have come up with all follow the examples fairly closely. That means they won’t be particularly good or varied, I think.

Resolutions:
I am trying to find the other videos and sending emails to last semester’s students, asking if they would mind sharing their videos again.

I am also going to put up a list of potential topics, including the two that I considered for my own video last semester.

CFP: Emerging Tech in Teaching and Learning

CFP: Special issue on “Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Learning” IAFOR Journal of Education
Deadline: March 1st, 2015

The aim of this special issue is to discuss issues and addresss the challenges of using emerging technologies in learning and teaching. Additionally it will attempt to answer different questions regarding the impact of emerging technologies adoption in instructional activities, and will present cases from different fields and applications. This special edition will focus on how emerging technologies are being used to transform teaching and learning practices in education, which may lead to qualitative outcomes in education. We are therefore inviting submission of papers for IAFOR Journal of Education Special Issue focused on emerging technologies in teaching and learning and their challenges.

From Hastac

41 Must Read Books on Story, Play, and Design

from Culture Hacker

I was particularly interested in this because of Daniel Pink’s “Conceptual Age” idea, as posted here on TCE.

These sound very interesting:
Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries – Peter Sims

A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling: How to Captivate and Engage Audiences Across Multiple Platforms – Andrea Phillips

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction – Jeff VanderMeer

Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction – Nathan Shedroff

Tinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques – Michael Michalko

The only book I have read on the list is Jesse Schell’s, but I have listened to Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk.