Posts Tagged digital storytelling
Coming to Voice
Posted by kmcg2375 in digital storytelling, education, english, technology on September 23, 2012
Looks like the theme for this blog at the moment is VOICE!
A little while ago I was alerted to this excellent production of student work from South Western Sydney, and I’d like to share it with everyone here on the blog.
Coming to Voice is a collection of ‘literary videos’ from students at Sir Joseph Banks High School. The video production by Westside is 5 minutes long, and showcases an innovative layering of student stories, voices, and animation:
Coming to Voice from BYDS on Vimeo.
From the press release:
Thirteen students from year 7 worked with the Chief Editor of Westside Publications, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, to develop writing that was then animated by 2012 SHORTCUTS film festival winner Vinh Nguyen.
The literary video, called ‘Coming to Voice’ will be screened at an assembly at Sir Joseph Banks High School and will also be launched on the BYDS website as a new web series on August 23rd.
Digital stories, literary videos etc.
BYDS (Bankstown Youth Development Services) seems to have a range of resources relating to the local community on their website: http://www.byds.org.au/ including oral history and photomedia materials. I’m so glad that these kinds of digital arts-based resources are flourishing!
When I talk about ‘digital stories’ or ‘digital narrative’ with teachers, it can be hard to explain the possibilities for the genre. There is of course the Daniel Meadows school of thought that advocates for 2 minute, 12 frame, voice-only digital biographies. The digital storytelling project at QUT uses a similar form.
I think the folks at BYDS have cleverly carved out a different kind of genre here for what they’ve produced – a “literary video”. As the students are reading their POETRY, the production is not quite of STORYTELLING. Could they have called them “digital poems”? Perhaps. But that might distract from the multimedia nature of the production, and the way that animation and video shots add meaning to the piece.
Literary videos… I like it! Thanks for sharing Mariam!
Chat to Hemingway 0.5
Posted by kmcg2375 in books, digital storytelling, english, learning community, technology, university on May 26, 2011
Having the best time right now chatting to Simon Groth’s chat bot.
Hemmingway 0.5 is a chat bot based on the character in the eponymous short story. You can chat to him about anything you like.
Simon is a real find. Made getting up today totally worth it!
Simon Groth is a writer and editor whose first two novels were shortlisted in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and whose short fiction has been published in Australia and the United States. His co-edited collection Off The Record: 25 Years of Music Street Press (with Sean Sennett), was published in 2010.
Simon is the manager of if:book Australia, exploring digital futures for authors, readers, and publishers.
Do yourself a favour and go browse his site: http://simongroth.com/
At least go and chat to Hemmingway.
Evolution of storytelling
Posted by kmcg2375 in books, digital storytelling, english, social media, technology on May 25, 2011
I just came across this excellent illustration posted by Dan Sellars of the way that storytelling traditions have evlolved over time to reflect and utilise the technology available:
If you like that, you will no doubt also like another image he posted (in 2009) ‘Characters for an Epic Tale’. Check it out!
Digital Storytelling
Posted by kmcg2375 in digital storytelling, english on September 1, 2008
I’ve come across some excellent resources tonight for teaching digital storytelling.
Memory’s Voices is the website for The Center for Digital Storytelling. When I visited the site the sample stories weren’t working, but the Digital Storytelling Cookbook is a great resource.
A great introduction to why we tell stories can be found on the Call of Story website. The site is geared more towrds a revivial of verbal, live storytelling, but the information about storytelling in general is great to get new digital storytellers thinking.
I also found great materials on this website made by Kevin Hodgson for the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. The site includes a detailed tutorial on how to use MovieMaker to make a digital story, sample storyboards, an assessment marking rubric, and more.
And amongst all this I had to go back to the Capture Wales site, just to watch a few more of their digital stories! The ‘BBC – Telling Lives‘ page is also a great source of digital stories.
Voicethread
Posted by kmcg2375 in school, social media on August 24, 2008
I can’t wait to start using Voicethread next Term! I first heard about this tool at the AATE conference in July, and it turns out a few of my colleagues have been using it for awhile…if anyone has links to Voicethread projects they have done with their students I’d love to see them!
My initial thoughts are that I would like to use Voicethread for:
- Year 9 poetry unit – students compose poetry and read it aloud with accompanying images for other students to view. Perhaps also some collaborative poetry writing?
- Debating Training – One week debates. Students can record a real debate. Starts with 1st Affirmative speaker, then following speakers get 24 hours each to respond; runs like a ‘real’ debate.
Some great tips and ideas for using Voicethread can be found on Wesley Fryer’s blog. I have just joined the English Group on the Voicethread Ning, and am hoping to get more ideas and tips from there.
David Griffin on how photography connects us | Video on TED.com
Posted by kmcg2375 in digital storytelling, english on August 23, 2008
Another TEDtalk that I’ll be using in my Year 9 unit on digital storytelling.
The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.
Jonathan Harris: Collecting Stories
Posted by kmcg2375 in digital storytelling, english, school on August 19, 2008
Artist Jonathan Harris discusses his latest projects, which involve collecting stories – what a great talk!
I’d like to show this to Year 9 when we start making digi-stories, to get them thinking about how images can represent people and their lives.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Digi-Stories
Posted by kmcg2375 in conferences, digital storytelling on July 12, 2008
The most engaging keynote that I saw at the AATE conference would have to be Daniel Meadows’ presentation ‘New Literacies for the Digital Age’. Daniel is an artist/photographer/storyteller from way back, and his keynote was about the power of storytelling, specifically the power of the digi-story.
A digital story, or digi-story, is a story that is told using a series of photos or other images, with narration and other sound layered over the top. Ideally they should only be about 2 minutes long, and use about a dozen images and a narration of about 250 words.
Daniel shared a number of digi-stories of his own, and from the Capture Wales project – what was refreshing was that his keynote was actually based on these digi-stories, with short explanations in between each to provide context, to highlight theoretical frames and positions, and make connections between the stories. I was so inspired by Daniel’s keynote that now I plan to use digi-stories in my year 9 class next term. I’ll still be basing next term’s work around ‘making meaning’, and the first 5 weeks will definitely still be focused on video games. But now in the second half of term, rather than students using a collection of digital resources for composing, I’m going to get them to make a digi-story!
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