Ben Ward, Kansas State University
Transmedia, unicorns, and marketing, oh my!: The not-quite epic failure of transmedia design efforts in Oz.
Transmedia storytelling, also called Alternate Reality Games, have been designed to intrigue, engage, and even engineer groups of people since the release of The Beast in 2001. A few colleges and Universities have employed them to engage their student populations and even teach them a thing or two using narrative game mechanics. Presenters will chronicle a highly successful transmedia design effort at Kansas State University, and the subsequent annual efforts to replicate the engagement and enthusiasm. Best practices and not-quite epic failures will be discussed, as will tips (and laments) for marketing to our current student populations.
Introduction (5-10 min)
Plamen: http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/
students: interests and related information
Group assignment (5-10 min)
Effective communication strategies. List 3-5 and discuss the pros and cons (what makes them effective and are there any impediments, limitations)
Class discussion on effective communication strategies: based on the group work findings, how do you think digital storytelling may be [can it be] an effective communication tool
What is Storytelling? How does it differ from Digital Storytelling?
Rossiter & Garcia (2010) consider “digital stories are short vignettes that combine the art of telling stories with multimedia objects including images, audio, and video” (p. 37)
Is Digital Storytelling more then just storytelling on technology steroids?
What is Digital Storytelling (DS) for school leadership? A bibliographic research reveals a plenitude of research on DS in the classroom, for educators, but not much for educational leaders.
Guajardo, Oliver, Rodrigez, Valcez, Cantu, & Guajardo (2011) view digital storytelling for emerging educational leaders as “as a process for data creation, analysis, and synthesis.”
There is information for corporate leaders or community leaders and DS, but not much for ed leaders.
Let’s create our own understanding of digital storytelling for educational leaders.
Basic definitions, concepts and processes.
Learn about Web 1.0 versus Web 2.0; the Cloud; transliteracy and multiliteracy
Multimodal Literacy refers to meaning-making that occurs through the reading, viewing, understanding, responding to and producing and interacting with multimedia and digital texts. It may include oral and gestural modes of talking, listening and dramatising as well as writing, designing and producing such texts. The processing of modes, such as image, words, sound and movement within texts can occur simultaneously and is often cohesive and synchronous. Sometimes specific modes may dominate.
group work (15-20) min
split in groups of 3: an ed leader, a media specialist (or teacher with technology background) and a teacher (to represent a school committee on community relations)
you have 5 min to research (Internet, access to school resources) and 5-10 min to come up with a strategy for use of digital storytelling for expanding and improving community relationship
Base your strategy on existing examples.
E.g.:
Do the following electronic resources regarding this particular educational institution relay digital story: http://strideacademy.org/ https://www.facebook.com/StrideAcademy/ https://twitter.com/search?q=Stride%20Academy%20Charter%20School&src=tyah https://youtu.be/eekIUqMQ4v0
What do you like?
What would you do differently?
Digital Storytelling for building, expanding, improving community relations – final thoughts
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literature:
Rossiter, M., & Garcia, P. A. (2010). Digital storytelling: A new player on the narrative field.
New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education, 2010(126), 37-48. http://login.libproxy.stcloudstate.edu/login?qurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.
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Using Ursula Le Guin short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” has allowed Fruchter to make his computer science math classes entirely project-based, which in turn draws the interest of kids who might not have otherwise liked computer programming.
teaching computer programming with fiction into a curriculum called StoryCode. He classifies STEM fiction into three categories: explicit, science fiction and implicit STEM texts.
“When you can call a line of code a spell, then you are getting somewhere,” Fruchter said. After all, isn’t computer code basically modern magic?
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Ursula K. Le Guin on Art, Storytelling, and the Power of Language to Transform and Redeem
https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/01/30/ursula-k-le-guin-walking-on-the-water/
The paradox, of course, is that because our notion of history is rooted in the written record, words are both our instrument of truth and our weapon of distortion. We use them both to reveal and to conceal — a duality which Hannah Arendt so memorably dissected in her meditation on lying in politics.
Storytelling is a tool for knowing who we are and what we want, too. If we never find our experience described in poetry or stories, we assume that our experience is insignificant.
Adobe Spark is a suite of free tools for creating images, videos, and simple web pages. Key features of Adobe Spark’s web app include an integrated Creative Commons image search tool, the option to download images as JPEGs, and the option to download your videos as MP4 files
Sharalike is a good option to consider when you want to create an audio slideshow. To create an audio slideshow on Sharalike simply import some images from your computer, your Android device or from your iPad, drag them into the sequence in which you want them to appear, and then add some music. Sharalike offers a small collection of stock music that you can use or you can upload your own music.
PowToon is a popular tool for creating animated videos online. PowToon provides a drag-and-drop editor for creating animated videos. The videos that you create feature digital paper cut-outs on a colorful background. Think of PowToon as an online tool for creating videos in the style made popular by Common Craft. PowToon provides drawings of people and objects that you can arrange on blank canvas. After adding your narration to the arrangement you can publish your video.
Magisto is a video creation tool that allows you to quickly drag videos and images from your desktop and or Google Drive account to your Magisto account. After you’ve uploaded the media that you want mixed, select a theme and music for your video.From the video clips and images that you upload, Magisto will select the best portions to remix and blend together. Magisto creates your video after you’ve completed the steps of uploading media, selecting a theme, and choosing music. The final video is emailed to you. In addition to the web-based service Magisto offers a Chrome app, an Android app, and an iPad app.
Chrome app called CaptureCast. CaptureCast, produced by Cattura Video, allows you to record the screen on your Chromebook as well as input from your webcam. To record a video with the webcam on your Chromebook open CaptureCast in your browser then allow it to access your webcam and microphone. You can specify how high of a resolution you would like to use to capture your video. You can also choose your audio quality. If you have an external microphone connected to your Chromebook, make sure that you have it enabled before you start recording. When you have finished recording in CaptureCast you can save your video on your Chromebook or upload it to YouTube, to Vimeo, or to Google Drive.
imbus Screenshot is a tool for creating screencast videos on Chromebooks. It is easy to install, includes customizable countdown timer, and offers multiple ways to save and share your videos. Screencasts recorded with Nimbus Screenshot can be saved to your local drive or to an online Nimbus account. I chose to save to my local drive then upload to my YouTube channel. You could also save to your local drive then share to Google Drive or another online storage service.
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more on video editing in this IMS blog https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=video+editing
In an article entitled ‘Why Vine Died,’ Casey Newman reported the following, “Former executives say that a major competitive challenged emerged in the form of Instagram, which introduced 15-second video clips in June 2013.
Instagram remained stable with the introduction of new features like stories and video channels, resources of it’s parent company, Facebook, and the introduction of ads to the platform that look very similar to the posts in a user’s feed.
In addition to a total logo redesign, Instagram shifted its focus from just pictures, to longer video (from 15 sec. to one minute) and direct messaging features, such as group posts and disappearing video. Explore Channels in Discover let people discover new photo and video content based on interests. Instagram Stories added a new element to the Instagram experience showing highlights from friends, celebrities and businesses one follows without interfering with their feed. Instagram also caters to business needs through its Instagram for Business platform that allows for instant contact, detailed analytics and easy-to-follow linked content.
Most recently, Instagram released live video in their stories feature. Users can start a live stream in their Instagram story and view comments and feedback from their viewers in real time! This feature is similar to apps like musical.ly and live.ly which has over 80 million users and 62% of its users are under 21.
#StudentVoices #MillennialMondays #WhatToWatch
#MillennialMondays is a new series that aims to discuss relevant topics on careers and business from a millennial perspective.
If you go to the Facebook Live Map and browse the live feeds, you’ll often see people talking about nothing in particular, with unflattering close-up camera angles and scratchy audio. People often shift their phones from hand to hand when they tire of holding them, and brush the mic without realizing it.
#2: Invest in a Mobile Phone Setup Budget: $150-$300
iPhone Setup When choosing a mount for an iPhone, consider the iOgrapher ($60), shown below. Attach the 37mm wide angle lens ($40) if you want to get more people or surroundings in the video. Android and Windows Phone Setup The Saramonic SmartMixer ($149) fits any phone (including the iPhone) and incorporates both audio and video stabilization in one piece of gear. The mics are stereo, and you can angle them however you want to capture multiple people talking.
#3: Broadcast From Your Desktop
Budget: Free-$600 Going live from your computer allows you to bring in guests to interview, add pre-recorded video, graphics, titles (so people know who the hosts are), and more.
You can use the built-in camera on your computer or a USB camera, like the Logitech C920 ($99).
OBS OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is open-source software, which means it’s available for free.
OBS is a great option, but it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of paid software to make it intuitive or easy to use. You’ll need to do a bit of setup and testing before you go live.
Wirecast Wirecast ($495) has been around for years and has come a long way in the last few months as Facebook Live has exploded in popularity. The interface is a little more intuitive than OBS, but still requires some setup and experimentation.
Adobe Spark Video is an elegant, easy-to-use tool for creating animated videos that tell a story. It’s available as a browser-based cloud app or as an iOS app. You can get it as a single app or install the 3-in-1 tool to access the Spark Post and Spark Page companion apps too.
What’s great about Spark Video is that it’s quick. You can create a compelling animated video story in just minutes without any design experience, and work on your project from anywhere. As a cloud-based tool, your progress is saved and synced automatically, so you can work on it on mobile or desktop whenever creative inspiration strikes.
Animoto
Now let’s look at a tool that’s similar to Adobe Spark, but gives you more flexibility over your content. Animoto is an affordable, cloud-based tool that offers an assortment of choices and customizations to create a one-of-a-kind video to tell your brand’s story.
This tool gives you a little more control than Adobe Spark Video. You can start with a blank canvas (choosing your own colors, styles, and frames to more closely match your brand) or adapt one of the tool’s wide variety of templates.
YouTube Director
YouTube Director is a revolutionary tool to create video ads for business. Geared toward small local businesses, it’s a foolproof way to tell a compelling story in a short format.
As you follow the prompts, you’re guided to capture images, video, and voiceovers. Then you can post the video and run a video ad campaign on YouTube.
