You can find a link to the story that I created here. It is called “Mountains and I” and it is an introduction to me and biology.
Why did you choose this particular tools?
I wanted to create a story that incorporated many photos, but I also wanted to allow the viewer the freedom to move from one photo to another out of sequence. Alan Levine’s list of 50+ tools was a god send. Ourstory (www.ourstory.com) was such an application that would allow for this. It would incorporate my photos as well as the flash movies that I had created into a tidy timeline. I thought that is was very viewer friendly, but it lacked a certain pizzazz that I was looking for. Roxio photoshow (www.photoshow.com) was a great tool for telling a story as you could include music, utilize great transitions, and add in text. Photopeach (www.photopeach.com) also had a similar functionality to photoshow. Tikatok (www.tikatok.com) was also a great tool for presenting a story. Actually creating a “book” online will give students the confidence they need to become better writers and it is more intuitive to uses than the other programs. These tools were all great, yet I found myself wanting something that was a bit more interactive. The very last tool on Alan Levine’s list, prezi (www.prezi.com), had exactly what I was looking for (Levine, 2007). It was flash based, it allowed for viewers to view photos out of sequence plus more, and could integrate a multitude of media into the presentation. Morever, as my students are currently using CMap tools to create concept maps, I thought that this could be an easy replacement to CMap tools. Once I found this tool, choosing it was very easy.
How did the tool impact the manner in which you told your story (perhaps in a way that is different had you just used text or related the story using your voice)?
The tool impacted the manner in which I told the story in a number of different ways. Firstly, I realized that I did not need to write a large amount of text below each picture. Instead I focused on tying the text from one photo to another photo in a creative manner. Also, the path function in prezi greatly changed how I was presented the story. Using this function, I was able to take the viewer to exactly where I wanted him/her. Text and photos can be zoomed into and photos do not need to be in any linear sequence. In fact, I did not arrange my photos in any linear order. I created a picture of a mountain with my pictures which I feel helped to add another dimension to the presentation. Since I did not put my pictures in any linear order and I had many pictures (about 60), it decreased the organization and made creating the path difficult. However, the end product is that you are able to fly past many photos that appear later in the sequence and view all photos as they are arranged in groups. The groups are sunsets, flora and fauna, people, Mt. Fuji, the seasons, culture, and me. I was also going to include a flash movie into the presentation, but I changed my mind. The ability to integrate a multitude of different media (pdf, video, etc.) into the presentation is an added is an added bonus. The old saying says that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think prezi has allowed me to create a presentation where the photos are worth 2000 words.
How might you use such tools in your own teaching to produce materials for students?
There are a number of ways that I may produce materials for students for my teaching. Prezi is great for linking lessons from an entire unit and for providing instruction. I see myself incorporate media such as photos, but using largely captivate to produce visually rich slideshows and presentations within prezi. The combination of the two flash based applications will create a dynamic and stimulating environment for students. Students may follow the instructor’s sequential outline that he or she set up in using the path tool. Or they may zoom and drag the screen to the area that they wish view. Mentioned previously, prezi would be an amazing tool to use for concept maps. The zoom function allows information to be stored in a very small space and arrows as well as text may be placed anywhere on the screen. All this allows for the creation of a clear and organized concept map. The concept maps created in prezi over a single year may then be incorporated into one knowledge map which ties all ideas together. As prezi is easy to use and flexible, it is only truly limited by the users imagination.
How might students be given access to the same authoring tools?
Prezi is great because it can be accessed over the internet without downloading any software to your computer. This is the major problem that I have CMap Tools. Although it is free, students must download it to there computers and there are always technical problems. Having students create projects online would alleviate this problem. Unfortunately, there will probably be other problems. For example, when I was uploading my photos to prezi, every other photo would not upload. This doubled my upload time because every photo that I wanted I had to upload it twice for it to work. After saving and finishing the prezi online, it may be downloaded to your hard drive to use offline or on a different server. Unfortunately you only have up to 100 MB of storage space on the prezi server (Prezi, 2009). I used 35% of this space to tell my story which means that it may not be a feasible option for use over the entire year. It might be good for only one or two projects. There is the option to upgrade for a fee. The pro version allows you to edit material offline and gives you 2 gigabytes of space. However, it costs 119 euros (Prezi, 2009). I believe that for a few projects students this project will be useful, but to upgrade would be too costly.
What kind of impact would you expect to see in your students in terms of motivation, creativity, or any other characteristics?
The ability to produce professional looking presentations easily in prezi will motivate students to spend the time to create unique stories. Students are frustrated with the status quo learning environment and this was seen at Harvard where dissatisfied students created their own computer system (Lamb, 2007). Prezi has less limits then other similar software such as Roxio. There is also the opportunity for students to work collaboratively in groups. They can use their creativity on a number of different levels. Photgraphic, graphic, artistic, organizational, and literal creativities can all be integrated into prezi. By giving them different avenues to express themselves will help to meet the specific needs of each student. Thus, this lack of restriction will free them from the normal confines of learning.
Describe how a story-telling approach would work within a course that you teach (or would like to teach) using sound pedagogical arguments.
Prezi could be used for Science 10 to help combine semantic knowledge of facts with students’ episodic knowledge in which they gained through life experiences. This would be done by having students narrate photos or upload videos that are within the context the course content, physics, chemistry, ecology, and energy systems, but also within the boundaries of their own lives. In a community-based learning environment in which students must discuss ideas before they are created, knowledge will be constructed under constructivist principles. Digital media like Prezi allows for speedier creations and accessibility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Jarke et.al, 2006).
For each unit I will provide the vocabulary that they must use for their unit concept map. Students will work in groups where each student is given a specific task. They must then link each idea in a method that they deem fit. By linking ideas they are essentially telling the story of how one thing relaters to another. I will scaffold their knowledge by providing an outline of the concept map for the first assignment, but will allow them to create their own maps from scrap later on. Cognitive affordances such as visualizing concepts are gained through prezi. Social affordances such as collaborative work are also gained. The concept maps created in prezi would be a marked similarly to any other summative assessment by creating a rubric that would be given to students in the beginning. Using sound pedagogy, pezi could successfully be implemented into a course.
In science everything is connected. Students tend to only remember facts from chemistry or how to solve problems in physics, but fail to realize that one thing overlaps into another. By having students tell the story of science in the language of science will help them to see the not only the connections within the scientific disciplines, but also the connections science has to their own lives. Utilizing pezi will help to meet the BC Ministry of Education goals for science 10 students (Ministry of Education, 2008). They are:
GOAL 2: Skills– Students will develop the skills required for scientific and technological inquiry, for solving problems, for communicating scientific ideas and results, for working collaboratively, and for making informed decisions.
GOAL 3: Knowledge – Students will construct knowledge and understandings of concepts in life science, physical science, and Earth and space science, and apply these understandings to interpret, integrate, and extend their knowledge.
A concept map created in prezi will have the detail that is needed to accomplish these goals. As Lamb (2007) notes, students will be able to create a better learning for themselves if we let them become co-developers.
References
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success.(pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Jarke, M, Klamma, R., Sharda, N. & Spaniol, M. (2006). Web-based learning with non-linear stories. Advances in Web Based Learning. (pp. 249- 263).
Lamb, B. (2007). Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix. Educause Review, 42(4): 12–25. Retrieved July 6, 2009 from http://www.educause.edu/ER/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume42/DrMashuporWhyEducatorsShouldLe/161747
Levine, A. (2007). “50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story.” Accessed Online July 14, 2009, from http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
Ministry of Education. (2008). Science 10 Integrated Resource Package 2008. Retrieved July 15, 2009 from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/science810/2008sci10.pdf
Prezi (2009). Home page. Accessed Online July 14, 2009, from http://prezi.com/
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Adam Rattray