Prior to starting work on this, my first digital story, I greatly underestimated the amount of time and effort it would take! One of my goals as an instructional designer (ID) has been to begin to create digital stories, so the opportunity to create one at this time was a welcome experience. I have worked with colleagues who have created some amazing digital stories, but I now have a new-found appreciation for their work.
The digital story that I decided to create is on learning objectives, meant to be a part of a course on instructional design in online learning. To make the story personal, I looked at what learning objectives mean to me professionally, but also what they ultimately mean to both instructors and students (who are impacted by learning objectives).
The Importance of Learning Objectives
There were a number of challenges that I faced in my journey to create this digital story. The first was scriptwriting. Turning my concept into a story required writing and rewriting, countless times. I tried to keep the wording as simple as possible (though I tend to be a wordy person), find a narrative arc and be personal, which were tips I found online (Barrett). Adding to that the process of breaking down the script into parts where I could incorporate images and animation made it even more challenging.
Another challenge was selecting the right tools to use for my digital story and I tried to base this upon the SECTIONS model (Bates & Poole, 2003). The tools I used were appropriate for my skills set, easy to use, free, easy to make edits to, didn’t pose any issues in accessing them for use, are well established and (given that all materials are gathered and script is exact) could be said to be relatively quick to input artifacts etc. into (compared to creating a live film recording).
Because of time constraints, it was important that I use simple tools that wouldn’t require a large learning curve for me. I would really have liked to use Prezi (because its zooming feature reminds me of a treasure hunt), but have never used that tool before, so decided to use one I am familiar with—PowerPoint. The ability to incorporate audio and animation into PowerPoint takes this tool beyond simple slides and, thus, I felt it could work as a tool to tell a story.
One of the tools I embedded within my PowerPoint video was a short animation from GoAnimate, a tool I have heard colleagues and peers speak about many a time in the past few years, and which is listed under Alan Levine’s (2007) list of 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story. I wanted to use GoAnimate in order to show a different and engaging perspective within my story. However, because I used the free subscription to GoAnimate, it only came with the ability to create a 30 second video. Thus, I did have to considerably cut down my original script between two characters—a fictional subject matter expert (SME) and ID. Although I could have made separate GoAnimate videos and pieced them together, that would have impacted another goal I had for this project: keeping the digital story within a timespan of 3-5 minutes.
Finally, I also found I had to use the Screencast-O-Matic tool (one that I’ve used and recommended to SMEs and instructors in the past) to capture my GoAnimate recording (which would otherwise only be available as a link to the GoAnimate site), so that my digital story could be as seamless as possible. Screencast-O-Matic was also the easiest solution I could think of to capture and place the video file of my digital story on this blog.
A third challenge in deciding whether to use music in my digital story. I couldn’t, however, determine the type of music that would be appropriate here, so I decided that my digital story might just be able to stand with voiceover (I believe I can be expressive with my voice), text and images. Perhaps if I were to revisit the video in the future, I would consider researching different software (e.g. for animation, for presentation, etc.) and adding music to it.
The digital story that I have created would work within a on instructional design in online learning because it conveys what an ID does, one of the challenges that an ID faces when developing courses with SMEs and what learning objectives mean to instructors and students. It was personal, as it is presented in my voice and speaks about what I do, though I’ve taken care not to identify myself by name (I prefer anonymity in this blog, as gives me more freedom to be open and frank in sharing my perspectives about online learning and as I explore online), so I didn’t use my real name or image/photo. The digital story that I have created would be a video that would best fit into the beginning or introduction to a module on learning objectives; prior to telling students how to set learning objectives, it would tell them WHY learning objectives are necessary in the first place through a fun, engaging manner. It would give students perspective and meaning.
In conclusion, despite the challenges, and knowing what I know after completing this digital story project, I have a clearer idea on how to embark upon the next digital storytelling project that I create and look forward to doing so.
References:
Barrett, Helen. Site on Digital Storytelling in ePortfolios. Retrieved on March 24, 2014 from: https://sites.google.com/site/digitalstorysite/
Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education (pp. 75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 4.
Levine, A. (2007). 50 Web 2.0 ways to tell a story. Retrieved on March 24, 2014 from: http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools