For this project, the aim was to create a complex, digital story that was educational in nature; in addition, the story needed to have a narrative element and be wholly assembled on the cloud. Fitting in with the Persuasive Messages module for my online Business writing course, this digital story tells the story of a guy named Bill, with the educational goals of: illustrating a setting and example of where a person would need to send a persuasive request, and outlining the format and process for writing one.

To create the story, I followed Levine’s (2014) 1-2-3 story mapping process of: outlining the story idea, collecting the digital media, and picking the appropriate tool for designing the story. The story idea was completely original; although the principles of persuasive writing that the story reflects come from chapter 9 of ‘Communicating in Business’ (Williams et al, 2011). For the choice of digital media, the use of Lego images found through http://search.creativecommons.org was chosen because, after consulting Lego’s fair usage policy (http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/legal-notice/fair-play), it was determined that as long as the Lego trademark is not used or the site implies that it is sponsored by Lego, the use of Lego images does not violate copyright.

Finally, when selecting the tool, Bates & Poole’s (2003) SECTIONS model was applied in the following manner:

Students – The students are a group of 1st year university students who speak English (to the level of the entrance requirements for most western universities) as a second language. However, the level of English varies considerably amongst the students, so it is beneficial for them to be able to control the pace of the story. To help the story be understood, the narrative also needed to include digital images that helped to convey the story.

Ease of Use – The main reason that the Tapestry app was chosen was because it is fully supported on both iOS and Android mobile systems, as well as supported in multiple browsers (it has been tested in Chrome, Safari and Firefox for MacOS), as most of the students in this program own smartphones. The interface is also extremely easy to use, as it only involves the student tapping or clicking on the page to progress through the story.

Cost – Another reason that Tapestry was chosen is because it is a free app.

Teaching – The app allows for the use of both visual (graphic) and text-based learning.

Interaction – Tapestry is a play on the words tap and tapestry; the student has to interact with the story by tapping on it to reveal the next word/slide. This helps to keep the student engaged, as well as allows them to progress through the story at their own pace.

Novelty – The use of Lego characters, large images, and a cartoon-like font all helped the story appeal to readers.

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

Levine, A. (2014). 50 ways to tell a story. In Wikispaces. Retrieved from http://50ways.wikispaces.com.

Williams, K., Krizan, A.C., Logan, J. & Merrier, P. (2011). Communicating in Business (8th ed.). China: South Western, Cengage Learning.