There are countless online tools that are great for creating digital stories. It was difficult to nail one down and get started on a project. I have seen some productions Animoto has birthed and I was excited to give this tool a try. The claims of “artificial intelligence” and “fast and easy” were appealing, and I was eager to upload the photos I had taken to help illustrate the story I sketched out.
Not 30 seconds into exploring the Animoto site and I was disappointed. The 30 seconds is ironic because this is the amount of time you are limited to without paying for a subscription. I thought to myself “I’ll have to use my time wisely, shorten some phrases, and chop down some pictures to make this work.” Diving into the online environment I was subjected to several crafty ploys to get me to buy the full version but finally made it to the production stage. It was here that I found that my words would be limited to snippets of 22 and 30 characters for the Title and Subtitle respectively.
Imagine trying to convey a story in 22 characters, a space this big [ ]. I will attempt to write it 22 character snippets.(# of characters) It’s task that is tough.(23) Not easy.(9) Simplistic to the point of loosing the message.(47) Creating a restriction that required me to rethink my strategy.(63)
I did use Animoto to create an introduction and it performed beautifully. The mixture of fast paced transitions, music and words made a piece that I was proud of. The limitation on the words was also a nice feature once I overcame my frustration. Being concise and still conveying meaning is a skill that is underrated in the educational world of papers and reports. Asking students to litter words on pages is not the same as asking them to think critically about their composition. Animoto can help bring clarity back into fashion.
The second version of my Story was produced using Tikatok. I found this tool to be extremely intuitive in its design and there were no issues with connectivity lag. The idea behind Tikatok is to create a digital book, with pages that can be turned in either direction and words or pictures on either side. They design captivates simplicity, reminiscent of a large picture book and this feature that is very inviting. This simplicity really attracted me to this medium because the intended audience for my story are my nephews who are between the ages of 6 and 10. I feel that they would really connect with the book feeling and it would be something I would feel comfortable reading with them before bedtime (as opposed to a high energy video).
Dave
Tikatok Version (Second Attempt):
If it is too small click here (http://www.tikatok.com/view/book/ethanol-yeast-and-co2)
Animoto and Camtasia Version:
2 replies on “5. Digital Story”
Great job! If you subscribe to the educational Animoto and fill out school info you can get longer presentations for free. I loved using Animoto. I especially like how the pictures get displayed. So cool!
Thanks Leslie, I will try and set that up right away.