Digital Story

To view the story click the link bellow the map. Once you are in Google Maps click on the names of the places on the left to follow the story.

View My Journey to Sankt Petersburg in a larger map

Why is this story worth telling: what does it contribute to student learning? What’s your pedagogical rationale for doing this?

My story is aimed at adult learners enrolled in my Moodle course on digital storytelling. They will be able to get to know me a little better because the story is actually an anecdote.

It will also be used as an example of a digital story. During the course the learners will create their own story. According to Jonassen (1999), it is important to provide related cases to novice learners since they lack experiences. Related cases can provide references for comparison and multiple perspectives. Since the learners haven’t created any digital story yet, several examples of digital stories will act as related cases and help the learners to understand better what digital stories are and how they can be represented.

Why was this the right tool for you to use to tell your story? Explain how you purposefully selected your tool based on its functionality and your requirements.

From the Levine’s (2007) site I have chosen Google Maps for several reasons. But let me first describe Google Maps functionality. Google Maps layout consists of a map that covers almost all screen and of a list of places on the left side. The list contains the places marked on the map and each place is accompanied with corresponding text. It is possible to embed photos and audio too. One can easily follow the story by clicking items in the list. When one click an item in the list a pop up window appears on the map with a photo and corresponding text. Alternatively, one can follow the story by clicking places directly on the map.

Now, I will match functionalities with my requirements. Since my story is a travelogue, it is much easier for audience to follow the story if they see places on the map. The photos of the places included in the story are also important for effective travelogue. Critical part of travelogue is narration. Google Maps allows both written and audio narration, but one of them would be enough for my story. My story is linear which corresponds with a linear list of places. So, Google Maps includes three affordances critical for conveying my story: a map, photos and linear narration. Another advantage is that Google Maps allows each “reader” to go through the story at his or her own pace by clicking on the items on the list or on the map.

What are the strengths of a storytelling approach? What are the limitations?

Strengths:
According to Information Age Education (n.d.) people have a basic need to tell each other stories. Alexander and Levine (2008) define storytelling as universal human feature that spreads across cultures and epochs. Information Age Education (n.d.) and Educause Learning Initiative (2007) emphasize stories’ function as a means for sharing and passing on knowledge. It seems that storytelling is a universal way for humans to express themselves, to communicate and to learn, regardless of their age, culture, background or any other specific. That’s the reason why storytelling is so appealing to humans and this is its greatest strength.

Additionally, I think that stories are interesting to most people and they attract attention. They may produce emotional reaction and empathy. They can show different perspectives and scenarios.

Most tools that can be used for production of digital stories presented by Levine (2007) are easy to use and can be used to produce educational mashups – mashups of content or functionalities both as defined by Lamb (2007), which increases creativity as well as knowledge and data sharing.

Limitations:
I think that, in limited time, not all topics are suitable for teaching using a storytelling approach. Also, creating a suitable story might be quite time-consuming. Additionally, creators of stories need to be familiar with and to tackle with intellectual property issues. As Educause Learning Initiative (2007) notices, the multimedia technologies used for digital storytelling may require significant storage space and support.

How did the tool impact the manner in which you told your story?

During the process of creation I have changed the original story in order to create a closer relation between narration and map. I had to divide my story in several parts according to places on map. In some cases I also changed the length of narration because I didn’t want readers to scroll text. I excluded some parts of my story because they were not related to a particular place (e.g. eating at a dining car).

My own experience learning how to author using the tool I selected

I was learning how to create my map during the process of story production. First I learned how to mark places on my map, and later I learned that I can’t upload photos from my computer. So, I had to upload photos to Flickr first. Luckily, I already have an account on Flickr. Later I realised that I didn’t have appropriate photos so I used other people’s photo from Flickr. I was looking for the photos using Advanced Search feature, which was very useful for coping with intellectual property right issue. Photos may be added directly from the address they are hosted online. You just need to grab the html code and paste it.

References

Alexander, B. & Levine, A. (2008). Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre. Educause Review. 43 (6). Retrieved 1 July 2011 from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume43/Web20StorytellingEmergenceofaN/163262

Educause Learning Initiative. (2007). 7 things you should know about digital storytelling. Retrieved 1 July 2011 from http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutDigit/156824

Information Age Education. (n.d.) Digital storytelling. Retrieved 1 July 2011 from http://i-a-e.org/articles/46-feature-articles/50-digital-storytelling.html

Jonassen, D. H. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Volume II, (pp. 215-239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lamb, B. (2007). Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix. Educause Review, 42 (4), 12–25. Retrieved 18 July 2011 from http://www.educause.edu/ER/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume42/DrMashuporWhyEducatorsShouldLe/161747

Levine, A. (2007). 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story. Retrieved 15 July 2011 from http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools