I choose to tell a story about the American’s succession from the British during the War of Independence using Xtranormal’s Movie Maker.  Obviously, the story of the United States Independence is in the curriculum and using 3D animation is another way to bring the information to students.  Also, since Xtranormal is open source (to a point which I will elaborate on), students can come up with their own historical story to share.  Xtranormal’s mission is to bring movie-making to the people. They state that “everyone watches movies and we believe everyone can make movies. Movie-making, short and long, online and on-screen, private and public, will be the most important communications process of the 21st century” (Xtranormal, 2011).  I enjoy 3-D animation and the ability to tie the video seamlessly into YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and several other social media sites was a major factor in my choosing this web tool.  It would be easy to set up a classroom blog and have the students make their own video story to share as well as set up an environment where they can comment on each other’s contributions.  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 Xtranormal, allows for speedier creations and accessibility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Jarke et.al, 2006).

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.

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).  Using a web tool such as, Xtranormal allows the teacher to deviate from the status quo of “stand-and-deliver” to allow students to take control of their own learning whilst still achieving the learning outcome requirements.  I found that Xtranormal is very good for doing a monologue or a dialogue where text based information is delivered through a movie; “Our revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill—typing. You type something; we turn it into a movie, on the web and on the desktop.” (Xtranormal, 2011).  The limitations of Xtranormal is it’s not very useful other than a brief storytelling; there is only one scene, the actions of the characters are limited and the story has to remain short (under 3 minutes) or users have to pay for the additional features.

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

Some benefits of using storytelling in education it gains the students’ attention and it enables the students to be exposed perhaps to a moral dilemma or a problem-solving exercise. Students can use storytelling to share stories of success and develop a sense of community. They can also use it to explore personal roles and make sense of their lives and storytelling allows honest expression as they project themselves into the fictitious characters.

Some limitations of using storytelling is that it may take some time to implement and if it is student-led, may not be covering the curriculum appropriately.  And the most obvious limitation is that the information may not be correct or accurate which may be misleading or misinforming.

References

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, vol. 42, no. 4 (July/August 2007): 12–25.  Accessed online July 17 2011 http://www.educause.edu/ER/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume42/DrMashuporWhyEducatorsShouldLe/161747

Xtranormal (2011). Home page. Accessed Online July 17, 2011, from http://www.xtranormal.com