Notes from the Ridge

Inspired by the digital storytelling work of Wes Fryer and Dean Shareski - and the four slide contest recently hosted by Dan Myer, I decided to start the year off by having my students create a four slide digital storytelling project focusing on the idea of a ’sequence of events.’ This project was completed as part of an initial digital storytelling effort. Students were directed to describe a process they have gone through in their lives – breaking it up into four sections with each one represented by a single image.

Getting each student up and running with a yahoo.com email account was a challenge, as we spent a great deal of time discussing and implementing Internet safety procedures. Consequently, my middle schoolers now appear online with yahoo.com and gmail.com email accounts as a bunch of 65 year olds living in strange places like Chickenfeed, FL!

I loved this project, and have to say that watching how much my kids got out of it really energized me. I can honestly say that these past few weeks mark the first time in my brief four year teaching career that students literally had to be forced out of my class because they were having so much fun!

Below, you will find entries from a few select students who were kind enough to share them. I hope you enjoy! (Loaded into and shared via Bubbleshare)

Melodee C. 8th Grade

[bubbleshare 234079]

Madeline C. 8th Grade

[bubbleshare 234526]

Christopher S. 6th Grade Updated 10/10/2007

[bubbleshare 241664]

Edgar A.  8th Grade Updated 10/10/2007

[bubbleshare 236661]

Aileen P. 7th Grade Updated 10/10/2007

[bubbleshare 241731]

Technorati Tags: digital storytelling, sequencing

My hat’s off to you, Ewan McIntosh!  Your delicious.com bookmarks rock! Seriously, I look forward to finding new little nuggets of goodness weekly if not daily! So, thanks for that.

Folks, if you’re into digital storytelling, and you haven’t seen this collection of tools, then check them out now.

Take special care to follow the “Dominoe” story all the way through each tool. I found it easy using the embedded version, and I think this will give you a good idea of how each one works – strengths and weaknesses, etc.

For more information on digital storytelling, see the following posts by Wesley Fryer (check here, too!) and Dean Shareski (Dean also has a great wiki you can see here.) And of course, be sure to check out the Center for Digital Storytelling website.

Technorati Tags: Digital Storytelling, software, open source, User Generated Content, digital literacy

Was cruising around Answers.com this morning and discovered that today is Odie’s 29th Birthday! Normally pushed aside by his clever, lasagna eating counterpart, I thought it only proper to give this hound his due. I’m a dog lover, primarily because they do show the sort of unbridled love, trust, and compassion that Odie shows Garfield and John, despite the way Garfield torments him. Learn more about Odie’s history at the official Garfield site.

I was thinking that this sort of celebratory event, centered around a cartoon character we can all sort of relate to in some way, might be a good jumping off point for students to use as part of a writing prompt. Or, perhaps this little tidbit of info would be a good way to introduce the subject of animal rights and abuse issues?

Then again, I am not entirely sure they would know who Odie is. But what’s to know? He’s cute, lovable, and as loyal as the day is long. Those are qualities I think all of our students can appreciate.

Technorati Tags: creative writing, cartoons, digital storytelling, animal rights

I was reading over the Bearing Straight School District’s home page and found a blurb and photo detailing a really neat book report project Damon Hargrave’s class put together using a software application called Comic Life – a tool that transforms digital photos and web cam image captures into fun and creative visual presentations! The name belies the layout options, as many are designed as comic book pages. Other options are available, so be sure to play!

Originally designed or Macs, the good folks at Plasq graciously worked up a Windows version (now in the 2nd Beta testing stage), which I downloaded and played around with for a bit. Those of you who do a lot with digital storytelling should really check this application out. For now, the Windows version is a free download, but it will most likely sell for around $30.00 once the beta testing is complete.

Note: Not sure if it is due to the beta testing phase or what, but I had trouble getting the web cam image I captured using this software to port over to a usable graphic within the layout. I also had no luck saving the file using its native extension. Luckily, the export to graphic format function worked very well, and I was able to save the file as a high quality .png file. Be sure to click on the thumbnail above for the Pièce de résistance!

That’s all for now. See you next time. Same blog time… same blog channel! (Queue theme music…)

Technorati Tags: graphic_arts, digital_storytelling, creative_writing