Final
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Reflection
When thinking about how I wanted to accomplish this assignment, I kept thinking about what stories I like to tell. When people find out that I do a lot of bike touring, they want to hear stories about that. Recently, the most frequent stories I’ve been telling have been about the trip to Iceland that my brother and I went on. Rather than attempt to tell of the whole trip, I decided to hone in on this particular day. Through the process of creating the video I learned skills that can translate into the classroom in many ways. In particular, digital storytelling provides an effective means of teaching the techniques of storytelling. Secondly, using digital media can give students the ability to both engage with content and express their learning in new ways.
While creating this video, I had to really consider the techniques of storytelling. First, I had to find a story that would fit within the confines of a short video. Attempting to find, and relate, the story of the entire trip would require much more than a short video. My brother created a video of the whole trip and it clocks around 30 minutes. While creating this video I thought about how the process was similar to writing poetry, in that you need to find concise ways of conveying the message. As one of my favorite teachers used to say, limitations breeds creativity. Having limited amount of time forces one to consider what is really essential to the storytelling process.
Secondly, a video of this format required sticking more closely to traditional narrative structures. As such, focusing on a particular day with a single goal made the most sense. Some days don’t have the full narrative cycle—endless wind might mean the day’s trip is difficult and cut short, but it doesn’t tell a full story, so I went with a day that could be told as a stand-alone story. I tried to allude to the fact that this video, and this day, takes place within a larger trip without detracting from the story structure itself. There is much more that could have been included in the story about this day—other clips of fixing the chain, stopping to eat, and entire sections of the day that simply didn’t fit the proper narrative format or dragged the story on for too long.
I also needed to find a balance and harmony within the video itself. Watching the video on mute would convey some of the story for my brother and I but those unfamiliar with the journey would be confused. Similarly, talking the entire time would render many of the images ‘silenced’ and the viewer overwhelmed. Instead, I wanted to create a balance in which the images told the story with some narration to guide the way. The landscape of Iceland is sparse, and I wanted the images to portray that, and kept my own wording sparse as well.
As a format within itself, bringing digital storytelling into the classroom can serve many purposes. First, it provides another avenue of delivering content. Students are increasingly relying on audio and visual clips as a means of interacting with the world around them. Whenever I ask my students to reflect on how they learn and
express their learning, many say that they are visual learners and like videos. By knowing how to create short videos I can use another method of reaching students in the lesson plan. Secondly, it also means I have a way of teaching students how to create videos for themselves, which opens students up to another process of expressing their understanding.
While creating this video, I had to really consider the techniques of storytelling. First, I had to find a story that would fit within the confines of a short video. Attempting to find, and relate, the story of the entire trip would require much more than a short video. My brother created a video of the whole trip and it clocks around 30 minutes. While creating this video I thought about how the process was similar to writing poetry, in that you need to find concise ways of conveying the message. As one of my favorite teachers used to say, limitations breeds creativity. Having limited amount of time forces one to consider what is really essential to the storytelling process.
Secondly, a video of this format required sticking more closely to traditional narrative structures. As such, focusing on a particular day with a single goal made the most sense. Some days don’t have the full narrative cycle—endless wind might mean the day’s trip is difficult and cut short, but it doesn’t tell a full story, so I went with a day that could be told as a stand-alone story. I tried to allude to the fact that this video, and this day, takes place within a larger trip without detracting from the story structure itself. There is much more that could have been included in the story about this day—other clips of fixing the chain, stopping to eat, and entire sections of the day that simply didn’t fit the proper narrative format or dragged the story on for too long.
I also needed to find a balance and harmony within the video itself. Watching the video on mute would convey some of the story for my brother and I but those unfamiliar with the journey would be confused. Similarly, talking the entire time would render many of the images ‘silenced’ and the viewer overwhelmed. Instead, I wanted to create a balance in which the images told the story with some narration to guide the way. The landscape of Iceland is sparse, and I wanted the images to portray that, and kept my own wording sparse as well.
As a format within itself, bringing digital storytelling into the classroom can serve many purposes. First, it provides another avenue of delivering content. Students are increasingly relying on audio and visual clips as a means of interacting with the world around them. Whenever I ask my students to reflect on how they learn and
express their learning, many say that they are visual learners and like videos. By knowing how to create short videos I can use another method of reaching students in the lesson plan. Secondly, it also means I have a way of teaching students how to create videos for themselves, which opens students up to another process of expressing their understanding.