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March 4, 2025

Amber H.: Kenya is Not a Single Story

  1. Sign in and stow your phones out of sight. Log into a Chromebook and complete the WYAW activities.


  2. Joe Lambert from StoryCenter (formerly the Center for Digital Storytelling) developed Seven Elements of a Digital Story (brief available in PDF format). Another researcher/practiotioner of note is Bernard Robin at the University of Houston.

    Lambert has multiple editions of the book, (Digital Storytelling Cookbook, 2003; Digital Storytelling Cookbook, 2010; Seven Stages: Story and the Human Experience, 2013; Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community, 2018). What do these elements look like and how might you assess digital stories using this framework as a guide?

  3. Examples of Past Digital Stories: Format: Two compliments.
    • Challenge and Change: Ciera
    • Who Do You Love?: Ollie

  4. Topics for digital stories have ranged from.... dealing with anxiety and depression, coming out, sexual assault, growing up with a disability, being bullied in school, living with addiction, the death of a parent, and oppressive relationships. A digital story can be about anything as long as it is a story you feel needs to be told and has a personal component. It can be as revealing as you are comfortable with sharing and again, you decide who (besides me to grade it) views it.

  5. Overview of Personal Digital Story (PDS) Assignment
    • Finished story from WeVideo (link on reflection)
    • Script
    • Reflection - follow the guidelines!
    • Rubric - required elements

  6. WeVideo Studio Time. Log into WeVideo https://www.wevideo.com/ with your class gmail account - let's do this!
  • You'll use your script from last Thursday's WYAW to do a practice run OR you can choose from one of these additional topics: 1) My Beloved Pet 2) A Trip of a Lifetime
    • Start a new video making sure you're using the Full Featured Editor
    • Look for images and video that can illustrate your story either from your own collection or from the provided "goodies" in WeVideo
    • Add them to your timeline and edit them by changing the size of the media object
    • Practice moving more than one item on the timeline
    • Recording narration and adjusting volume
    • Adding music and adjusting volume
    • Adding titles over an image or video
    • Finishing and getting the published link

  • REQUIREMENTS for this practice run:
    • Title
    • At least 3 images
    • At least 1 video
    • Credits
    • Music
    • Narration

Start thinking about a personal story you want to tell. THIS IS A PERSONAL NARRATIVE not an instructional video.

The focus is on one of the topics below but within this broad topic, it can be a personal story of your choice. There are some "must haves" including visuals, narration, duration (between 1:30 and 4:00 minutes), and a title and credits. Otherwise, you can include also - video, sound effects, music, and animations. Want to try out chroma key (green screen) - go for it!

DIGITAL STORYTELLING ASSIGNMENT:

      A story of challenge or change - an event or other circumstance that has shaped who you are as a person

      Tell your teaching journey story - the how and the why.

      		Who do you love? A story about a person who has had a significant impact on your life past or present. (No dogs allowed.....)
      challenge
      nodogsallowed

This assignment has three parts and ALL will be submitted in Canvas:

  1. A link to your personal digital story from WeVideo once it has been "Finished" and published. DON'T link to your editing/timeline environment.

  2. Your script for the project using the StoryCenter 4Cs format: Connect, Context, Change, Closure. (DUE earlier than final project)

  3. The personal digital story reflection using the designated word template for in Canvas under Assignments
    (filename: "personal_digital_story_reflection.docx").

  4. You can see all the requirements for this assignment and how you will be assessed by viewing the rubric in Canvas

RESOURCES O' THE DAY:

THE Source for Digital Storytelling: http://www.storycenter.org/

THE Top Academic Source for Digital Storytelling: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

More about StoryCenter (formerly the Center for Digital Storytelling) http://www.storycenter.org/press/