Introduction
The story you tell about yourself grows more sophisticated as you leave high school. Rather than starting where you were born and the decisions of your parents and how those decisions impacted you, you want to craft your story so it becomes one of your achievements, your assessment of your skills, your examination of your interests and a your determination of which values will operate as your barometer for making decisions on your own. Framing your story should be an evaluation of the way you have approached school, activities, family and those you may have worked with or work for throughout your life up to this moment – stressing more recent events and actions as dominant in the story. As the course evolves the goal for the digital story is that it is less of a traditional autobiography and more of a definition of what skills, strengths, interests and values show of an individual’s talents and ambitions. A more elaborate version but with similar core elements of the basic profile painted of Henry and Erica in the presentation Meet Henry.
Part of the work being done to create the digital story is defining what it means to have a “private self” separate from a “public self”. The social media platform blurs that line and developing digital literacy involves consideration of some core principles. It is advisable before posting to decide what is appropriate to share for yourself and for others connected to you. Full names, specific locations, images of self, family and friends are not necessary to illustrate a story. It is just as easy to maintain privacy using a pseudonym or nickname, illustrate with commercial images and use the roles people have played rather than their names. Besides avoiding posting identifying information, the same depth of consideration should be taken for the content of your story. If a particular event you would not share with a potential employer, college admissions officer or in a public speech then it means it is not really part of your public story. The intent of the Seminar course is to help create an adult profile on a professional level moving from story telling to a more selective, deliberate portrayal of what defines your abilities and interests. Updated 10.29.12
Assignment
- Reflect on your strengths, skills, interests, and values.
- Identify at least 2 core items for each and explain (with pictures, images, audio, and/or video) how you developed it and why it’s important to you.
- Develop and organize a plan for your presentation. Gather the items you’ll use to construct it.
- Use an online presentation tool (Web 2.0)
- Create it! Use the Rubric to help you reach Standard
- Send the URL to your instructor (remember: everything on the Internet has a place and address. You’re *not* turning-in anything other than the location of your presentation)
Why?
To know where you’re going, you need to know where you’re starting from and what you have with you. The purpose of the Digital Story is for you to reflect on your past and identify your personal strengths, skills, interests, and values.
In fact, this course is focused on these four important attributes because they’ll determine where you’re going and what you want to do in the future after graduation.
By starting with your personal story and creating a multi-media presentation, you will take the first step in celebrating who you are and your potential for the future. By sharing your creation your teacher and classmates will be better able to understand you and help assist you to investigating the things that are meaningful to YOU!
Resources
- 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7021.pdf - Educational Uses of Digital Story Telling (Univ. of Houston)
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ - 21st Century Teaching & Learning: Story Telling Resources
https://sites.google.com/site/21stcentteachinglearning/digital-storytelling/web-20-digital-storytelling-tools
Tools
UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVITY! Choose a Web 2.0 tool that works for you and your presentation style. Select an online tool that you have access to and can use to best present the story of the development of your strengths, skills, interests and values. Feel CONFIDENT trying something new!
Including but not limited to:
- Glogster is a social network that allows users to create free interactive posters, or glogs. The “glog”– short for graphical blog, is an interactive multimedia image. It looks like a poster, but readers can interact with the content.
- Glogster in 90 seconds (video)
- Glogster Story (video)
- Prezi- Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery.
- What is Prezi? (video)
- How to use Prezi! (video)
- Windows Movie Maker – part of Microsoft Office 10
- Do you have another ONLINE tool you’d like to use? Ask your teacher
Assessment
Digital Story Checklist and Rubric
Models
- Basic Sample -modified 9.18.12 adding narration