For Class Discussion
These tools may look different in terms of purposes and usage, but they have one essential commonality: creativity. Using storytelling, drawing, or mapping tools, people can create artifacts, learn visually, practice with safety, simulate the model, and most importantly, have fun and learn actively (and also collaboratively).
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling
- Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre by Bryan Alexander and Alan Levine
- Educause’s 7 Things You Should Know About Google Earth
Popular Tools
- Voicethread - The Voicethread 4 education wiki is a great pedagogical resource.
- Animoto. Using Animoto to Promote Speaking in the Foreign Language details how José Picardo used it with his Spanish language students
- Gliffy - Online diagram software, can create and share flowcharts, network diagrams, floorplans, user interface designs, etc.
- Toondoo - Create your own comics! Book Maker. Make a character or ToonBook!
- Flick'r - The most popular online photo management and sharing tool
- Digital Storytelling Part V – Google Maps by Silvia Tolisano
- Concept/story mapping: Mindomo and Spicynodes
- Picasa - Fast and easy photo sharing from Google
You can comment on any of the following:
- Which tool was your favorite? How did the tool compare to others introduced in this week? If you plan to adopt the tool, for what purposes will you use it and how often? If you don't plan to use, why not?
- Do you think a school or workplace must actively use tools introduced in this week? Anything to consider in adoption or implementation at school or work?
- Or your reflection on anything related to the course (material, assignment, clarity, usefulness, suggestion, reaction to others, etc.)
Schools and workplaces may use these tools when creating a digital storytelling experience. Being an IDT student we are familiar with technology and must realize that not everyone is apt to explore the technology and learn themselves. With this being said using this technology on a more frequent basis would be ideal. By incorporating these technologies more frequently students and/or workers will know what to expect and know the outcome of the program they are working with. By using these tools more frequently, the user will become more comfortable and confident of the method of digital storytelling.
ReplyDeleteHowever, before these methods become comfortable within the user population they must be introduced to it, because this may be a new way of learning for most. To give the user the best experience, they must know what they are doing and by guiding them along their first time will allow for a smoother ride in the future. Allowing them to ease in to a program and helping them make the experience their own will allow these users to adopt the digital storytelling experience and make it beneficial to both the storyteller and user.
My favorite tool was Flickr. The tool itself is very different from the other tools introduced. The photo sharing tool is more for photographers. The overall unified feature that Flicker has is sharing information. It is a easy and great way to share photos and allow others to leave feedback to creative photographs.
ReplyDeleteIf I were to use the tool, I would create a portfolio for my IDT 345 class. We create panoramas and this would be a great way to showcase my work for potential employers. I can state what camera settings I used along with the camera I used, date, time and a number of other things.
I have never used many of those tools, but I have heard of Picasa and Flick'r. Though I have never used them before this class, what I have heard about them seemed very interesting. I would say my favorite to use is Flick'r. I like the whole set up of it. Its basically a photo site where people add and share photos with different people. I think Flick'r was interesting to me because it reminded me of what many people and myself do on social sites such as facebook and twitter. You can add and share photos on those websites with many people. I think Flick'r could be a good thing to use for photography class but not as much as other classes. Other than that Flick'r really just reminded me of a social network.
ReplyDeleteI am only familiar with Picasa on this list. I usually Picasa for creating collages with my pictures. They have a lot of great designs and then I can upload my pictures right to facebook or any of my other social networks. One of the greatest benefits is that it keeps the original picture on file even after you make edits and change the pictures. I am going to try to use Flickr. It seems really similar to Picasa. I thought this was only for apple customers but I see that you can use it on a computer. Also edit and upload pictures to certain social networks.I haven't create a profile because I am not sure if I want so many accounts that does the same thing. Schools would benefits from these tools because some time you have to make certain projects with editing photos or making a collage for a certain assignments. I do believe the workplace would benefit as well because they would be able to edit and create certain photos for their clients. Its very easy to share the photos with students and business people. I think that these are some great tools to use because you don't have to be a photographer to create a great pictures, you can use one of these tools to make a perfect picture.
ReplyDeleteFor this blog I chose to review the digital story telling part V-Google maps post. While most people are probably familiar with Google maps and Google earth this post examined creative ways to use Google maps in the classroom. Some suggestions that I liked were to “Create a Scavenger Hunt around the World”. I thought that this was an excellent idea and a great way to get people (perfect for kids) to learn about both geography and how to use goggle maps.
ReplyDeleteOther suggestions such as “Map the settings of a book you are reading” are good examples of how to blend technology and literature. It is important to recognize that a lot of these tools can be used in creative ways to create cross over utility such as the “Map the settings of a book you are reading” suggestion.
Ideas such as these would work perfectly in the classroom and are pretty vital in today’s world.
Personally I love to use Google earth at work and other co-workers have adopted it also. For my job I will sometimes have to go and scout out farmland for potential purchase. Often times this farmland is in the middle of nowhere and can be hard to find. Google earth and Google maps allows me to easily mark the location once found and pass on the geo tag to other co-workers.
The only one that I am familiar with is Flick'r and that is my favorite. I have never used or even heard of the others.
ReplyDeleteFlick'r is really simple to use. People like to post photos and you can view other peoples work or you can share them to whoever you would like. If you like to look at pictures, I think that would be a place to go because it has pretty good pictures on it. I have used Flick'r once before for my photography class that I took a couple years ago. It was a very simple process updating your pictures on there.
I don't think that it is a good tool to use in the classroom or working unless you are taking a photography course or your job is somewhat related to pictures.
It is a good tool if people want to learn more about it.
After browsing through a few tools I found Picasa is a great tool for digital storytelling. They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words” and Picasa is a great way to help use pictures to tell a story. If you want to tell a story, you can edit pictures in Picasa to illustrate a plot or mood. You can also use this tool to upload pictures to social networks such as Facebook or Google +. It is also useful because you can edit the picture and see the original at the same time and the effects look very professional. While it may not be needed, the combination with captions or text following beneath the images can also further illustrate a storyline. Overall Picasa is a great tool to use whether your intention is digital storytelling, simply modifying photos, or editing them for social networks.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of a few of these tools before but never actually used them, nor took further look into them before the class. After further looking into the tools, I would say that both Flickr and Picasa are both good tools for storytelling. They both are fairly simple to use and to create accounts for. Both tools are also free and can be used and viewed through mobile devices. Picasa allows photo editing, which I think is a plus. I don't really think that these tools should be used in a workplace nor school unless, the work requires images, and/or image editing. However, outside of the school and workplace, these tools seem like they can be fun to use, and share with family and friends!
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ReplyDeleteI feel that schools and some workplaces could use some of the tools introduced this week. Gliffy seems like a pretty effective tool that could be used in the workplace because of the ability to create and share different flowcharts, network diagrams, and floor plans. Flikr is also a good tool that can be used in schools and the workplace because it is a pretty popular and reliable site for sharing images.Last off the VoiceThread tool seems like it would be pretty effective in both schools and the workplace also. For school purposes you can use it for presentations, conversational practice, professional developments, and different assessments. For the workplace this tool is effective because it helps with design discussions, no schedule meetings, professional development, collaborating with clients, and sales and marketing.