Welcome to Module 7, everyone! We are going to wrap up our course by reviewing the lessons we have learned. In addition, we are looking forward to emerging instructional design and technology integration.
You will reflect and present your instructional design and technology journey using a digital storytelling tool to address questions, for example, what have you learned in this course which is most meaningful to you as a future teacher? how have your professional goals changed? what new inquiries might you explore?
Oh Yeah! It is play time. Let’s play the most popular digital storytelling creation tools for fun. You can try the free trials or the paid applications. Then, you can select one of your favorite tools to create your Digital Story Project. Please know that you can feel free to use any digital storytelling creation tool you like!
Storybird – Storybird not only gives you the simple tools to create books in minutes, the application lets you discover an endless library of free books, picture books and poetry as well. Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds. The site mentions that they are a storytelling community, rather than an application. For them, it’s more about creating a creative world where anyone can tell their stories, as crazy as they get. Please watch this tutorial video to learn a quick how-to.
Adobe Spark – Adobe Spark is a free online web page builder — no coding or design skills is needed. You can create your own beautiful web story by using videos, pictures and text. The templates and layout options available are very modern, and are designed to present your work in an elegant and engaging way, focusing on visual content. On top of having the maturity of a decade-old product, Adobe Spark is completely free. You may watch a tutorial video to learn a quick how-to.
Powtoon – You can engage and explain your thoughts using a short and simple Powtoon. It can be a creative and interesting tool to grab attention in the classroom. Please watch this tutorial video for your reference.
Vyond – You can use the free trial of Vyond to move your audience to action. Increase engagement, retention, motivation, and conversion using rich media made simply with Vyond. Vyond is changing the way the world communicates, one video at a time. Please watch these 15 brief tutorial videos to learn this tool.
VoiceThread – VoiceThread is a cloud application, so there is no software to install. The only system requirement is an up-to-date version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. VoiceThread will run in your web browser and on almost any internet connection. Watching this brief tutorial video may be helpful for you to learn more about VoiceThread.
You may like to video yourself to talk about your journey in this course. After you create your own video, you need to edit and compress it. You would like to add a title, an opening, transition effects, subtitles, and a closing. Just like a movie, you would like to have your video look professional and appealing.
Not just for this course, you will need knowledge and skills of video editing and compression in many ways throughout your personal, academic, and professional life. For example, you will have to provide video evidence that meets EDTPA’s recommended video format and setting requirements during your student teaching. Therefore, please carefully watch the tutorial videos and practice the skill today! It is important for you to save these guides for your references too.
“Digital storytelling” is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of everyday people who use digital tools to tell their story. Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, and can be interactive. Digital storytelling combines the art of storytelling with multimedia features, such as photography, text, audio, voiceover, hypertext, and video. Digital tools and software make it easy and convenient for you to create a digital story.
Please download this A How-to Guide for Digital Storytelling and follow the 8 steps to make your own digital story:
Step 1: Develop Idea
Step 2: Plan
Step 3: Outline/Script
Step 4: Storyboard
Step 5: Film and Record
Step 6: Finish
Step 7: Publish and Share
Step 8: Review
Your digital story should meet the following requirements:
Content – Please ensure to reflect and present your instructional design and technology journey using a digital storytelling tool to address questions, for example, what have you learned in this course which is most meaningful to you as a future teacher? how have your professional goals changed? what new inquiries might you explore?
Organization – Your digital story has a clear and engaging opening, main content, and ending with a sense of closure. It should contain all important plot elements and be easy for the audience to follow.
Details – Your digital story should have many pertinent details that add to the plot.
Pacing – Your digital story should follow a pace that makes it enjoyable and entertaining and keeps audience’s interest throughout.
Connect with Audience – You should make eye contact (if applicable) and use expressive voices and actions (required).
Volume – Your words are easy to hear and understand (you should project and record your voice for your digital story project.)
Here are Work Sample 1, Work Sample 2, Work Sample 3 , Work Sample 4, and Work Sample 5 for your reference to help you gain an overall picture. Please apply the knowledge and skills you have learned from the reading materials and create your work with your words and ideas.
In addition to following the direction listed above, please ensure your work meets the requirements included in this rubric . Your work will be graded by this rubric .
