Sometimes researching court cases is the more effective way to meet a legal challenge, as Scott Smith shows in this engaging digital argument.
Scott Smith has created a lively digital story for his 8th grade American History class that demonstrates how DST can be used to put forth an argument.
https://sites.google.com/site/smithclassinc/Home/american-history-class
I tried to be creative and mix some things in there. I did not just want it to be a simple old blog post, but I wanted to “write” it. So I decided to put it in a movie form with slides. I added music to the background just to make it seem more “fun.” There is also one photo in there. I tried to stay away from the photos because I always use them. Lastly, there is a part of me in there.. you’ll be surprised to hear it.
I hope you enjoy.
For this assignment, I had to take components from different movies and mash them up into one. It’s pretty cool. I was able to change anything, the title of the movie, the main image, the caption, etc. To do this assignment I began by browsing through my movies. I choice Along Came Polly with Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller. The polt is about an outgoing girl who is fun, spontaneous and afraid of commitment and a man who is too organized and “safe.” He got married and his wife cheated on him on their honeymoon with the tour guide. I captured an image in the movie where he was begging her to stay and be with him. Then I choice the caption and title from the movie called “She is out of your league.” I thought the movies worked well together, because they both represent similar stories. The beautiful spontaneous girl and the too organized, safe guy.
I just finished my first commissioned video project. The “commissioned” aspect brought a whole perspective.
It’s not that the expectations were high. The professional association to which I have belonged since I became a teacher decades ago is doing a website makeover and wanted a video to promote the annual conference coming up in March 2013. Specifications were that I use the Ken Burns effect to bump up the visual interest from a plain slide show.
So bump it up, I did. The conference theme, “Investigate That Story,” was inspired by a quote by David Coleman, one of the authors for the Common Core State Standards:
Read like a detective and write like an investigative reporter.
And the conference logo has a bit of film noir going for it. At least that’s what I see with the kid in the trench coat and fedora.
So I enlisted the help of a dashing young friend from my teen book and writers’ club who fancies himself an actor and taped a simple opening and close that I made black and white, found some film noir-like music, and then simply added some author promo shots and book covers.
Biggest lesson was creating a lead-in to my actor’s “hot tip” line. I’m sure public library patrons thought I was “casing the joint” as I attempted pan after pan on different library shelves trying to find the perfect or at least less Blair Witch-like move. I wanted to set the mood with music before I came to the actor so I needed a rather long visual sequence. Adding the Coleman quote gave me a chance to lengthen the lead-in purposely.
So here’s my completed video:
I’m not sure my educator-friends know quite what to make of this but they seem okay with it as long as I got the Ken Burns moves on the images going. What if they had hated the film noir effect? Glad I didn’t have to face that because, though I believe that constraints inspire creativity; I also know that all the joy of creativity can be sucked out if you don’t have some freedom and space to realize your vision.
I’m definitely not ready technologically or emotionally for commissioned work.
Got a question for you iMovie fans. Can I insert an image and add text? I resorted to PowerPoint to create the brief bio slides for each author but, surely, I can accomplish this in iMovie.
Bethany Cornish has created a digital story told from the point of view of an American colonial feminist and activist, Penelope Barker. This is an example of how a digital story can be created to highlight and personify any historical figure in any field of learning.
Penelope Barker circa 1773
I am writing a larger post about open architectures and the implications of what appears to be a more general move away from a focus on open as in sharing, collaboratively building, and collectively designing a space for teaching and learning others can use freely and build upon liberally. No where in the raging discussion around MOOCs is there anyone talking about sharing the infrastructural/architectural work they’ve done freely with others. CUNY’s Commons-In-a-Box project makes the innovative development work they have been doing for years freely available for others to experiment with. That is the spirit of sharing that seems to me should characterize the groundswell for open, online education—localizing the means of production for as many people as possible rather than turning to more taylorized broadcasting methods that deliver content—we’ve been there and done that. When did scaling the LMS become the next frontier of innovation?
Anyway, more on that in another post. What this post brings together is the thinking Martha Burtis, Alan Levine, Tim Owens, and I have done about integrating BuddyPress with FeedWordPress to allow the signup process to seamlessly load feeds, filter tags, and bring posts in without any manual intervention—of which there is all too much currently.
We actually virtually met with the designer of FeedWordPress, Charles Johnson, and ran all these ideas by him and he was up to the task. He’ll hopefully begin work on these elements for integration shortly, and we are hoping he can lean on Boone Gorges if he has any BuddyPress questions 
(Poor Boone, I am always bothering him—HE’S A FAMILY MAN NOW, BACK OFF GROOM!) So, for anyone interested in the specifics of what we are trying to accomplish with this integration, the details (some of which are a bit technical) are listed below. Recommendations, feedback, and praise are all welcome 
Today’s Daily Create was to make the creepiest sound you can using props or simply your voice. After reading this assignment I immediately thought about the movie “Darkness Falls“, after watching that movie my fear of the dark multiplied tremendously. Such that, the moment when my feet were hanging over the bed, I would immediately jump back a warp speed. Also if I heard a noise in my room it would take me like 3 steps to get to my brothers room which was 10ft from my bedroom door, I mean I would fly. After seeing that movie that noise sticks in your head, and it still freaks me out until this day. I decided to imitate the noise myself, hopefully it doesn’t creep you out like it did me.
If you want to see a video clip of “Darkness Falls” click here!
Okay maybe the trailer doesn’t make it seem as scary as it was, but still it was pretty scary for a 13yr old to endure.
We all have that one song that describes our life. Sadly, most people are ashamed to tell how they REALLY feel. I know I personally don’t share too many of my secrets and hurts with people. I sometimes feel misunderstood but I try my hardest to maintain a positive attitude.
This assignment that I am creating is called “Sing My Life.” You take that one song that describes your life and take at least 5 lines from the song and tell why you can relate.
My song is:
“The One Before” x K’La
My Five Lines:
1. “hurting for years but she hid it, she told you she healed but she didn’t”
I have been dying to do the Wiggly Stereoscopy assignment by Bill Genereux—it basically uses the animated GIF method to create a 3D effect with just two images. It sounds easier than it really is—nailing it is all in the images you choose—though I must say Norm makes it look easy. Once I had two images I believed would work I wanted to see if I could find some useful tips from folks in ds106 who already did the assignment. Turns out I could, Katie Girard wrote this helpful post that introduced me to the animation filter in GIMP, something I knew nothing about.
Not only can you use the Animation filter to view the image moving through the layers, but you can also change the speed using this helpful tidbit from Katie:
….under Filters > Animation, I chose Playback….you can see your .gif in action as it rotates between layers. To change the delay between the two frames, select the layer and add a time written in milliseconds using this format: [imagename (nms)] where n = the number of milliseconds. I chose to use 750ms.
The default speed worked well for my stereoscopy, but here is a more specific tutorial for changing the speed at which layers switch in GIMP for anyone interested.
One thing this reinforces for me is how amazing the ds106 assignments repository is. It not only has a ton of great assignments but lists everyone who has done that assignment. Sure some links to example posts will break in time, but the bottom line is it gives other people thinking about what to do ideas, inspiration and even helps them learn some technical details they might not have known otherwise. As time goes on I’m convinced we’ll see more and more tutorials in the assignment repository as well, and to that end this post is the change I want to see
The first assignment I created, I wanted it to be simple yet fun. I thought about the daily creates we have done and just assignments in general.
I personally dislike taking pictures of myself. I am not a very photogenic person because I don’t really have that “beautiful look.” But there are times when I take a picture and I think, “awwh that was cute.” So in creating an assignment I thought about those moments. Those moments when you just feel beautiful. And it is those moments that you want to pause and just be grateful for the beauty you see in yourself.
I like and chose this picture because I have my hair curly. I NEVER wear my hair curly because it tickles my face a lot. I also love this picture because you can see my one dimple showing. Yes, I only have one dimple.
The editing changes I made were simple color changes basically. One of the pictures is in an antique looking style. I really like those “old time” looking pictures because it makes me appreciate the change in photography over time. Another of the pictures just has them “orangist” glossy look to it. I personally like it because it makes my skin look flawless and my teeth look SUPER white. The last of the photos has a purple color on it. PURPLE IS MY FAVORITE COLOR IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. I sometimes wish there was purple snow(why I’m not sure).
This is why I called this assignment, “Pause [Four] A Moment.” Here is what you do.
1. Take a picture that you like of yourself.
2. Edit it 3 different ways
3. Put all four of the pictures in a collage together
4. Upload it to flickr
5. Embed it in your post
6. Explain why you love this picture and why you made the changes you did
It is just that simple. It gives you, the artist, a chance to take a pretty picture of them and make it into different pictures. It allows you to see yourself differently. You can just make simple color changes, or drastic changes to show why you are grateful for your beauty.
For More. Click Here. –>>[Pause Four a Moment]<<–
Sorry, but camp is over! Head over to ds106
The Campfires have all been put out.
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
