More Reflections on Making My 1st Digital Story

Let me share more with you on digital storytelling (DST).

Ideas for the topic–You are Special!

I’m always interested in topics like “self-growth” and I think it would be a good idea to create a digital story on this topic so that people around me, especially my students can be encouraged, inspired and enlightened.  Of course, I would be the first one to benefit from my own work. 

The process towards my final story script

I think the process of making my digital story is quite smooth and straightforward since I just tried to reflect my inner feelings for sharing with others.  Actually, my ideas are inspired by the story You are Special by Max Lucado and therefore everything is quite in context.  Instead of writing the whole script, I jotted down key ideas in point form.  Then, I organized them a bit for the introduction and the conclusion parts and recorded them in a rather spontaneous way and that’s it.  For the story, i.e. the middle part, I used both the script, with some adaptation made, and the pictures, actually it really took me some time for the best quality and effect since I used the digital camera intead of the scanner, from the story book.  What the most challenging part for me was to search for a piece of background music that can nicely help create the mood of the story and fit my narration.  Finally, everything was integrated well within just an hour or two and my first digital story was created successfully. 

Apart from this, I’m thinking if my story is written without any pictures or recording, the process may be totally different.  The major difference is I’ll definitely have to draft the story and revise it until it is a refined one for publishing or releasing instead of just using point form for further elaboration and making my work. 

My Complicated Psychological Journey VS the Technical Process

Since Photo Story 3 is a very user-friendly software, I just need to undergo the trial and error process within a short period of  time so as to familiarize myself with the different functions of it.  I can say the whole thing is not really very complicated if you are willing to try, but ”psychologically speaking”, it’s rather complicated as shown below:

Nervous --> excited--> frustrated + annoyed--> happy + excited + satisfied + tired 

I felt nervous in the beginning stage because Photo Story 3 is absolutely a novel invention to me.  I’m so afraid that I could not grasp its use.  Then, I felt excited to add my voice, pics and different effects and hear my own voice.  However, during the process, I felt frustrated as I sometimes failed to achieve what I wanted like the fluency in my speaking, the proper tone of voice for the story, a better effect of the pics, etc.  I also felt annoyed when I had tried many times but still could not figure out what the problems were, like for the proper integration of the pics, my voice and the background music or the way to properly export my file to a link.  Nevertheless, I was satisfied when I could view my first DST product successfully in the end, of course, though a bit tired as DST can be quite an energy-consuming activity, I felt happy and excited as well. 

DST = reflection + creativity

Well, I think this DST activity is both a reflective and creative activity to me because before making the story, I needed to brainstorm ideas about how I can relate myself with the characters in this story so as to make my whole work in context.  Through reading the story, I’ve actually reinforced my own self-worth just like what is told in the story.  I felt like I were the protagonist, Punchinello, in the story that we actually share the same experiences in life.  I also felt like Eli speaking to me in the story.  I understand my personal strengths and limitations more.  Besides, I’ve realized how “child-like” my voice is and maybe I’m ONLY suitable for telling children’s stories!  That’s why the whole thing is reflective to me. 

For the creativity part, I needed to design a thought-provking introduction and conclusion respectively so as to convey meanings to the audience.  I also needed to put myself into the shoes of different characters and learn to express how they feel by using proper but different tone of voice;  Adding different effects to the pics so as to make the story more eye-catching and grasping the skills in using the power of silence to reinforce the mood of the story are all part of the creative work.  Last but not least, since a good piece of background music does matter to catch and trigger the audience’s attention and emotions respectively, I had to try which piece of music is more suitable for the mood of the story.  As a whole, DST is a good way to develop our creativity. 

Pedagogical implications of DST on language teaching and learning

After acquiring the basic skills in DST, I’ve started to realize that language teaching and learning can be like a vast space which should not be bounded by the wall of the classroom.  Through the proper integration of CALL, like the making of digital stories, not just students’ linguistic abilities, but also their other abilities or intelligences such as aesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, etc may as well be enhanced or discovered simultaneously which eventually help direct students towards a new learning experience, i.e. learning English can be fun with the mixing of visual and audio media technology outside classroom. 

DST– a good platform for shy language learners 

DST is actually a good platform for all styles of language learners, to practise fluency in speaking, demonstrate creativity and have fun, share their feelings and thoughts with others and so on, ”passive, shy” learners in particular because it offers them strong sense of security without the need to worry about making mistakes or being laughed by others.  

DST– a powerful medium for sharing feelings and thoughts & source as teaching materials

As a teacher, DST is a powerful, perfect medium for us to share our thoughts and feelings with our students as the mingling of visual and audio work can easily arouse students’ interest and trigger them to think more about different topics related in their learning. 

Moreover, as more and more teachers learn DST and more and more digital stories are produced, these stories will become a very valuable collection of materials for teaching and learning that benefits both teachers and students in the field of education, just like what Teacher Tube (http://www.teachertube.com/) has been doing.

Thanks for reading my feelings and thoughts about making DST.  You are welcome to leave me a word.