So I finally finished the digital story. It was... well, how should I say.... more of a pain than it needed to be? It was, in the end, not that bad. Some of the technology was frustrating when using it for the first time, and the project did involve a bit of work. However, in the end I found that it really only took a few hours of intense labor. Now honestly, my project is not that amazing...I really only focused on the narrative and finding photos that I thought enhanced the story. My issue is with how the project was presented to us in class. We heard about this for the first time in an email we got over the summer, before class even began. Later, the project would be mentioned once in a while, and really just sounded like a pile of work that lied ahead. Essentially, we as a class made too big of a deal on this assignment. It was not worthy of the stress I think a lot of us went through, mostly because there was probably more discussion about the project than time spent doing the project (and I'm not including learning about how to use the technology, etc. I mean time we spent talking about deadlines, points, etc.). To me, this just became excessive. We could have done this as effectively in two weeks.
Anyways, I feel the experience of making a digital story, was, in all honesty, similar to making a powerpoint. It was indeed educational, but I wonder if we could have gotten more out of the assignment by writing a paper. I know we did the project in part to teach the technology to younger kids. But again, I wonder if they would gain more out of the experience of writing. Asserting that the advent of modern technology is important is a good thing - to say it can replace writing (as we are essentially saying, I think) runs a risky line. I think whatever one's technological capabilities are, the fundamentals remain most important - writing, that is. It's great if students from the city of Richmond can make digital stories. But i hope their writing is emphasized to a greater extent.
On a final note, I have a quick question about the digital story, if any of you guys have the answer. Is the project worth 40 points (like it says on the main page of blackboard), or is it out of 100 (like the rubric indicates)?
Michael--
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the point value confusion. I was going from the one the group worked on in class, and forgot to check back to the policies page. The percentages will remain the same, but I will change the number of points so that the total will be 40, so that each project in the class maintains its intended weight in the overall calculation of the grade for the course.Thank you for catching this.
About the digital story itself: I had hoped you guys might actually have some --FUN! We'll see how it goes this week, but I hope we'll get to learn about the writing process in a different way than usual, and get to enjoy some stories with visuals and maybe even music. You might ask yourself: what is the role that story plays in memory? What makes an intellectual community? What is wisdom? How does change happen? Those questions will lead us to phase two of this project.