Week 15 - The Final Blog

~This is the end~

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen.  Summertime is upon us.  This is the droid you have been looking for.  We've covered a lot this semester, and my multimedia knowledge and skills have grown more than I had expected to.... But first, a look at my final draft of my story!

What do we take with us?

Obviously, it would be nearly impossible to recount everything we have learned, when you also have it at your fingertips.  I will tell you the most remarkable things that I have learned:

• First and most importantly, I have finally cracked and got into cloud computing.  I was skeptical about my information floating around in space somewhere, but it is just soooo much easier!  I think I will be sticking with Google+ for a while.
• TED talks.  These are just incredible learning tools, and should be utilized by all professors.  With that being said, the various speakers sharing their experience has been a great takeaway.
• Prezi has been a great addition to my repertoire, thanks to this course.  After becoming comfortable with it here, I was able to use it in three other courses.
• Keeping it simple has been a bullet point all semester long.  Remember, we do not want to overload our audience.  Instead, feed them the information out of necessity.  
• My last point, CREATIVITY.  This course has brought out a creative side of me that I have not tapped yet, and only have begun to scratch the surface.  I hope that in the future, I can take these lessons that I have learned and apply them in my career field when necessary.  I hope the rest of you can too!

Good luck everyone!

Week 14

Second Drafts

This week we published the second drafts to our final projects.  It looks like we are all coming along well!  Summer is almost here!

I took the advice of some of my classmates, and I believe I have an enjoyable video for everyone!  See for your self:

I can wait to see everyone's final videos!

Week 13-Rough Drafts and More WeVideo

Week 13: Rough Draft

Besides 7 elements of storytelling, there was not much as far as learning material this week.  I began working on my rough draft, and received a little bit of feedback from my peers on how my video may be a little bit more presentable.  For instance, I have developed a dramatic question that is present in my currently un-released draft #2.  

I have also turned it down a notch with the transitions as to not distract the viewer from the storyline.  

I am interested in seeing the feedback I will get on my next draft!

Week 12: Digital Stories

Digital Storytelling:  Our Final Task

This week, began diving in to our final task of the semester: creating a digital story to share with our classmates.  A digital story will differ from our presentations of the past.  The trick will be to engage the audience from the get go, and not just feed endless amounts of information.  In the 7 elements of digital storytelling, we learn to keep the viewer in mind, and use our editing software to our advantage. 

WeVideo will be the mandated medium in which our final stories will rest on. It so far seems as if the interface will be simple, and quite easy to produce a story.  I will be relying on the youtube audio library to enhance my story.

Week 11 - Infographics

How about some more visual literacy?

This week we covered what is becoming a very popular method of message relaying in social media, the infographic. 

Though mine was simply created on Google Slides and looks quite amateur hour, there are some very advanced infographics out there.  Here is a link to a great infographic done by the New York Rangers organization.  That should be a great example of putting more than just numbers out there.

This week, we were introduced to Hans Rosling in two videos that can be found here and here.  This guy is a data genius. A data freak, even.  He explains complicated data that does not require a doctorate to decipher, a key way of ensuring everyone can be educated.

Rosling's BBC video on the growth of lifespans and income visualization is incredible, and a peek at the second link is worth it.

Garr Reynolds is back once again this week to remind us to KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!!  Data visualization should not be complicated.

We read several articles on infographics, and how they are a great way to convey a message.  Edudemic shows us 10 great tools for making infographics.  Give it a peek!

Making a Google Forms survey was surprisingly easy!  Very self explanatory.  I wondered all semester how Elizabeth was making these assessment forms and checklists!

Week 10 - Prezi

We are almost there!

About four more weeks of class and we are done!  I will be graduating!  It's not like I'm counting the days or anything...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Prezi of the United States....

This week we got in to Prezi, a great presentation tool.  That is, if you have a lot of patience.  It took me some getting used to all of the motion in the templates, but I was able to pull together a Prezi file which can be seen in my previous blog.  

I chose the topic for my press because becoming a police officer has been a long journey for me that still is not over.  But right now, my odds look really good!

I could not find the bad boys theme, but the background reggae should do!

Prezi seemed pretty easy to navigate as far as adding material, but I was not a fan of the motion, and sometimes my mouse would drag the presentation points around the screen.  Not very effective in that aspect.

I took Garr's advice and kept it simple, and let the images do the speaking.  Quick and to the point.

Let's keep going, were almost there!

Prezi

My Prezi: