Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling Internship Info Session: Freedom from Hunger & MIIS Collaboration

Anna Santos Digital Storytelling, Events, MIIS Update, Storytelling, TW@M

The NGO Freedom From Hunger (FFH) is partnering with MIIS to develop internships for students to help create a pipeline of digital content for their outreach efforts. FFH will be hosting an information session on this initiative, the Digital Storytelling Internship Program, on Thursday November 19th. Students who are interested in international development work and digital storytelling are invited to attend.

The FFH Interns will work with NGO partners in Peru or Burkina Faso to provide fresh and authentic digital content about the beneficiaries and impacts of their work. Interns will live in communities served by FFH and will “report” from the field through daily blog posts, photos, and videos.

To find out more about the internship opportunity and requirements click here.

The info session will be held November 19th from 1:00pm – 2:00pm in Morse A101. Representatives from the Center for Advising & Career Services (CACS) and Immersive Learning will also be present to answer questions.

Dear Prospective DLC GA

George Payne About Us, Bios, Blog, Design Thinking, Digital Storytelling, Mind Mapping, Podcast, Radio, Storytelling

I’m going to keep this brief.

Writing to you now on the last day of work in the DLC, I can honestly say that I loved working here. The draw was immediate, the fit just clicked, and the whole experience was a long and vibrant joy ride of working hard and loving the outcomes. To catalog it all is difficult so I made a short video to share some the highlights. You can check it out below.

If you don’t feel like watching the video, just know that I got involved in the DLC by crashing team meetings. I wouldn’t suggest you do the same, but every DLC GA has their story. From crashing meetings to the first open mic night some friends and I put on in the D-Space, the match was made. On the first day of the Spring of 2015, I walked into the office and told the permanent staff members I was interested in working for them. I was told, “Your persistence will be rewarded.” Within a week I was being interviewed for the position, during which time I was asked, “What is it that you want to do here?” To which I replied, “I want to run MIIS Radio.”

Within a few weeks I was interviewing professors and students, recording audio in weird places and reproducing it online in the Radio Forum. I soon nabbed the position of host of TEDxMonterey 2014, for which I will always be thankful of the DLC and the folks who put me in contact (that means you too Katie Brown!) After TEDx things slowed down and I continued working as a GA into the summer. But we didn’t pick computers and passwords at first. We picked up hammers and paint and heavy objects that we either moved around the space, up and down the stairs, or out of the space entirely. It was prototype time while the students were away – we installed colorful dry erase boards downstairs, sound proofing in the booths, and even built the campfire table in the center of the upstairs space. The Spring 2014 semester and the summer working in the DLC marked two periods which I care to call the experimenting and bonding phases. This is where I really got to know my supervisors and myself. (You’re going to want to click that link!)

In the Fall of 2014 I became a more reliable senior of the space. People had come and gone and the space was transitioning into a service sector. We got the new appointment system and people were coming to us with specific requests – not just on a whim because the DLC was the place to be. For a little while it became very un-fun, but at the same time, the campus came to depend on us for a very niche service for the first time since the office had moved across campus. I was grateful to be there nonetheless. And just because something is un-fun doesn’t mean it isn’t important, for which I am also grateful.

I really started to appreciate being a GA at the DLC in my final semester – of course, as there had been nearly a million other things to do and prepare for. This last semester was marked by the sentiment of trying to exit gracefully. I became well studied and well versed in the motions of customer support and in particular for audio and video editing, which became my specialty alongside web design. I executed some elaborate needs assessments, some funky workshops, countless appointments, and even a great addition to the first ever MIIS Happening, which all in all made me feel really good about my time here. The new GAs had no reason to look up to me, but it felt good to share with them where the DLC had been before and how special their positions were, always offering a helping hand whenever possible.

Now, in the last few days of my on-campus MIIS career, I only have left to say that I loved it it here and if I could do it all over again I would. Not really, but you’ll get what I mean as your time goes on here.

Peace to the place and the people and the grace

that never ceases to amaze or continually elevate.

G

MIIS happened. Did you miss it?

George Payne Digital Storytelling, MIIS Update, Presentations, Projects, Storytelling, Video

It’s true. MIIS happened. And it was awesome!

If you were there, you know what I’m talking about. If you weren’t, you might feel like you missed something important, which you did, but that’s ok for two reasons: 1) I’m going to recap the highlights in this blogpost, and 2) MIIS is likely to happen again next semester or next year sometime. So, let’s go over it…

The first ever MIIS Happening event was a Pecha-Kucha-inspired happening. All that was provided was a time, place, and style in which the event was to take place. (Of course, beyond that there was a “countdown” template provided and practice sessions leading up to the happening, but that was all just to support the learning curve of the inaugural event) Basically, the word got out that anybody from the MIIS community could present on anything they wanted as long as they presented it in the very short, concise format that Pecha-Kucha supports… and the outcome was truly engaging and inspiring. For instance…

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Jessica Yoo – talked about how limited our understanding of Korea as a whole can be, and recounted a short timeline of how she was able to reconnect with her heritage over time by connecting family history with national narratives of the United States, North Korea, South Korea, and Russia!

 

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Alfredo Ortiz – walked us through his life as a multidimensional individual in a professionally demanding environment. The audience relished in being able to get to know Alfredo better, as well as learn how to better address their own identities.

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Amanda Liles – talked about what it has been like to be othered by common language, specifically by deconstructing the word disabled in the context of living a very full and spirited life both at home and abroad!

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Evelyn Helminen – talked about what it’s like to participate in Nation Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) every year, and how its creative constraints have helped her to discover herself in the process, ultimately encouraging others to engage in NaNoWriMo as well!

Lauren Scanlan – talked about another way of thinking about self-discovery and cultivating motivation. She used a wonderful metaphor of role playing games and used her own life as an example of how to achieve personal success. I laughed myself to tears… in a good way.

Peter Shaw – shared a recorded Pecha-Kucha project about a teaching-field trip his students took to Bay View Academy in Seaside to teach 8 different languages to middle school students. In a way it was the most elaborate project because it involved 20 different students’ voices on 20 different slides.

Moyara Ruehsen – shared how to change the composition of one’s family to support one’s vision and goals. For those who were able to keep an open mind, it seemed to have had a particularly humbling moral to the story, which was to not feel guilty outsourcing help. Why? Because we all need help, and by employing help, you’re in turn helping someone else.

Not everyone who presented was mentioned in this blog post, but in summary, MIIS Happened, and it was awesome! The applications of what we did are numerous and already trickling into your programs and projects, so keep an eye out! That was us.

Blame us or thank us, but be sure to stay tuned into the next MIIS Happening…

You helped us help you

George Payne About Us, Curricular Technology, Digital Storytelling, Excel, Projects, Services, Workshops

This past Tuesday from 12-2 the DLC had a table set up on Samson Patio, accompanied by a mobile white board. We were staging an event to assess the needs of the student body in the final weeks of the Spring Semester. We wrote on the board:

Come have your needs assessed!

How can the DLC help you succeed in the last 4 weeks of the semester?

I need to be able to:

Use   |    Make   |   Manage

And at least 25 of you all gave us your detailed opinions about how we could help you to succeed in the last 4 weeks of class. This is what we learned:

  1. Some students demanded that we offer training on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Staff Management software, like Salesforce, Asana, and Basecamp.
  2. Some students are tired of playing the role of technical support to teachers who struggle to use the iLearn platform, and GA positions are springing up to address those needs, but the DLC is assumed to be at fault for that.
  3. Excel training in workshop format will remain in high demand every semester.
  4. Making websites (in e-portfolio/blog format especially), infographics, and digital storytelling methods are coming in increasingly high demand.
  5. Some students love being supported by the DLC in full-class format because they want to be able to learn beside their classmates in DLC workshops.
  6. TLM students continue to request that we teach them how to build apps.
  7. Many of you don’t feel comfortable navigating Apple computers
  8. Some students are under the impression that we in the DLC assume going to Lynda solves problems, but many of you find it intimidating to teach yourselves in that way.

So what are we going to do about it? Some of you will receive a direct email in response to our assessment. Some of you will be best addressed in group format, so keep a look out for a group email. And other needs may take a few more days of prep to be addressed appropriately. We may organize a workshop or two, but we need to have another team meeting on Wednesday first.

More updates coming soon

Do ya Pecha Kucha?

George Payne Camtasia, Digital Storytelling, Powerpoint, Presentations, Projects, Storytelling, Workshops

Pe-cha-ku-cha? Hold up, before you think I’m insulting you, let’s talk about it.

Pecha Kucha literally means “chit-chat” in Japanese, but in this context, it’s a style and method of presenting. So when I ask, “Do ya Pecha Kucha?” what I mean to ask you is, do you know how to rapidly present an idea in 6 minutes and 40 seconds? Better yet, can you devote a mere 20 seconds to 20 different slides? Let me tell you, if Peter Shaw and Bob Cole can do it, I’m sure you can!

Just before spring break I lead an open-ended workshop with Peter Shaw that helped 20 GSTILE students contribute 20 seconds each to 20 pecha kucha slides for the TESOL department…

And this past Friday I watched Bob Cole freestyle a pecha kucha presentation using truly random assortment of slides. Needless to say it was AWESOME and it even included some audience participation, which caught us all off guard.

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Bob Cole’s 20×20 about MIIS Happening and Pecha Kucha

 

Both the process and finished products of the presentations were quite amazing, so in the spirit of MIIS Happening and the upcoming Pecha Kucha Clinic on Friday, April 10th, let me share with you some key takeaways…

  1. Pecha Kucha is direct
    • 20 slides may seem like an overwhelming amount of space for content, but 20 seconds is a very short amount of time to present anything meaningful. There’s no room for slides full of text or complex diagrams. Every slide is a short, powerful chapter in a story. Peter used 20 still images from his class field trip to Bay View Academy, where his graduate students taught foreign languages to middle school students. The voice overs for those 20 slides came from 20 students in the session, so each student had to be very succinct in the soundbytes they provided. Each one used an average of only 50 words!
  2. Pecha Kucha is engaging
    • Styles vary even within Pecha Kucha, but the idea is to convey a meaningful message or story in a short amount of time. In a way, it’s a direct response to death by powerpoint. Pecha Kucha tends to bring a presenter’s points to life by giving them a relief point. After 20 seconds, the slide shifts whether they’re ready or not, so when presented live it tends to keep the attention of the audience, who deep down inside know that they only get 20 seconds to hear and see each point. It’s like a power point that’s adapted to our short attention spans! Bob was riffing, but great at keeping our attention. He even had a timer built into his slides, which you can find the template for on the MIIS Happening page.
  3. Pecha Kucha is fun
    • Unlike all the text above, Pecha Kucha is enjoyable to be a part of. On the back end I got to help Peter Shaw put together a fast-paced multimedia project using PowerPoint, Garageband, and Camtasia, and on the front end it’s fun to watch! Get a group of Pecha Kucha presenters together and you’ve got yourself a party… of sorts, which is exactly what MIIS Happening is!

I don’t want to spoil the details of the MIIS Happening event, so just take my word for it that Pecha Kucha is what’s happenin’ – so follow the link to get schooled and I’ll see you on Friday in the DLC from 10-11am!

Website Audit – Take 2!

George Payne Blog, Blogging, Digital Storytelling

GPayne checkin’ in! Amidst the rush of returning to school last week I made it a priority to check back in with Evelyn Helminen about my website. To get up to date on how this whole website audit thing started, click the link to my previous post. In my previous post I detail how Evelyn audited my website’s purpose, vision, content, and navigation, and in the end, I decided to start over! I bought a new domain name (www.georgemitchellpayne.com) for 2 years, switched my host from WordPress to Weebly, and created an all new outlook for my e-portfolio. How is it different?

  1. Weebly
    • WordPress was a great host and platform to learn how to manage a website, but Weebly has an ease of use and polished look that I like more. Weebly uses a drag-and-drop interface similar to iMovie and Garageband, but for website design it’s great! There aren’t too many choices and the mobility of those options can make each page very unique. For the purpose of my website, which is to function as a polished and easy to navigate e-portfolio Weebly was just what I was looking for, even though there are a few options I don’t have access to without a premium account.
  2. E-portfolio
    • I only need my e-portfolio to do a few things, but I need it to do them very well. First, I need it to make me look good. Weebly has a very polished look to it and has a lot of nice themes to choose from. Large pictures display perfectly both in the background and the foreground, and some of the page formats are specifically designed to showcase those large photos.
  3. Pages
    • Because it’s so easy on the eyes, it makes me as the subject of the website easy to understand. Instead of overloading my audience with everything that might be important, my new website pushed me to be as streamlined about my delivery as it is about displaying my information. Thus, I limited myself to 5 menu items, only 2 of which have drop down menu items, streamlining my navigation.
  4. Links
    • To make navigation even clearer however, I embedded links in the text on each page so that as my audience finishes reading each page, context-specific links to other parts of my website are clearly displayed in a light turquoise color. It’s obvious now that I misunderstood “link theory” in my old website, which frustrated everyone from my mom to my supervisor, so I started over there, too. Now, it’s easier for people to navigate to relevant content.
  5. Impact
    • I think the most significant difference in my new website is the impact it has. It conveys purpose, vision, and content much better now, which makes me proud to share it. I no longer hesitate to share my URL with potential employers. I’m simply confident that it tells my story appropriately and effectively when I’m not telling it out loud.
  6. Possibilities
    • Lastly, I think the most exciting thing about my new website are the possibilities. There are quite a few options I want to try out in the future, but most notably is embedding video. Instead of forcing people to read about me, I’m going to upload a video introduction, as well as a short video to replace the content on the Looking Ahead page. So if and when potential employers land on my website, they can hear and see who I am, what I’m good at, and what I intend to do in my future career.

Take a look at my new website to see what I’m talking about! And if you get a chance check out an article about WordPress vs. Weebly that is circulating around the DLC now.

Website Audit Advice

George Payne About Us, Blog, Blogging, Digital Storytelling

Hey yall,

GPayne checkin’ in. Recently I met with Evelyn Helminen, Web & Social Media Co-Manager of the DLC, and guru to all things web design. We sat down to chat about my WordPress website, which I began as a course assignment for my IEM degree back in the fall of 2013. It had however, evolved into something much larger over time. In fact, it had evolved so much that it no longer even conveyed the most important messages clearly and effectively. During my internal website audit, Evelyn pointed out some key areas of improvement, so now it’s my turn to share what I’ve learned:

  1. Define your purpose:
    • Website design begins with purpose. If it’s an e-portfolio, make it showcase your talent. If it’s a blog, make it consistently expressive. If it’s built for a business, make it sell. Multipurpose websites are difficult to identify with and tend to turn off the target user, so when you define your purpose, make it clear.
  2. Hone your message:
    • Website design helps to bring your message to the forefront of people’s attention. Think about it, people sit on average 1-2 feet away from their screen. When your message is displayed on the screen in front of the user, be sure that it’s comprehensible. We found that my style of writing in my e-portfolio is a bit too conversational. It works great for this blog post, but for a potential employer, wordiness won’t grant me an interview. So take it from me, be clear!
  3. Design your landing page to be comfortable:
    • Website design is about capturing your audience for as many seconds as possible. If you’ve ever visited a website that didn’t welcome you appropriately, you likely didn’t stay for long. Even spending 4-5 seconds on a page you don’t intend on reading is unlikely, so don’t expect it from anyone else on the internet. Your target user should be welcomed and encouraged to stay on the pages you designate, so make your pages leave lasting impressions.
  4. Make it navigable:
    • Another major turn off to the average user of your website is navigation confusion. Design your links and drop down menus to be easily located, easily read, and linked to the right place. Try displaying less items on your drop down menus for ease of use, or try making your most important links (to PDFs and videos) open up in separate tabs.
  5. Use images and videos to break the canvas:
    • Your website is flat. Get used to it. Flat surfaces are good for skateboarding, but on the internet, generally everyone’s surfaces are flat. Break the surface of your space, and separate yourself from the crowd, with well-placed pictures and videos. Maybe a video tutorial of your website or a talking head is what you need. Just be sure not to overlook the power of colors when breaking the canvas. They’re subtle, but they still help to liven things up.

Of course, there are plenty of other things I learned during my internal audit, but they’re a bit more specific to my needs. I’d be happy to share them with you, but you’re going to have to drop-in or make an appointment (go.miis.edu/dlcappointment). See you soon!

Recording Booth Tips

George Payne Audio, Camtasia, Digital Storytelling, Podcast, Presentations, Video

Hey yall,

GPayne checkin’ in! Since the first week of the term I’ve helped quite a few people to navigate the recording booths in the DLC for voice and video recording, so I thought it would be useful to share what we’ve learned for anyone out there interested in using the booths this semester:

  1. Make an appointment
    • Use the appointment system (go/dlcappointment) to learn about the booths before you get started. Even if you don’t plan on recording the same day, do yourself a favor and let us walk you through the process before you start.
  2. Reserve the booth
    • Use the reservation system (go/recordingboothreserve) to help you avoid times when people are already using the booths. If you happen to be in the DLC when you want to reserve a time, there is an iPad by the Blue Booth that can help you with that. Just ask someone to help you!
  3. Choose the program
    • Garageband is perfect for recording just audio, and Camtasia is great for recording both your face and your voice. They’re both user-friendly programs.
  4. Set yourself up for success
    • Make sure you come prepared with what you want to talk about. Scripting your podcast or video will make the whole process much smoother than just speaking-off-the-cuff. Try practicing your script out loud before you record. It will flow more smoothly when you do the real thing.
  5. Add content
    • Once you hit the record button, just go for it! Say everything you have to say. If you think you messed up, just pause for moment and start again from a few lines back. Editing after you’ve recorded the bulk of your project is always easier than trying to edit as you go.
  6. Edit later
    • Editing creates meaning. You decide what remains in the final product, and it’s easy to delete sections that don’t belong, or rearrange clips to make yourself sound better. If you don’t like what you did, Command-Z will always undo your actions.
  7. Export and save
    • Once you feel good about the content you’ve created, find Share amidst the drop-down menus above and click on export (or Export Song to Disk in Garageband) to save it, with your name, in an easily located place like the desktop. Be sure to save it again onto an external flash drive or to the cloud when you’re done. Think! if it’s not saved in at least 2 places, it’s probably not saved at all.

And those are the key takeaways from my experience helping people in the recording booths. I hope these simple-to-follow instructions make it easier for you work on your own, but remember Tip #1, make an appointment with one of the GAs to get a full walkthrough.

Be well,

George

Intro to Narrated Screen Capture Workshop!

Amy Slay Camtasia, Digital Storytelling, MIIS Update, Spring 2014 Services, Workshops

Professors, want to turn your lecture slides into narrated videos?  Want to create tutorial videos for your students?

Students, need to record a presentation or Skype call for class?  Want to easily demo your work on your e-portfolio?

Why? With Camtasia, you can easily record, narrate, and edit your onscreen activity to create professional-quality videos.  Come learn the basics of narrated screen capture as well as how to share your videos.

When? October 7th, 1-2 PM

Where? DLC D Space

How? The DLC has 6 computers with Camtasia software for you to use.  Computers will be given out on a first-come first-serve basis and may need to be shared within small groups.

Questions? Email us at dlc@miis.edu

Teach Massively. Learn Locally. Sign Up to Participate in DLC Hybrid MOOC Experience

Bob Cole Digital Storytelling, Workshops

In our on-going attempts to explore emerging practices and learning opportunities for professional development, the DLC is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a local learning cohort of participants in the Coursera course: Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling.

The 5-week MOOC (massive open online course), scheduled to run September 8 – October 12, 2014, will be our sandbox and digital storytelling techniques and tools will be our goal!

DLC Staff and interested faculty, staff, and students will meet weekly in the DLC Design Space to share hybrid learning experiences, review course topics, and support one another toward achieving and applying course learning goals.

Our working hypothesis is that a well designed Coursera course offers an open framework for social, peer-driven learning, collaboration, and co-creation.

Topics to be Covered During the 5-week Course

  • Week 1: Choosing a topic and purpose
  • Week 2: Writing an effective script and creating a storyboard
  • Week 3: Recording audio narration
  • Week 4: Using technology to build a digital story
  • Week 5: Revising, publishing and sharing the final digital story for use in the classroom

To Participate!

1. Register for the Coursera course online here: https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalstorytelling

2. Fill out the DLC Participation Form below by Friday, September 5, 2014: