EdTech 513 - Multimedia - Digital Story Telling

The Essence of the People of Calgary - A Digital Story

I have included the script of the digital story.

I chose to do a digital story about the incredible will of the citizens of Calgary, AB after a severe flood damaged the city two years ago.  I live in Calgary and I had so many friends who were affected by this tragic event.  The story is about how the people of Calgary - from the Mayor, to the emergency services, to complete strangers - came together to help save the city.  I used the city entrance sign and its moniker of “Heart of the New West” as a basis to demonstrate the city’s heart.

As mentioned earlier, this was a devastating event in our city’s history.  I lived it.  The use of the Personalization Principle fit very well with this type of story.  I could speak to the audience in my own words.  I tried to make it as conversational as possible - as if I was describing events to my friends so they could feel the emotion and pride we went through.  I tried to convey to the audience how we felt during this time of tragedy (I think a more formal narration would have made it feel like a documentary instead of a heart felt story - I really I hope this is not how the viewer saw it as I wanted the audience to see the events through my eyes).  

As with almost all of the assignments in the MET program - especially the technology based ones - I learned an incredible amount during this assignment.  First, I had never heard of a digital story and its importance to education.  I found it very similar to a short instructional video which I learned in EdTech 533 - YouTube for Educators.  Second, I learned the importance of the Personalization Principle.  I find it backs up my findings as an educator.  Third, I had a chance to relearn Adobe Premiere Pro.  I learned it earlier in the MET program but felt I needed much more practice to have any real success with this software.  As you can see from my story, I still need a lot of work on this program.  I also found that I do not like the voice aspect of Premiere Pro - it just didn’t seem to work the way I wanted it to.  Next time I will use Camtasia or Audacity as they seem to produce a much better quality of sound.