Sunday, November 17, 2013

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling. So what is it? Stories told digitally of course! Okay now the obvious and general concept is cleared up let's dive into the specifics. When you think of stories what exactly comes to mind? Elaborate fantasies, structured plot lines, in depth characters? Of course if you want to be fancy and critical and put alot of room for analysis but we don't need all that. Digital stories can be practically anything, actually alot of things can tell stories, its just how one interprets it. I learned about this during a MOOC talk about Digital Storytelling and Metaliteracy.


Stories don't have to be told in many words or use alot of visuals. Like early cave paintings a seemingly simple drawing can spread alot of meaning and story. Like modern art, simple forms can take on a whole lot of meaning, that is if you can see it. 

Now let's back to words; often in school I was taught a certain structure for stories. Beginning, middle, end. 
Now I never liked telling stories due to this structure and also because I am wired into short bursts of thought. And I'm not talking about intellectual ideas, Mostly insignificant little brain bubbles, the kind that don't make much sense or have proper grammar.Who would ever listen to those kind of things? Would you even call it a story or are you expecting a published, reviewed, work from Huffington Post or the like? Well one thing I learned from the MOOC talk about digital storytelling is that there are thousands upon thousands (maybe millions?) of digital stories being published, or should I say posted? And many are posted on a whim.

As you can guess, these stories are told through YouTube, blogs, and let's go so far to mention Facebook and Twitter. Now you may wonder how can a silly ol' tweet be digital storytelling?

I am presenting a thought.., my story.., an idea.., out there. Care to listen? Care to comment? Care to care? Its really not a complex thing. Stories are ideas. Ideas spread through any form or media. The media here is electronic.., digital.., technological.. that's all. Storytelling in a digital format.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Social media at the Forefront of News


Society today is fully integrated with social media and like a school cliché, word and news gets around quickly. Now of course there are already well established news and media in the form of newspapers and television broadcasts, but the papers are slow and who has the time or diligence to constantly watch the news on TV? We have become strongly attached to social media and are constantly looking forward to entertainment. I know I am. So now where we get our news? Well if you're not actively looking for breaking news, you probably are scanning Twitter or Facebook or some other website for something interesting.

I often get my news like this. People would post something interesting they would find, then it would I come across it while scrolling the page. If it is worthy and attractive enough to gain my attention I'll take a closer look at it. Like an outrageous rumor one might hear at school; the juicer, the better. Then it'll spread like wildfire, someone comes across it, shares it, more people see it, and more people share it.
Now the "it"....what is "it"? Be it an actual real life event or something quite silly. I'll leave your imaginations to give yourself examples. But this is something mentioned during a MOOC talk I listened to on the topic of "Media and News Literacy". Often silly things gain more attention than serious news, and whose to say what is the truth? If juicy rumors spread quickly through the school, would fantastic stories overshadow more pressing matters? That is something called the "Tragedy of the Commons".

Friday, November 1, 2013

Multimedias and Multiliteracies

Do you wonder where do the boundaries of different types of literacies reside?
Well before getting to the edges of literacy definitions lets look at actual definitions. Just take a look some of these to get an understanding of each specific literacy: (Click on the image to enlarge)
So yes, there are many types of literacies and very specific defining criteria for some of them.

Alot of what is discussed about metaliteracy involves these kinds of literacies, particularly information literacy, media literacy and visual literacy.

The MOOC talk "Connecting Visual Literacy to Metaliteracy" focuses on the power that visual media has in presenting a message. The incorporation of images and illustration must aid in the message being said. If there is a contradiction with the components of the content then confusion can arise.

Let me put this into a picture:

You see what you have here? Unless the sign wants you to moonwalk, pedestrians may be slightly confused at the image of a man walking right when you must actually go left.
Proper use of media is important. How confusing would it be if the images of restroom signs were switched?
Do I go Left or Right?
So do you follow the words or the pictures? And what someone can't read the words? Imagine the comical sketch we can make of this. But this is what I'm getting at, this is the point of visual literacy; not only how to read them but the proper use of them.