Interactive Narratives Very Popular Now

Christmas is almost upon us, and our last Digital Storytelling course module has been my biggest challenge this Fall semester. I read about the Internet, mobile devices, kiosks, games, and interactive television too, but the one I am most familiar with is the Internet. I've been using the Internet for a few years, and I google every subject that I am interested in to research new information about it. I found that the NYC Museum of Art and the Interactive Narratives--an assigned field trip site were the most interesting to me. I thought I'd include a picture of the Nativity Scene by artist Geertgen tot Sint Jans in the upper-left corner.)

If you can't get out to New York City to get to the Museum of Natural History, you can surely spend a little time visiting the exhibits there! When I studied geology at CUNY--Brooklyn College a few years ago, I visited Central Park for a field trip plus I visited the Museum of Natural History with a friend to satisfy my gemology field trip there for the course. I was so enthralled with the gemology and weather exhibits that I spent hours there investigating the interactive kiosks there.

I didn't have a mobile phone then, but now I "phone home" just like ET whenever I'm out and about town. Although I don't have a cell phone camera yet, my brothers send me emails with up-to-the-minute pictures frequently of places they're visiting and people they meet.

Mobile Devices Have a Bright Future

Mobile devices in 2010 are, of course, even more advanced than the ones that Carolyn Handler Miller described in her Digital Storytelling A Creative Guide to Interactive Entertainment (2008). I owned a cell phone years ago that had a built-in camera, texting, phone, and games, but it proved to be more expensive and complex than I really needed at the time. I really enjoyed being able to take pictures during my travels, but according to more informed people than me, the United States may be the only country where mobile phone companies require mobile phone owners to pay for incoming call time. I now have a simpler mobile phone for emergency phone calls mainly as I still have my landline with answering machine.

In today's world, one can send moving pictures, videos and up-to-the-minute pictures to other people, making us a much more advanced and informed world than we were even in 2008. There have been riots and other important news reports sent to the news media by ordinary citizens who happened to be right on the scene--even ahead of news reporters/journalists.

There also are many more people travelling in mass transportation, waiting in waiting rooms, and using WiFi at cafes who are constantly texting, interacting on programs and phone calls, making this world very advanced in communications. Breakthroughs like a UCLA course with Director Kevin Smith are giving students hands-on experience filming mobisodes. (Miller 2008, p. 346) Mobile Devices, like mobile phones, are very important for teaching and promoting too, as well as enabling phone users to play interactive games and access anything on the internet with their mobile phones! One big drawback with using a mobile phone for personal business that involves your banking information or social security number is that certain devices can pick up your personal information and there is storage in the phone that could be accessed by the wrong people.

Hopefully, one day there will be protective devices that would block this personal information from getting into the wrong hands. Miller encourages storytellers and says that innovative storytellers will discover new breakthroughs in the use of mobile phones for storytelling. (Miller 2008, p. 347)

Reference:

Miller, C. H. (2008) Digital Storytelling A Creators Guide to Interactive Entertainment

Discovering Educational Blogs That Include Videos

This week I researched some blogs for my assignment about digital storytelling and technology and posted the link to Jenny Wakefield's blog on our college discussion board and to the right of this blog post. Wakefield's blog has a video about a dove with what I call "very busy music"--with bongos, xylophone, and tambourine included, befitting a dove's movements. Wakefield's blog is titled Technology and Instructional Design. She also added a video explaining Photo Story 3 and some of the capabilities of that program, like importing pictures and rotating them properly right on that site instead of prior to importing them as well as the capability of adding animation to your video. Wakefield's degree is in “Teaching and Learning with Technology, and her ambition is to become an Instructional Designer, so she is following along with technology."

I've learned a great deal about the video games available on the internet for people of all ages, including very young children, and that these videos for young children are geared not only to the young children, but also to their parents who will probably play the video along with them. I am particularly interested in writing for very young children--I've always loved children's books, particularly Charlotte's Web and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I am happy to discover that there are many educational blogs available on the internet that can educate and even train students and other interested people in the audience, and I found so much more than the blogs too--fantastic children's videos--for the child in us all! Here is the beautiful YouTube Video with Neil Diamond singing Be from Jonathan Livingston Seagull--listen for the crescendo of the music while the waves are rising as Jonathan finds his way back to land at nightfall!


Here's the beautiful Charlotte's Web Video from YouTube with Bob Carlisle and Lucy Kane, singing Make A Wish:




I'm learning about how digital storytelling is useful for teaching and training in Miller's Digital Storytelling A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment course textbook as well, and it all ties in nicely! I have had the experience of creating two videos for the Digital Storytelling course that I'm now taking, and, even though at first I felt a bit overwhelmed by the course requirements, I found that it goes very well with the Mythology and Modern Life course that I'm taking to fulfill my English BA degree as well since one seems to be able to find virtually any subject on video on the internet. I was thrilled to find that the YouTube Jonathan Livingston Seagull video here includes in Diamond's song the words "Sungod" and "Holy, Holy, Sanctus, Sanctus," which are from different religions or according to Campbell, myths. I am so happy every time I watch this video!

The first one-minute video using Animoto was much less challenging than the three-minute video that I created using Jing, Camtasia and finally, producing on Screencast.com, but I now find it an extremely creative activity and plan to do more videos and will share them on the Internet.

References:

Miller, C. H. (2008) Digital Storytelling A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment Elsevier, Inc.

Wakefield, J. (2009) jennywakefield.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/digital-storytelling

Jonathan Livingston Seagull-Be YouTube. Neil Diamond, Singer. By jonathanseagull28

Charlotte's Web YouTube Video from Waldenfans. Bob Carlisle and Lucy Kane, Singers, Make a Wish