Looks like Moodle but there is more

Looks a lot like Wordle in this view but Tagxedo does more. It combines photos with your urls, twitter, and other online materials. As well, the Tagxedo images are interactive, on their site, when you scroll over the image. You can save the image without interactivity as I have done above. The image above was a combination of this url and twitter.
Note: If you post your Tagxedo interactive to Twitter or Facebook directly from their site, you will need to give information directly to Tagxedo. Be sure you want to do that before posting and notice the Tagxedo copyright posted to each of your pictures. Follow the link to Tagxedo to experiment http://www.tagxedo.com/

A Perfect Day in Winnipeg for Creating a Movie

The remake of the Little Drummer Boy by a Winnipeg high school student demonstrates good transitions of multiple layers. Notice the drum layers and transitions with visuals. Although some may have been accidental, they layer with the visuals to create subtle points of beauty. Look at the movie with the sound turned off and then again looking away with only the sound on to discover more transitions.

The weather cooperated that day, too. We all woke up to a wonderland of snow on every tree. I went out to take photos as well.

Writing Fairytales with Adolescents

http://www.clcd.com/Sometimes your writing exercises can take adolescents back to their childhood. A closer look at literature from their youth can  inspire adolescents to begin writing. They often feel confident reading their own short fairytale to younger students. It can be very motivating.  Examples of sites that can support your research toward this work are:


Children's Literature Web Site
This is a database for children's literature including extensive information on illustrators and authors.


National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature
This  organization’s website highlights the work of prominent children’s literature illustrators, includes biographical information, and showcases student work.

Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota
This site is a collection of research on children's literature.

Mazza Collection, University of Findlay, Findlay, OH
This site promotes interest in children’s literature. A visual tour of famous picturebook illustrations is fascinating.

Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books
This site includes over eighty thousand notable children's books. Books are classified in three ways: (1) the Osborne Collection of books published to the end of 1910; (2) the Lillian H. Smith Collection of modern notable titles; and (3) the Canadiana Collection of materials.

Perry NodelmanThis website of Perry Nodelman includes information about his children's books as well as theory related to children's literature - including feminist and critical literacy perspectives.

The Children's Literature Web Guide
This website features resources for parents, teachers, storytellers, writers, and illustrators. In addition, it has a variety of different on-line book discussion groups.

The Sur la Lune Fairy Tale Pages by Heidi Anne Heiner
Presents the history of specific fairy tales and classic illustrations.

So How Do You Script Animal Talk?

 Take a look at this video. It is very interesting to see how closely the dog's mouth appears to be saying the words of the narrator.

So, how do you do that? Find a talking dog? Train your dog to talk? Better yet, train your dog to move it's mouth on cue? The technique is a lot simpler than these suggestions. First begin by noticing an animal that moves it's lips or body in such as way that it appears to be engaged with the camera, yourself, or someone/thing you are filming. I use my goldfish since his mouth moves and "he" looks toward me when I move close to his tank.

Record a short scene. It is not usually necessary to work hard on the action or direct the animal. From that short movie, imagine what the animal could say and script it according to the lip movements. Say the words into the mirror and observe your own lip movements, if that helps. Then fill in the response dialogue that could be made from yourself. Look for a good story ending that involves the animal reacting to the story or situation. Finally, record your human script and sync it to the actions of the animal. Voila! Talking animal. See more examples on YouTube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw
PS- The dog in this movie does not really talk. ;-)

The Power of Words

This short YouTube clip explains, in simple terms, how words can influence the impact of a message.

The Main Character of Your Digital Story

Many digital storytellers begin by telling their own story. This is an excellent way to start. Write about what you know. That way, you can focus on technique, voice, and view rather than the subject matter. Next, you might go beyond your personal story and look to the land you live on. For example, if you lived in Winnipeg you could make your story about the many events that have happened on that site. Many resources are available. A historical site such as this one by George Siamandas - The Winnipeg Time Machine - provide ideas that can be constructed into a storyboard on iMovie or Movie Maker. Take your camera out to the current site to record scenes. I prefer to use a 10 hour battery and make a continuous shot over an entire day. That way, everything that you see will be on your disk. Look for copyright free materials that can be integrated into your story and ask permission to use materials for your final cut.
In my experience teaching digital storytelling, I have found that starting with your own story is both rewarding and provides the best on ramp to initial success.

Wordle: Your Textual Utterances Become a Form of Art

Wordle is one of those helpful intermedial tools that brings words and images together to clearly signify the transmediality of literacy and literatures. Many teachers are using this tool in a variety of ways. For some, it is helpful for demonstrating the idea that text itself is image. For others, it is helpful for teaching the connection of text to the visual arts. For decades, the two items of literacy, text and image, have been separated as distinctly different rather than being intermedial. Sometimes text is so highly privileged over it's accompanying images that we forget that text itself is made up of images.

Further, Wordle can help one to recognize one's emphasis on particular ideas, demonstrated through the repetition of words. We all use repetition in one form or another to make our message. Through recognizing that we repeat words and seeing which words are repeated, students can be encouraged to think metacognitively, to think about their thinking. Try Wordle (click) yourself and see what happens. The following image is a Wordle of this blog. Click to make the following image larger. Alternatively, you may click on the blog title to see my gallery of images.

3D Storytelling

The most interesting part of digital storytelling is its embodiment as a 3D act. We feel our stories. We experience our stories. We are our stories. According to Thomas King, that's all we are -- stories.
Many of the oral storytellers in our circle have moved to digital storytelling, to engage their listeners in the images of that oral tradition. We have shared our stories using movie making while we narrate the story. We have told the stories using animated characters, too. Sometimes, we have used Alice (see link on the right side for download) and sometimes we have experimented with Muvizu (See link for download). These new ways of sharing our stories have provided some added context to our stories, especially when we are communicating across cultures and over the Internet. Try them out.

Surprising Narrative "Device"

Introducing students to narrative devices is an important lesson in digital storytelling. In an ironic turn, I have also found that "device" goes beyond the linguistic to include the electronic. Your own Twitter posts, for example, might become a type of narrative, especially when you are on a trip and incidentally (or purposefully) using your Twitter account to narrate your journey.

I have decided to call these narratives "twitarratives" since they are unique. Twitarratives don't always make sense as a stream of consciousness without some Twitter experience. To make sense to the story reader, they sometimes require some contextual knowledge shared by writer and the reader; and, in some cases, require even some connectivity context to be understood/read as a narrative. I see a number of digital storytellers trying out these twitarratives, trying to gain access to a storyline that generates interest. Share your own twitarrative with me at http://twitter.com/merrymaven. It will be interesting to see if this device is working for your digital storytelling.