Movies shape the world

In many ways, movies have given the world a certain insight or shown us different places around the world that we have never seen before. They may portray them the way the director wants them to be seen or the way that they are actually seen.

We can shape the way our movies are made with programs like Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or any other video editing program. These can be used by both students and teachers to present a project to their classmates/peers in a way that both educates and entertains. TeacherTube presents an outlet for teachers and students to present their work without having to worry about inappropriate content popping up while searching for other videos.

If you do not have the correct file format for Movie Maker or iMovie, Movavi Video Converter is a helpful program to have. It allows you to convert video files to what you need them to be (i.e. .mov file to .wmv file). Music adds to your movie, and Freeplay Music is a great website to look for music that fits the feeling that you want to give to your audience.

Seven Elements and Weather Effects

Digital storytelling puts thought, consideration, and organization into play. Without a well-thought out, organized storyboard, you can't have an interesting and entertaining story. There are 7 elements that are important to digital storytelling:

- First is point of view, which is the perspective of the author. Living in Corpus Christi, we see many people with tans because of the heat that we get during the summer and the bright sun, but then the tan fades to a lighter color as it gets colder (unless you're the type that goes to a tanning salon regularly).

- The second element is a dramatic question, which will be answered at the end of the story. For my unit plan, it would be, "How does the weather affect how people on the other side of the world look or feel about each other?"

- Emotional content is the third element, which are serious issues that speak to us in a personal and powerful way. Pictures of people that live in areas of extreme or harsh weather conditions, like in Africa where the sun beats down on them or in the harsh cold of Russia where the cold winter is the longest season, would pull on the heartstrings of viewers.

- Fourth is the gift of your voice - a way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context. My parents come from the Philippines. Although that country is close to the border, they have people with many different skin tones over there. The degree of tan on your skin divides you into classes and makes people believe that just because they have a certain skin tone, they are better or worse than someone else.

- The power of the soundtrack helps to keep the story going strong and supports the scenes that it is associated with. For my digital story, I will use music that will go along with the weather that is shown in the pictures or videos and lend emotional support to those scenes.

- Sixth is economy, which means using the right amount of information to keep your story balanced. Since this will be my first digital story, I'm not sure if I can accomplish this, but I will to the best of my ability without leaving too much out or putting too much into it.

- The final element is pacing. You don't want to go too fast or too slow with your story. If you go too fast, your viewers will not understand what is happening. If you go too slow, the story drags on and doesn't seem as interesting anymore. My story will spend enough time on each image or video and not drag on or have unnecessary information so that it will keep the viewer entertained and they will be chock full of knowledge by the end of the story.

My unit plan deals with the science of weather and how it affects how people look in different parts of the world. I hope I can step up to the challenge of making my digital story a success!

Digital Storytelling

Many people have their opinions and theories about digital storytelling and how it should be used. Teachers can use them to interact with their students or set up presentations for their students to watch/listen/comment on. Their students can do digital storytelling of their own and get comments back from their teachers, classmates, and other students and teachers from around the world. It lets them know that their work is appreciated everywhere and there are others that are interested in what they have to present. Interaction is the main focus of digital storytelling. Comments, whether through audio or text (VoiceThread) can be helpful and allow students to get feedback on their work.

Students and teachers can teach each other and learn about people that live in different areas of the world and how the weather in their area of the world affects their physical appearance and allows them to adapt and survive the climates that they live in. Some students may wonder why their skin tone is different than their friend's or someone else in their class, or where in the world their family may have come from. By studying geography and taking note of the different weather conditions in the world, students may understand why they all look different from the others in their class. Some students have thicker eyelids than others because of harsher weather conditions. Those people that had thicker eyelids, like Eskimos, adapted to their surroundings to protect their eyes and survive.

Some projects that students can do are with art. Students can use butcher paper or posterboard to draw out a person. Each student will be assigned a different country and some information about the weather conditions of that area. They will be told whether that area is hot or cold, how much sunlight they get during the year or day, and whether they have harsh winds or severe weather. They will then get Colors Like Me paint, put it into small cups, and use Q-tips to put dots and show the different amounts of melanin in the skin. For every country that has people with light-complexions, use the lighter colors of people paint. If they have darker complexions, put a few drops of darker colored paint and mix them together so that they can see the skin color of people from their assigned country.

This is an example of what students will have to do to complete this assignment.