Digital Storytelling the First Thanksgiving

My latest assignment, A5, was to create a digital story on a topic pertaining to my field of education. I did a Unit Plan on the Native Americans last semester and always wanted to have a visual for it other than handouts and a power point. I will admit I was dreading it at first because I have never made a video before and was unsure if I could make one, let alone make a good video! I spent a long time creating the video and changed the pictures, sounds, texts constantly until I felt it fitted the mood and message I was delivering. I think the hardest part besides adding a title page (introduction) and credits, was recording my voice. I wanted to make sure I didn't sound the same in each slide and also am typically a quiet, soft toned speaker and tried talking as loud as I could.

Other than working on the pitch of my voice, I think everything came out great and I had fun working with Photostory 3 for Windows. I initially was going to use Windows Movie Maker since it came with my computer however; I went with Dr.S recommendation for Photostory and I understand why she prefers it. It not only included music so I didn't have to go "hunting" for more material to add to my video; but it also made the video in barely 5 minutes. I showed it off to my family this past weekend (bragging rights ;-D) and they really enjoyed it and could see the amount of time I put into the video. I also made another video, more of a slide point to be exact, on Voice Thread for the HA5 assignment. I found it easier to record and my voice sounded louder. I also liked that it had a section to put comments underneath and to post links. This way one can automatically click the link instead of seeing it at the end of the credits and trying to type in each letter to go to the website. However; Photostory 3 made it into a video where as Voice Thread made it into more of a "power point 2.0" with the extra options included. I genuinely have learned a lot in this course about technology thus far and will be using my new knowledge to incorporate in my future classrooms.

*The link to my digital story on "The First Thanksgiving" is on my personal site.