Conveniences of Digital Storytelling

Remember Microsoft Powerpoint? Me too. It was extremely boring. Powerpoint was a convenient tool for presentation, however it was only useful for getting information across. Several cons include lack of appealing features, web access, and voice options. There’s more but today’s blog isn’t about powerpoint. Instead, I’ll be introducing better tools. Their features are much more conspicuous.

Firstly, I’d like to briefly mention Microsoft Office Mix. It’s pretty much everything Powerpoint should have been. Better options include screen recording and audio. You know what this means? There’s no need to talk in front of the class during presentations. This feature is great for shy students, or just people who hate talking. Furthermore, it’s possible to give presentations without ever moving to another location using the previous feature and the web feature. With that people are able to share their presentations digitally.

So I’m sure almost everyone would prefer watching 2d animations over powerpoints; Something like Pokemon, South Park, and Simpsons. Wouldn’t it be great to have the Simpsons present to you? I don’t think so because I’m personally not interesting in them, but the idea is great. GoAnimate makes all of this possible. Well, maybe not the Simpsons exactly. However, It’s possible to mimic them. GoAnimate is a website that allows users to create their own animations with little effort and skill and still look professional. Since the learning curve isn’t steep, it’s easy to pick up right away. The website includes voices for narration and characters, so there’s no need to use your own voice to narrate. Advanced users can create their own characters, hire their own voice actors, and create everything from scratch. It’s a great presentation tool and it’s much more entertaining than Powerpoint.

I have also played around on the site myself and came up with this. Pretty amusing.

Animoto is another presentation tool that excels at Powerpoint’s job. Animoto can produce seemingly professional videos. Videos are essentially one of the post powerful tools to get information across because who doesn’t watch videos? Good videos will teach much more than a simple Powerpoint presentation ever can. Users can select their format, include music, and add text to their videos. Nothing better than some nice music in the background while you’re focusing on a video. The most important thing is that videos can be shared through the web, much like Office Mix. I stress this because sharing presentations digitally is much more convenient. It’s easy to access anytime, anywhere, and you can educate a much larger pool of people.

I also want to talk briefly about Voki. It’s not really a presentation tool, but Voki can be used for getting information across in a smaller environment. Users can create avatars that can be used in classroom environments as well as digital environments. For example, teachers can use Voki in classrooms to communicate with students in an entertaining manner using the voice recording option. Personally, I think it’s a pretty solid idea, however I actually believe this could be even more helpful for educating autistic children. SInce autism affects people’s social ability, autistic students would benefit from being able to communicate with educators through an avatar.

Lastly, I was given the opportunity to have Astronaut Abby come in as a guest speaking in my class. Abby is an aspiring astronaut with amazing networking skills at the young age of 18. She has connected with many professionals and manages group that educates people about space travel. Very impressive. On top of all that, Abby’s time management skills allow her to keep up with college work and other stressors that may plague her personal life. We were informed of tips for digital networking such as minimizing the types of social media we use to just those specific to our careers; stressing the importance of using Linkedin as a way to advertise your skills, experiences, and achievements; using social media (mainly twitter) as a means to connect with professionals in your field of interest. However, What stood out to me was the way our class connected with her. She didn’t have to physically come to the classroom just to give a talk. Instead, our professor was able to video chat with her and the entire interaction was done digitally. This is where the importance of digital communication and sharing comes into play. Presentations that allow digital sharing are able to reach out to a much larger audience in a shorter amount of time.