Week 6: Visual Literacy and Introduction to Digital Storytelling

This week's assignments focused on the importance of visual literacy, digital storytelling, and how to create this type of content.

While we have studied visual literacy before, I liked how the On-line Visual Literacy Project from Pamona College introduced visual literacy by saying, "Visual Literacy is the skills and learning needed to view visual and audio visual material skeptically, critically, and knowledgeably." They also mention that the alphabet is the basis for verbal literature because you must master the understanding of letters, words, spelling, grammar, and syntax. In contrast, visual literacy is the ability to interpret visual material, messages, objects, and experiences by using lines, dots, shapes, direction, value, hue, saturation, texture, scale, dimension, and motion.

Digital storytelling was introduced as "using computer-based tools to tell stories." These projects are a mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips, and/or music. Daniel Meadows described digital storytelling as, "short multimedia tales told from the heart."

I have iMovie on my Mac but have never used it so the tutorial was interesting to me. I am excited to use this program and experiment with the music, transitions, titles, themes, and the convergence it allows with other programs.

My journalism career is based on the central idea of digital storytelling. Journalists must use visuals, audio, narration, and text to bring the story to life in front of the viewing audience. I will use visual literacy and digital storytelling on an everyday basis. I would like to learn how to use iMovie because it would be a quick and easy tool for me to use while I practice the video editing skills necessary for my major. I am also anxious to learn how to better create projects that incorporate digital storytelling and the best ways to cohesively piece different clips, music, and narration together.

For more information on digital storytelling, check out the blog on the link listed below. The video allows viewers to see a practical explanation of digital storytelling and why it is effective. The blog offers step-by-step directions on how to create and produce a digital storytelling project. Anna Batchelder, who currently writes an ongoing blog called “Literacy is Priceless”, wrote the featured blog. The video can be found on Youtube but it does not directly state who produced the video. However, special thanks are given to the Common Craft Show.

http://literacyispriceless.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/digital-storytelling-in-a-nutshell/