The design challenge I have chosen is the creation of a tool that can help students understand how to better tell a story. The medium that will be focused on is video but the tool should be available to help with storytelling in all mediums.
Design Rationale:
Within the School of Creative Technologies at Bow Valley College there are numerous courses that use the Adobe Creative Suite to create video content. This is a common thread in both the digital design programs and the digital marketing program. This toolkit will be focused on the video unit in the digital media production course.
This is one of the first courses taken so students have not been given the opportunity to learn how to create better storytelling and how to design something that is engaging to the viewer. One of the challenges in the creation is that students come from many different cultures and backgrounds. This creates an interesting challenge in that there is likely not a one size fits all solution.
Audience:
Post secondary students taking courses in digital design. Primarily first year students in a digital media production course.
Success Determinants:
- Multiple solutions and pathways created for the learners
- Students will have multiple tools/templates to help create more engaging content
- Examples created that give students a reference
For the creation of this toolkit the method of empathy that will be employed specifically is immersion. By following the steps and creating different elements towards the toolkit the designer will have the opportunity to experience the user’s point of view and hardships. To help with this immersion I will be connecting with a k-12 teacher who is certified through Adobe in training the trainers to get another objective viewpoint.
This will be done according to both the work discussed in the d.School Bootcamp Bootleg (2016) and the IDEO Design Kit (2015). The framework and elements of creation will also come from Crichton, S. & Carter, D. (2017) and their work “Taking making into classrooms: A toolkit for fostering curiosity and imagination”.
To create this there will be a need to have recording devices but this should not be an issue with the ability to use items like mobile devices for video capturing. Likely the biggest potential concern will be the access to video editing software as it is the most expensive and difficult element to obtain. This should not become an issue with the students in these programs as the Adobe Creative Suite is a requirement.
The plan is that the creation of this will also be able to be further enhanced through consultation and discussion with the Adobe Education Leader community which I am a part of. The hope is that with the creation of this toolkit it will also be shared with the Adobe Education Exchange (https://edex.adobe.com/) to help other educators use this in their classrooms.
Crichton, S. & Carter, D. (2017). Taking making into classrooms: A toolkit for fostering curiosity and imagination. Retrieved from https://mytrainingbc.ca/maker/downloads/Taking_Making_into_Classrooms.pdf
Stanford University Institute of Design. (2016). Bootcamp Bootleg. Retrieved from http://dschool-old.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf
IDEO. (2015). Design Kit – Methods. Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org/methods
June 30, 2019 at 7:14 pm
I love this resource idea Jeff and cannot wait to explore the final project. I think you are right that the story and the capacity to tell the story is an important element of video production for students to learn. I think a resource on how to tell a story using video would be valuable to students in many different programs, given the wide range of students who are completing video-based assignments. I am thus wondering if you can address the challenge of expensive video editing software by creating some elements of your toolkit that are not software specific? Although I know Adobe Creative Suite has many products and features to help in telling a story through video, I expect there are elements of telling a story through video that could be achieved with many of the free video editing tools available.
July 1, 2019 at 7:53 am
Hi Jeff!
Your video resource idea for fostering storytelling is fantastic and I appreciate the effort in keeping it simple with equipment and software choices. I think you’re on the right track with the Adobe Creative Cloud suite which offers a number of digital editing and video effects software. I am not sure how complicated is the subject-matter the students are trying to create a story for but have you considered storyboarding as part of the design process? Having a storyboard to work from will determine how the story will play out and what will be narrated versus what will be shown. As well, have you considered other equipment such as gimbles to prevent the videos from becoming “jumpy” while walking or on the move?
In addition, how are the students going to obtain knowledge on how to use the software needed? How are you planning to attend to the learning curve of learning the software and actually developing the solution? According to Matthews et al., (2017), balancing empathy with practical aspects and demands should be considered by being conscious of the efforts required for executing both empathy and the demands of the solution.
I would love to hear more about your toolkit and its contents and guidance material. All the best with your project.
Reference
Matthews, M., Williams, G., Yanchar, S., & McDonald, J. (2017). Empathy in distance learning design practice. Tech Trends, 61(5), 486-493.
July 2, 2019 at 3:48 pm
Several courses are focused on how to create a video, but as you mentioned, there are less, which covers the actual storytelling side. It is usually included in English/Journalism/Marketing programs and occasionally in Media programs. So, it is fantastic that you offer a toolkit/DLR for bridging this, Jeff. Probably those journalism/marketing courses can give you some inspiration as well.
Although you mentioned that Adobe CC is a requirement in the program, and you hope to collaborate with Adobe Education Exchange, but there is capacity in this tool to use it in contexts beyond its current goal, to be generalized for broader use.
July 2, 2019 at 8:51 pm
Hi Jeff,
I look forward to seeing your final result! This will be a great resource for other educators. At our college, we learned about the use of storytelling; however, a lot of the faculty are not familiar or are uncomfortable with how to implement this in their classes.
I look forward to seeing your resource especially since you mentioned that students will have templates and examples. Having these will definitely assist students in the creation of their story.
Cheers!
July 4, 2019 at 2:50 pm
Hello Jeff,
I believe story telling is such a powerful way to engage in the learning process. If told well it sure can leave a lasting and memorable impression on others. I’ve been through a half day workshop to become better at it as a facilitator and there was a lot of elements in how to be a good story teller! We also rolled it out to our executives as well to help them become better story tellers of the company in order to better support change or help employees support the organizational initiatives and priorities, as well as even helped with recruitment and branding for our company.
What I am curious to understand is WHY it is important for the students to understand how to better at story telling? How will the skills of actual story telling be taught?
Thanks.
Dorothy