“First, what is storytelling?”

Storytelling, in its most basic form is the process by which someone conveys a past event, whether it be true or false.  For our first week of bootcamp we were required to tell a fabricated story about our childhood.  When I think of storytelling, the first image that comes to mind is a children’s picture book, and after further thought it came to me that I guess a good story is one where you can picture exactly what is taking place in the story, rather than just reading words.  Oftentimes in a simple picture book, you can identify what’s going on, similar to someone telling a story verbally.  Heavy description is also crucial in a telling a good story.  To throw in the term “digital” shows to me that the story will be illustrated throw a technological medium, such as pictures, video, or audio.  ”Digital storytelling” seems like I wouldn’t be directly communicating with someone face to face, but rather through a different means (ie. computer).

And, even though you specifically asked not to look up storytelling online, I figured I might as well use this as an opportunity to toss in a link for the definition via Wikipedia.

Past ds106 stories

So for the story from the in[SPIRE] site I clicked on the one with the map of India (simply cause I’ve been there).  The reason I liked it was largely due to the design of India and how each pattern was created in India, creating an authentic vibe.  Prior to this assignment, I doubt I would’ve considered this a story, but the author does describe how they assembled the project in depth, including the initial inspiration for the project.  To answer the question if it could be part of a larger story, I would have to answer yes as the project displays how India is a place the author would like to travel, shown through their writing, as well as through the picture.

The other story chosen was a previous blog creating a movie trailer.  What was cool about this project compared to the other, was that it had a video depicting her story, which is just easier for me to follow.  Not only were her directions/storytelling about how to create the video clear, but there was a clear larger story behind the inspiration for the project as it related back to something she dearly cared for.

Daily Creates

My biggest fear is…

Canned food

Telling Stories with Photos

5 Card Flickr

http://5card.cogdogblog.com//show.php?id=30496

I posted it twice just cause I wasn’t sure if it would work as a link, but overall pretty fun activity.  As a poker fan this had a little bit of a twist to it as I wasn’t familiar with this set of cards.  But it was pretty cool trying to match up cards to create a story, although my story definitely didn’t end how I planned on it starting, but I guess that’s what happens when you rely on the luck of the draw.

Reflection on fellow bloggers

Well, as I made fairly obvious in last weeks activity, I need to work on the setup of my blog, very boring right now as I still haven’t changed from the startup format.  However, I think checking out other peoples blogs helped give me a sense of what I wanna do with mine and what I think will have the most ideal setup for me.  Also, in reading other blogs, I’m starting to get more of a feel of typing what I’m thinking rather than trying to type an “academic” paper just cause that’s what I’m most used to now.  Continuing to read other blogs will certainly help me find a more fluid and less strict voice for my posts.

Week 3 Refelction

After this week, I am starting to feel a bit more comfortable with my blog, specifically how to write in  my voice as opposed to forcing stuff.  It’s basically just challenging me cause for the past several years I’ve been taught to write in a more academic manner, where this is challenging me to use my inner voice.  Otherwise there wasn’t anything dramatically different about this week (no new techniques learned) but it seemed like a good way to just improve off what we’ve learned throughout bootcamp.