Wow what a week! I will not lie and say I knew this class would test me right off the bat and really get us thinking. I must say that Allen set the tone with his first video blog and I knew this would be nothing like I have done before. Not to mention the […]

This first week of readings and activities made me take a step back and rethink my notion of stories and storytelling. The “TouchCast” video about Storytelling and Design took my initial concepts and added details to things I knew but didn’t necessarily articulate in my initial definition of a story. A good story has a character […]

I’ve had a dog for about 10 years. He’s my best buddy. About 4 years ago, I took a job where I travel each week. My dog stays with my parents Monday – Thursday. There are lots of different articles on how to be a single parent and how to be a great dog owner. […]

As we wrap up the first week of EDIT 572, I learned a few things.  First, don’t things until the last minute!  Second blogging is more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I now I scrutinize every commercial  I see to determine if it has the needed elements for story.  That Bud Light commercial […]

I knew the minute the first video blog came out for this class that the picking of the story for my final project would be tough. In our other GMU classes it was always a struggle to come up with a topic for the final project and I knew this would be no different. So […]

Wow–for a site that claims to be a breeze to set up, that sure is a lot of tweaking! Although tedious at times, I think this is a good representation of storytelling. Good storytelling (as far as I can tell), is all in the details. You would be bored listenting to a story where all […]

Storytelling is conveying a message to an audience through images, words, and/or audible communication.  I always think of my father who is an ex-marine and would have the craziest stories to tell.  Some of them are jokes (no I can’t tell you them all), life happenings, or just random thoughts on his mind.  There was […]

Frozen by Disney I haven’t had a lot of time to see any recent movies and I have a bad memory with details of them sometimes. However, I did just see Frozen and really loved it. So let me tell you about Frozen using Vonnegut’s shape. Still need a little more help? Let’s tell the […]

When “recipe” is suggested, what comes to mind is Julia Child.  I like to cook, and I have Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I confess I’ve only made a few things from it because in general it’s just a really intimidating cookbook, even though I consider myself a fairly advanced, adventurous […]

When I think of Storytelling, I think of my dad. The association is most obvious because he used to read me a story every night before going to bed. I always associated the stories with the beginning, middle and end. My dad also did a great job of bringing in different characters through the use […]

Four settings come to mind when I think of “storytelling” Being read to as a child by my parents at night before bed. Library time at Patrick Henry Library in Vienna, VA.  The smell of books, of the cedar chips the house guinea pig had in his cage. Around the campfire at scouts- hearing ghost […]

I found Kurt Vonnegut‘s theory on the structure of stories really interesting. In my simplistic view, I always pictured stories as a linear flow chart with chevrons for the beginning, middle and end rather than a wave that ebbs and flows with highs and lows. The video got me thinking about story structure. I started thinking […]

Try writing a welcome to me blog post. Write about how the experience of setting it up went, if it feels like it represents something interesting. Make sure you use one of the categories you created from the box in lower right to associate it with the ones you set up. Try adding an image […]

 Look for things that do not seem to be explained well, or that do not kind much interest for you to become engaged with it.  Write a blog post summarizing what you found that might or might not work. Explain why you chose it. You do not need to have a perfect example, but show […]

Then, expand on what it might mean to introduce the word “digital”? What changes, is different, or is the same? What do you see or think of when we say “digital storytelling”  Finally, add the ideas you got from listening to this week’s videos by Ira Glass and Andrew Stanton- what, if any, might influence […]

My name is Lauren. I am part of the GMU eLearning Cohort. I am a 2nd year manager in Human Capital Consulting and newbie when it comes to blogging. Setting up this blog was a bit overwhelming to me since there were so many different places to review and settings to master. I’m hoping that […]

I’m not a fan of boxing as a sport—I don’t do violence—but one of my favorite movies is 2010′s the Fighter, which chronicles the rise of Micky “Irish” Ward to the World Welterweight title in the 1990′s.  The film (which also happens to be a true story) follows two brothers- Micky and Dicky.  Dicky, the […]

Using the story spine is like a more advanced version of Pixar’s 4th rule.  Mapping the story this way helped me to see the importance of “the event”- namely when Micky breaks his hand defending his brother and loses almost all hope: The Story Spine Structure Function Once Upon a Time… Beginning There were two […]

It would probably follow one or more of the 22 rules Pixar uses to create appealing stories.  Numbers 4 and 16 stick out to me: #4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___. #16: What are the stakes? […]

I thought the opening week of our Digital Storytelling course was very informative, interesting, and challenging. The videos were very creative and were easy to follow and at times, very suspenseful. The main point of the week was to introduce what storytelling is, but I like how we were never really given an official definition, […]

Living in an age where technology and media are unavoidable, the digital world has begun to consume our lives. This may seem to have a negative connotation and many would agree, but it is at the point where those part of generation X and younger are beginning to feel more comfortable with digital interfaces. Younger […]

I can’t say I’ve personally defined what a story is or even considered what items/pieces make up a story. So as I wrote down what I think a story is, the first thing I placed on my scrap paper was this.. ..Beginning and End.. I sat and looked at this for a moment then realized […]

Let me put it this way…the above picture is a snap shot in time of 17,000 people in the middle of their own, unique story.

I began watching the Showtime series, “Dexter” since its first season. For some reason I was hooked after the first episode and I have watched every episode since. Something about how the premise, characters, and setting all culminated that made this story extremely fascinating to me. Although the main premise of the show is dark […]

This was an interesting week in DS106! It was a little overwhelming at first but once I organized my tasks into a nerdy little spreadsheet/checklist I was good to go. I enjoyed think about the elements of stories this week … Continue reading →

The first thing that came to mind when thinking about something that simply didn’t work for me, I thought of this one piece of paper that I keep in a basket in the kitchen.  I got the paper from my … Continue reading →

It’s safe to say that I am slightly obsessed with NPR’s radio broadcast, The Moth.  My husband and I like to listen to it via podcast while we get ready in the morning (when we’re not playing Disney tunes to … Continue reading →

Did you ever read the story of the star bellied sneetches by Dr. Seuss? It’s a lively, tongue-twisting tale about the sneetches with stars and the sneetches with “none upon thars”. The story begins where the Sneetches with “none upon … Continue reading →

What do you associate with the word storytelling? What is the visual that comes to mind? What experiences or memories does it conjure? Does it have any place in your life now? ——————————————————————– My concept of storytelling is that it is an exchange rooted in the foundation of our humanity and how we relate to those […]

So far, I like this blog.  It’s been easy to create and I already like the ease of use of the blogging tools.  I have a personal blog that I love to play around with.  That blog is kept private … Continue reading →