Our unit in Technology class was “Making a Digital Story”. I made a story about a girl meeting a mysterious girl who could see the future.

First of all, we started looking at people’s digital stories that Mr. Curkovic had posted on his blog and we listed some comments about them about the story structure we see and the key features we saw. Then, we studied some words used in stories such as POV (point of view) and sound track. After that, we investigated different applications and websites we can use to create our digital story such as iMovie and prezi.com. I investigated about Garageband (application), and we had to write about capabilities, limitations, etc. We also looked at what kind of applications are useful for the digital story. When we finished investigating, we moved onto planning our story. We made storyboards and I had a total of four storyboards! Storyboard 1 , Storyboard 2, Storyboard 3, and Storyboard 4.  After our storyboard has been completed, we wrote a procedure about how we would complete our story. In the end, I decided to make a “vomic” which is like a comic, but with voiceover. I drew the pages and scanned it so I can put it in my digital story. Then, I uploaded the scanned pages to prezi.com so I can zoom to certain boxes and speak the words. I used QuickTimePlayer to take a screen recording of the boxes. Finally, I edited the video on iMovie and uploaded the final copy to “vimeo”.

Here is my video posted on vimeo:

The Stone of the Future

The Stone of the Future from Marina Mitsumata on Vimeo.

Here is the image of the design cycle:

We used a document on google docs to record our process throughout this unit.

Strengths and weaknesses during the design cycle?- My strengths are shown in the “Plan” section because I layered my storyboard very clearly and plotted my story well. Also, I think  I did a great job on the “Create” section because my final product turned out very well, and I was able to follow my storyboard planning. My weaknesses are shown in the “Investigate” because I could have played around a little bit more when we were investigating ways to make our digital story.

Areas to improve? Why?- In the “Investigate” section, I think I did a good job, but I needed to do more investigation to make a better digital story because I had a lack of comments on the document such as commenting on some digital stories that were posted on Mr. Curkovic’s blog. In the “Plan” section, I think I could improve on my brainstorming when we were thinking about our stories since I didn’t have a wide variety of stories.  In the “Create” section, I think I could have made my drawings neater and made sure I erased all the pencil marks before scanning it because after I scanned it,  I noticed that there were some pencil marks that I had erased. In addition, I think I should have made clear zooms in the final product so that some boxes are not cut off and have a less amount of white area around it.

Overall I think my Digital Story is very good and I did a fantastic job on it.

In technology class, we are learning about digital storytelling and here is a mini reflection about the “Investigate” section. Here are the questions we have to answer: Do you know the elements of a story? What did you discover regarding tools to use? How have you been working in class and how has your attitude been?

I think I know the elements of a story which is the plot and audience since you need to plan a story and also think about your audience. If you are going to tell a fairy tale, your audience should be children at about Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd. I discovered that we can use imovie and a lot of applications for our story to make it more interesting. I think my attitude in class is good because I work hard and I concentrate on this assignment.

I would like to learn more about how we can make different digital stories and I am looking forward to my final product.

During the Teachers of the Future, we went through Investigate, Plan and Create. Again (for the 3rd time), here is my final tutorial (You can also check it in one of my previous blog posts).

Here is my Evaluation Video

(Here are links to the pages I could not include in my evaluation video. My Tutorial Plan Template and my first and second storyboard.)

Finally, I think the “Teachers of the Future” Project was very fun and enjoyable. Making our own tutorial was very exciting and also, we got to be creative and design a simple tutorial for our viewers.

During the Create, we worked on creating our tutorials. This is my tutorial:

In Technology class, we made a list of criteria on what makes a good tutorial. We made our tutorial based on the criteria we discussed as a class such as keeping the tutorial simple, explaining one step at a time, and talking in a clear voice. We self and peer reviewed our tutorial, and also showed it to Ms.Cofino and added some final touches. After we finished making our tutorial, we posted it on to our blog, and commented on 2 or 3 people’s tutorials from other classes.

I learned that the tutorial needs to be kept simple. I learned this by watching my tutorial because in the very beginning, my tutorial was a little bit more complicated and harder to understand. Secondly, I learned that you need to have a clear voice because if you spoke too softly, the viewer of your tutorial would not be able to understand what you are saying. I learned this by listening to my videos I took for my tutorial.

Finally, I learned that you can put music to keep the viewer interested. I learned this when we were discussing the criteria in our class,and also when watching other people’s tutorials. They had music, which kept me interested in their tutorial.

I am happy with my finished product because I think I kept it simple and detailed, but maybe I can add a few touches like repeating what I said because maybe the viewer might not remember the very first way of remembering how to spell/pronounce words with “J” in Spanish.

I think during the process of making my tutorial, some places were difficult, and some were easy. For example, filming was easy because I could ask a friend to film me or do it by myself. But on the other hand, editing was a hard part because it was hard to choose what to put in my tutorial, and what I would not.
The criteria my tutorial meets are Link Back, One step at a time, and Demonstrations. At the end of my tutorial, I made a Link Back to my blog so the viewer can look at my tutorial, blog and this reflection. Also, I did One step at a time so my audience can follow what I am trying to tell them. Thirdly, I did Demonstations about asking a friend how to pronounce it, and why that helps because if I only showed the video, nobody would understand why it is good.

I think I need to think about more ways on how to remember the spelling because if the viewer did not understand or found it hard to do, my tutorial would not be helpful for them.

I commented on Tomoka’s Blog and Charlotte’s blog. Tomoka’s tutorial was about science lab rules, and her tutorial was mainly a video of her talking. I learned from her tutorial that you have to speak with a clear tone of voice with a good pace because Tomoka’s speaking was very easy to understand. Charlotte’s tutorial was about how to do a layup in basketball. From her tutorial, I learned that demonstation is important because it was a easier and simpler way of explaining which would help the the viewers a lot.  She first explained one step at a time and finally did the actual layup.

I think I am satisfied with my tutorial, but if we can improve it, I would make my tutorial even better than it is right now. I liked the idea about teaching somebody through my blog because I have never made a tutorial, and I hope it will help my audience.

This is my tutorial about “How to remember Spanish words with Different Pronounciation”.

How to remember Spanish words with different pronunciation from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

During the Plan, we started to make a storyboard for our tutorials. We choose a topic from a subject such as Humanities, Language, Technology, etc. I chose Spanish, and I chose my topic to be: How to remember words that have different pronunciation and spelling. We made a Tutorial Template and wrote what  we will do to make our tutorial. Here are links to myMarina T.T and Marina T.T2

My plan demonstrates an excellent tutorial design because my storyboard includes the criteria which are Simple, Examples, and Easy to see.  First, I made my tutorial storyboard very simple for me and the audience to understand. If I did not understand my storyboard, I cannot explain it well to the audience. Secondly, I used 1 example to explain how to remember the word because I thought it would be harder for me to explain and for the audience to understand if I didn’t put examples. I chose the word “Jugar” which means “Play“, and you pronounce this word “Hu-Gar“. Finally, I planed to make it easy to see by using a black marker and a white sheet of paper so the audience does not have to stop the movie and read what I wrote.

I think my plan ensures that the audience of my tutorial learns the skill by following the advices if they found it hard to understand what the skill I was showing difficult. I think I did well organizing my clips and steps so the audience should not have difficulty looking at the words.

Maybe I should put my voice in for the pronunciation of the word “Jugar” so the audience knows where the accents are and how to pronounce it.

So far, I think my storyboard is good but I may change or add more steps while creating my tutorial. I am very excited about my finished product and I would like to enjoy process of my own tutorial.

Today in Technology we looked at our favorite tutorials. I liked “peeling a pineapple” because I know how to peel apples and pears but I want to learn how to peel all kinds of fruits so I will keep practicing peeling pineapples when it’s around summer. I liked how she showed how to arrange the pineapple in many different ways like rings and squares which made the tutorial very interesting.

I took a video for my Evaluate Reflection. We had to choose and answer 3 questions and I chose:

1. Are you happy with your completed project? Why or why not? What would you change if you could do it again?
2. Did the Technology Design Cycle (Investigate, Plan, Create, Evaluate) help you organize and complete your project? Why or why not?
3. Did the Technology Design Cycle (Investigate, Plan, Create, Evaluate) help you organize and complete your project? Why or why not?

Here is my evaluated reflection video:

Marina Evaluate from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

In class, we learned how to add widgets to the sidebar, learned how to put the categories in the menu bar in the “school” folder, putting a header photo, and made an “About me page“.

I am happy with my blog design because it’s well set and organized so readers can read easily.  If the posts weren’t organized into categories, the readers will have a hard time looking for the posts they want to read.

I am most proud of my blog layout and widgets because I put the things I think readers and even myself can use to find posts, links, and categories. The layout is simple and easy to read the post writing.

I think I  need to learn about how to improve my blog by making a blog theme by myself and make my blog even more creative and more personal.

I think making a blog is really enjoyable especially when we get to create it because you start to make your blog the way you want it to be. By making an “About me” page, the reader can read about you if they wanted to know.