Learning from the best

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Relating a past student’s work to what/how I think of digital storytelling:

http://inspire.ds106.us/emojis/

Above is a link to an in[SPIRE] page that I found and it instantly became my favorite. The way Amy Clark told her story through her own facial expressions and relating to the emojis was definitely awesome. Personally, I am a huge emoji user, and typically hate texting or commenting on Instagram or Twitter (now that I have one) without using one…or many.  I like using them because I can relate how I am feeling through an emoji and feel as if whomever I am directing the message to can actually picture in their head my emotions or feelings.  With that said, I feel like that is exactly what she did. I am not sure if she uses emojis as much as I do, but by her taking pictures of different facial expressions and putting them next to an emoji that replicates her face, tells her own story.  It tells the story of when she may use that emoji or sees a certain emoji, those are the faces she can relate to each one. She may even receive an emoji from someone and remember what face she made comparing herself to that emoji, and relate her thoughts, feelings, and emotions to that. She did a great job on doing something I feel no one really thinks of, but nowadays are smiley faces that are used daily by almost everyone. I think it relates to a bigger story because like I said, most people use emojis, and everyone relates to them certain ways and now she created a life-like version of what some emojis are.

How a former student from 2012’s best work shapes my thoughts of what digital storytelling means to me:

http://ds106.us/2012/12/03/oh-to-be-a-raindrop/ (I used this link instead of a link directly to the blog post because the student’s page no longer exists/is in Chinese letter at times when I try to find their website. Sorry for any inconvenience on redirecting you to a hectic page!)

Above is a link to the final project Oh to be a raindrop. This, to me, is a great example of what digital storytelling is. The student started off by putting a visual of where the Raindrop’s path is taking it. To me, that gives the reader a story line in which the raindrop will be traveling during it’s lifetime.  The student then has the great thought of choosing to use Pinterest as a photo gallery of the stops the raindrop took on it’s journey across America. That was a great visual to me because not only do you get to see the path of which the raindrop will travel, but using your imagination, you get to see the photos the raindrop “captured” as it traveled through deserts, mountains, oceans, valleys, quiet country farms, and hectic city nights. This truly helps me get the perfect picture of what digital storytelling means. This student used many resources to be able to get the vision they wanted for the raindrop and its journey.