Digital Storytelling

As we embark on the final stages of projects for our World War II Unit, I wanted to share an example of student work for the Digital Storytelling requirement of your projects.  The purpose of this project is to present the information you’ve learned about the war overseas, the homefront, and American sentiments throughout the era, in a visually appealing, multimedia presentation.  Up to this point, you have created podcasts with audio only for your blogs, as well as screencasts working live within a screen with audio overlay.  You can think of this project as a melding of the two:  it combines the audio storytelling aspect of your podcast, with imagery to help tell the story.  The difference here from the screencast is it is not a live presentation, you have all the time at your disposal to plan and construct your multimedia presentation.  Please concentrate the hardest on your story:  the purpose of this project is to narrate a short story from the perspective of your characters chosen for your blog in this unit, showcasing their attitudes, historical events, and key issues in American History during the era pertinent to your characters.

 For getting started, I would suggest using one of the premade templates available at Prezi, which will take some of the work out of formatting the presentation, and allow you more time to concentrate on the meat of your story.  I’ve included an example of past student work below;  I know she’s a gruff sounding woman, but bear with it and take cues from the flow of the presentation!  

Digital Storytelling Example

As always, please comment here or on the general comments page with any questions, concerns, tips or hints to help us all in completing the final leg of this unit!

Adobe Premier Tutorial

Below is a screencast I’ve created to show you the basics of using Adobe Premier to edit video for your World War II blog assigments.  As you know, one requirement of your blog is to have an embedded video from youtube that you will create to enhance the multimedia aspect of your blog.  

More tutorials on editing and uploading your videos will follow, but this will show you the basics on how to get started.  If you have any questions please leave them in the comments section, and as always feel free to look at the comments to answer your peers questions as well!

WWII Podcast Assignment

This page will serve as a resource for completing the podcast portion of your Homefront blog assignment.  The objective of this task is to creatively display knowledge you have gained regarding the experiences of Americans during the war.  You will be required to produce at least one podcast to include as a new post in your blog from the perspective of your chosen character.  Whether you have chosen to blog as a soldier during the war or someone on the homefront, your podcast should reflect attitudes and observations for a chosen point in time for your character.  For example, you could tell the story of your soldier during a campaign in, or coming home from the war; or a woman working on the homefront’s story during or after the war.  An example of student work from a prior class follows below to give you an idea of what you can do:

In order to complete your podcast, you will:

• Record and edit your dialogue using Audacity
• Upload your podcast to Soundcloud
• Use the share feature in Soundcloud to embed your podcast into your blog post as I have done above

You will be given class time to record your podcast dialogue, and I will be available to help you along the way.  Please feel free to use your peers for assistance as well as acting talent in your pieces.  To spice up your podcast, you should utilize the free sound effects available at Creative Commons.  Please also utilize the comments section here to ask questions and seek help throughout the project. Good luck!

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill came to office in Britain just before the outbreak of WWII, and he, just like other allied leaders, had to put politics aside to galvanize his countrymen for the war effort. 

The sentiments of all of the allied powers heading into the war can be epitomized by the following passage from one of Churchill’s early speeches during the war:

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our
Island whatever the cost may be,
We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills;
We shall never surrender.

The entire article which discusses Churchill and his poetic speeches can be found here.

Rosie the Riveter

I’m sure you have all seen this classic picture as it is still used frequently in popular culture, however you may not have realized where it came from!  It’s a piece of US motivational propaganda from the homefront, imploring women to join the war effort by getting into the workplace to fill the void left by all of our soldiers fighting over seas.  During World War II, women entered traditionally male jobs in large numbers for the first time in America, and this would have effects that far outlasted the duration of the war.  You can read an article about the character pictured above, “Rosie the Riverter,” at the link here.

Fun and quick video to get things started!

Welcome to the World War II blog! To get things started I’ve posted this video which give you a crash course overview of the war with some interesting storytelling, graphics, and details. While the creator does generally get his info and sources right, this shouldn’t be used as a source, but merely something to get you all thinking about the unit as well as thinking of ways in which you may want to tell your historical story throughout the unit’s projects. Please let me know what you think of it in the comments section, as I’d like to hear your thoughts on some of the points mentioned, as well as if you thought the video was enjoyable and useful for this class!