Blog Assignment 11

Discuss your thoughts about adding video clips to the final digital story project you are creating for this course or another digital story that you might create for another purpose. If you think including video clips would help you tell the story, what kind of video might you use? For example, would you be able to find video on the web or on a DVD that you could use? If so, describe what you would be looking for and what the video clips would show. Or do you think you might be able to shoot your own video clips with a camcorder? How might video of this type be used to enhance the message of your digital story? If you don't think adding video of would help your story, discuss why you feel your story would be better without the use of video clips of any type.

Class Ten Blog Assignment

For this assignment, you should describe your work on audio editing and/or mixing. Indicate what you attempted to do and whether or not you were able to successfully complete the assignment. f you were not successful, please describe the problems you encountered and provide any details you think would be helpful in trying to solve the problem.

Class Nine Blog Assignment

For this week's Blog assignment, you have two choices. You may either post a comment related to the storyboard you are creating for next week, or you may post a comment about the Engines of Our Ingenuity episode you are creating.

In your posting, you may discuss any aspect of either topic, such as describing the progress of your work, discussing challenges you faced and/or ask questions that arose during your work on these assignments.

Class Eight Blog Assignment

In this week's class, we held our first round of story circles in which students met in small groups to discuss the scripts they are writing for the final semester digital story project.

Post a comment here in which you discuss some of the feedback and ideas that came out of the story circle experience. In your posting, talk briefly about whether or not you think this will affect the next version of your script that you will be submitting next week and if so, how and if not, why not.

Class Seven Blog Assignment

For this week's primary hands-on assignment, you should write a first draft of a script on the popular culture topic you will be using as the basis for your final semester digital story project. You should email your script to Dr. Robin at: brobin@uh.edu

Also, please post a comment here in which you describe the popular culture topic you chose and briefly discuss why you selected it.

Class Six Blog Assignment

For this week's hands-on assignment, you should add real or royalty-free music to the digital story you created last week. Important Note 1: You may use the same photo story you already created, you may edit the initial photo story with new pictures, or if you prefer, you may create a new photo story for this week's assignment.

Important Note 2: Here are the updated instructions for submitting the .WMV file of your initial digital story. You will be submitting or transferring your file to the personal web space that you have been assigned on either the Viking or Mariner server.

This week, you should attempt to use WebDav for this transfer. Please review the information on using WebDav at:http://www.coe.uh.edu/mycoe/cite/docs/webdav.cfm

After you have uploaded your digital story file to the server, try to access it in a web browser or media player and copy the URL. Then post a comment in which you paste in the URL and discuss your experience adding music and narration to your digital story.

If you are uncertain or have problems, bring the .wmv file with you to class next week.

The World War II Website

In our last class, I mentioned the World War II website project that COE students and I have created and that includes many digital stories. Below is the link and information about the site.

This week, a new Ken Burns documentary mini-series about World War II, called simply THE WAR, is being broadcast on public television stations around the country and locally on HoustonPBS-KUHT, Channel 8. THE WAR looks at WWII through personal accounts from four American towns and the stories tell how the war touched the lives of families all over America.

For the past several months, graduate students in the IT Program have been working with me and members of the Education and Outreach department at HoustonPBS to create an educational website to support the Ken Burns film and help local citizens submit their own stories about World War II.

Our website is called The War Experience: Memories of World War II and it is now officially up and running. If you have some time, please take a look at:
http://www.thewar.coe.uh.edu/

We are very proud of the stories that are already on the website and hopefully, more will be added as local viewers begin to watch the film and visit our website. If you know of anyone who might like to submit their own story about the war, please let them know about our website.

By the way, the initial broadcast THE WAR began on Sunday night on HoustonPBS, Channel 8, but will be repeated many times over the next few months in case you have not yet had a chance to watch it. You can check to see when it will be broadcast by going to: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/broadcast_schedule.htm

Class Five Blog Assignment

For this week's hands-on assignment, you should add narration and computer-generated music to the digital story you created last week. Important Note 1: You may use the same photo story you already created, you may edit the initial photo story with new pictures, or if you prefer, you may create a new photo story for this week's assignment.

Important Note 2: Here are the instructions for submitting the .WMV file of your initial digital story. You will be submitting or transferring your file to the personal web space that you have been assigned on either the Viking or Mariner server.

1. Be sure that you have a copy of Secure Shell (SSH) for Windows or Mac. You will find a link to download SSH at:
http://www.coe.uh.edu/mycoe/cite/docs.cfm

2. On the same page, click on the link: How to Use Your Webspace on Viking from Off-Campus with Secure Shell (by Donna Smith). This will include directions on how to upload the file.

3. After you have uploaded your digital story file to the server, try to access it in a web browser or media player and copy the URL. Then post a comment here in which you paste in the URL and discuss your experience adding music and narration t your digital story.

4. If you are uncertain or have problems, bring the .wmv file with you to class next week.

Class Four Blog Assignment

After you have uploaded your digital story file to the server, try to access it in a web browser or media player and copy the URL. Then post a comment here in which you paste in the URL and discuss your experience creating this first digital story file.

Class Three Blog Assignment

Discuss the images you edited for this week's hands-on assignment as well as any experiences you had using one of the photo upload options we discussed in class or another online tool you selected on your own. Be sure to indicate which photo upload option you chose for this assignment and include a web link to your pictures, if possible.

Class Two Blog Assignment

The hands-on assignment for Class Two is to:

First, shoot a series of images on a selected popular culture topic.

Then, as we discussed in Class 2, we will be attempting to use wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com) to share digital photos that are taken during this course.

For this assignment, you should try to upload at least one or two images that you took by going to our class location on wikispaces. It's located at: http://cuin7358-07.wikispaces.com You will probably need some help learning to use wikispaces, so a tutorial on how to create an account and add images is available here:wikispaces-tutorial.pdf

After you have attempted to upload the images from the hands-on assignment, post a comment here in which you discuss the images you took for this week's hands-on assignment as well as any experiences you would like to share about using wikispaces.

Using a Wiki to Upload Images and Comments

We will discuss ways to upload images and post comments.

Class One Blog Assignment

Post a comment on the course blog at in which you introduce yourself and briefly discuss your experience with digital photography and digital storytelling. Also, please indicate what type of digital camera you have used in the past.

Welcome to the CUIN 7358 Blog

We will use this blog for promoting online discussions in CUIN 7358 during the Fall 2007 semester.