(“Red Rocks at Night” by David Amirault from www.ozskier.com under CC BY SA 3.0 license)
Daily Create Assignment this week. Fun work, especially with this photo of Red Rock Amphitheater, which just announced this summer’s Film on the Rocks line-up!
Month: April 2016
Digital Story Critique: Kindertransport
Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S69279 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
During most of my semester in the Learning With Digital Stories (INTE5430) class, I have been focusing on the theme of adversity. The World Wide Web offers a wide variety of digital stories from people who have either experienced adversity first-hand or knew of someone close to them who experienced it. On the University of Houston’s Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling site, there are several digital stories that relate to this theme of adapting and surviving from sudden change. One such story is Kindertransport: The Unknown Children of the Holocaust by Eliz Markowitz. Markowitz talks about how her grandmother and grandmother’s twin sister were rescued from the Nazi regime before the start of World War II. As in previous critiques, I judged this digital story on the following assessment traits (as established by Jason Ohler in his book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom):
Research – Markowitz gives the viewer lots of historical and personal background information. She includes details such as her relatives’ upbringing in Austria, the fallout of Kristallnacht and how both her grandmother and twin sister were able to leave for England. Also, she incorporates an abundance of historical photographs, family pictures and Nazi propaganda posters. Some of the images are disturbing, but she includes them to make the viewer understand the impact of the Holocaust.
Originality, Voice, Creativity – Markowitz gives a unique perspective of a person who has been impacted by the Kindertransport rescue. Her images range from happy family portraits to horrific photos of concentration camp execution chambers. At times, the juxtaposition of images feels sporadic and puzzling, but maybe that’s because it characterizes the insanity of war. Markowitz’s narration is clear and calm, but at times, I wish she would slow down and give the viewer a moment to absorb the emotional subtext of the story. I like how she used the song “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof as a music bed. I just wish she used a second piece of music instead of repeating one song over again.
Citations – This is an assessment trait that is the weakest. There are no citations to the archived photos in the video. I would like to have known where she found them. Plus, Markowitz does not cite the copyrighted music from Fiddler on the Roof. In previous videos from this website, I’ve noticed other digital storytellers that have omitted citations as well. I think the digital storytelling facilitators at the University of Houston should make citations a requirement.
Overall, Markowitz did an impressive job of telling how this major event of compassion saved many lives and preserved future generations of Jewish families, including her own.
Daily Create: Streetview An Interesting Spot in the World You May Never Visit
I may visit Yosemite National Park one day, but I’ll never view it from this angle!
DS106 Writing Assignment Bank: Haiku About You
Studying from home.
Wishing I was on campus,
but enjoying spring.
***I was not in the best mood when I wrote this, but it’s my current perspective of on-line education.**
Scholarly Response: Digital Storytelling and the Flint Water Crisis
This week, I found an interesting article from the University of Michigan-Flint regarding the topic of digital storytelling. The community of Flint, Michigan received over $100,000 in seed money to fund various projects in the clean-up of Flint’s contaminated water supply. In addition to long-term projects aimed at solving the city’s infrastructure, there will be funding set aside to teaching journalism and digital storytelling skills to Flint-area students during a summer class on environmental issues. Instructors from UM-Flint, UM-Dearborn, UM-Ann Arbor, and Genesse Early College will collaborate on the project. According to Jeremy Allen at UM Public Affairs, “teachers will assist the students in producing digital stories describing their own and others’ experiences in Flint during the past months.”
With much of the mainstream media covering the presidential race, it’s hard to find any coverage lately on the impact of civic disasters like the one going on in Flint. Lead poisoning by a careless corporation is one thing, but lead poisoning as a result of lazy government oversight is another. Getting the perspectives of Flint citizens who have been impacted by this health crisis could give digital storytelling some greater visibility and credibility.