I’ve spent the last two days upgrading my MacBooks to Snow Leopard and iLife ’11. It’s the only logical step but it’s one I have been reluctant to take. I’ve been running digital storytelling workshops using iMovie HD since 2005 and it has always served my participants well until Apple stopped shipping computers with iMovie HD installed. I knew I would have to change at some point and if you read some of my previous blog posts you will know that I considered upgrading several times. The release of iLife ’11 with iMovie ’11 (or 9) I tried again to press the software into service for creating digital stories. This time it was a success.

All my MacBooks were running OSX Leopard 10.5.8 but iLife ’11 needs OSX Snow Leopard 10.6, which won’t run iMovieHD. So as I upgraded them I left the old ways behind. At the same time I have rewritten the tutor training manual I give to workshop participants (it takes a long time to upgrade 6 MacBooks – almost 2 days).

The rewrite meant building a couple of digital stories from scratch and grabbing screen shots to illustrate each step of the process. As I did it I realised how much simpler some things are in iMovie ’11. Cropping, Ken Burns Effect, Precision Editing, Transitions are all simpler to create. It’s also easier to make adjustments later in the process, no matter how many effects have been applied. Replacing one image with another is very simple. Lengthening a zoom is simple, even with transitions in place. You can listen to the sound track whilst editing clips too. Many of the limitations I’d just grown used to in the old version of iMovie have been swept away.

The real test will come next week when I deliver my first training trainers workshop since the upgrade. What will my participants think? With nothing to compare the experience with I assume they’ll be as happy as all the others – so long as my workflow makes sense and they all go away with their stories burned to DVD.

I’ve just watched a totally absorbing perfomance by Roughshod.

Riding Lights Roughshod is a professional touring theatre company – created by Riding Lights in 1992 to concentrate on the grass-roots community touring which characterised the early years of Riding Lights itself – which annually reaches a live audience of around 65,000 adults and children. It has been acclaimed from Belfast to Brixton for creating powerful new pieces of theatre.

Their collection sketches in the show Hope Street are compelling and moving. A mixture of traditional storytelling from biblical, classical and North American sources, mixed with the actors personal stories of hope. I’m at the Riding Lights Summer Theatre School in Harrogate.

This  afternoon we introduced our storytelling groups to the plan for the week. Sarah Rundle warmed everyone up and I explained how they will put the digital into storytelling. We haven’t worked together before but I feel good about the partnership. Sarah is a traditional storyteller and with her our group will develop their performance skills. I am running two slightly squeezed digital storytelling workshops so that everyone can experience both styles of story making.

Carers stories in Huddersfield, memories of The Sixties in York. Just two of the workshops that have kept me busy in the past month. I’ve also written an article about digital storytelling for a writers magazine called Lapidus and now I’m on my way to Aberystwyth for DS3.

I will be blogging from the festival so expect a some new entries here over the next few days. It’s good to get away to listen to what other storytelling practitioners are developing in the digital world and to reflect on my own business. I’ll also be meeting friends and colleagues from previous events and the BBC.

From York it’s a long train journey to West Wales, via Manchester and Shrewsbury. I arrive in Aberystwyth at about 7.30 this evening if all the trains make their connections. So don’t expect too much until tomorrow when the event gets going.

Jason Ohler : Education and Technology :: Art, Storytelling, Education and Technology
Art, Storytelling, Technology and Education

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Announcement: Jasons new book about digital storytelling and new media narrative in education – Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity, is now available for advance purchase:

I have a lot of time for Jason Ohler. I heard him speak at the Digital Storytelling Festival in Sedona and he is the keynote speaker at DS3 in Aberystwyth in June.

Jason is the guy who says “If your kid is a bad guitar player don’t buy him a bigger amplifier. It won’t make his playing any better; his mistakes will just get louder!” The application here is – if you don’t have a story to tell buying a better computer or more powerful software won’t make your digital storytelling any better.

Another true story inspired by an object in the Magic Story Bag

Once a year we used to walk from school to Debden village church for a special service. On the way we passed a lake where a few swans swam.

The teacher, Mrs Firth, told us not to annoy the swans because they might get cross. It was springtime and they had cygnets. Mrs Firth warned us that when swans felt threatened they had been known to snatch a small child and drag it into the water. I was a small child!!

In the same Essex village, the garage owner kept geese. They hissed and honked very loudly at anyone who approached. I had to pass them on the way home from school. They would stretch out their long white necks, lower their heads and run at me, their long orange beaks thrust forward like bayonets. 

Which may explain why I love small birds but big ones still worry me.

I found this on the writing lives/teaching lives blog:

Digital Storytelling « writing lives/teaching lives
When I began to read about digital storytelling, I had expected it to be interesting, but for some reason, I had not expected that the writing process was used in digital storytelling. I suppose that I did not see the connection between the two. Lisa C. Miller addresses this: “With digital storytelling, words and the writing process matter as much as ever. We still must take students through that process, from coming up with an idea to collecting information to focusing and organizing to drafting to revising” 173.  I figured that I would mention this just in case I was not the only one who is a little amazed at this pretty obvious connection.

Anyone who reinforces the need for good storytelling and writing skills gets my vote. It’s not an intellectual exercise, it’s just good discipline. Forging your story into a script also saves you a lot of time later. Once you have decided what your story is you don’t waste time processing images and creating sequences you don’t need.