Author Archives: Amy G.

HOW TO – Join our G+ community

NOTE: I wrote these instructions specifically for my WRTG 3020 students, but some of the steps are generic enough to be of possible use to others. At the bottom I’ve …

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Creative non-fiction writing exercises

(Re-posted from:  http://www.keepwriting.net/prompts.htm) Writing Prompts These prompts are intended to help inspire your creativity. Try your hand at any one of them or use them as quick ten minute writing …

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RESOURCES – Develop a Cast of (Internal) Characters

ABOUT THIS PROMPT: I delivered the first part of this activity in a class session in Spring 2014, and students did the second part at home. IN CLASS ACTIVITY IN …

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RESOURCES – Collections of digital stories to read, watch, and listen to

I collected these links for student in the Fall 2014 section of my Digital Storytelling class and thought I should share them here as well. Stories to Read Cowbird – …

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RESOURCES – "First Three Steps to Writing a Life Story"

Re-posted from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/13/how-to-write-a-memoir_n_5440161.html The First 3 Steps To Writing Your Life Story These quick, one-time-only exercises can teach us about ourselves and what we want—and how we can tell our …

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WEB APPS for Composing Photo Stories

You can also use presentation tools to compose photo stories. See: WEB APPS for Creating Presentations & Slideshows The web apps available for composing photo stories are typically classified as …

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DESKTOP, WEB & MOBILE APPS – Frame by Frame & Cartoon Animation

ABOUT ANIMATION: To learn more about different forms of animation, see this guide: Different Approaches to Animation For more animation apps, see: DESKTOP & MOBILE APPS – Stop Motion Animation …

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HOW TO – Set up your class blog on Blogger

Below are a few tips I put together for those of you using Blogger/Blogspot. I’m assuming you’ve already set up your blog on blogger.com because that part is pretty simple. …

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HOW TO – Enable Disqus comments on a Tumblr blog

As my Fall 2014 students found out the hard way, Tumblr lacks the kind of full-featured comment system you can find in other blog platforms like WordPress or Blogger. Once …

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STUDENT SAMPLE: Straight for Life?

A Spring 2014 student made this comic to show how sexual orientation is fluid for some people. Her goal was to convey that idea mainly through images, using as few …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Training in Pain

Here’s a digital storytelling project a student made mostly with cut-out animation and a small amount of voiceover: Training in Pain, by Taylor Powers. (When I track down the info …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Piece of You

Here’s a digital storytelling project a student made in Photoshop, using characters she created and backgrounds she found online: Piece of You, by Claire. I had a few suggestions for …

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ABOUT the Sample Student Projects

About the Samples I’ve been assigning digital media projects since 2010, and I try to select at least two or three from each semester to share here as samples. Most …

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HOW TO – Make Callouts in iMovie '13

I made the following demo for a student, who wanted to make “callouts” for the parts of her project that included screencasted web pages. The first part of the video …

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Reflecting on missed connections

ABOUT THIS PROMPT: I gave the following prompt to my Spring 2014 students before they watched the stop motion film Bottle, which is about the emotional experience of a missed …

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HOW TO – Export a Web-Ready Video from iMovie '13 (comes with OS 10.9)

Which Version of iMovie Do You Have? If you have iMovie ’13 (which came with Mac OS 10.9), follow the steps below. If you have iMovie ’11 (which came with …

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WEB APPS for Creating & Sharing Timelines

Timelines offer an interesting way to present information about changes over time. Dipity.com From the Dipity web site: “Dipity is a free digital timeline website. Our mission is to organize …

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HOW TO – Edit Your Blog Post

If you spot a problem with your blog post or simply want to add more material to it, you can easily open it again and edit it. FRONT END ACCESS …

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Applying Vonnegut's "story shapes" to your personal stories

ABOUT THIS PROMPT: I developed this prompt after students in the Spring 2014 class watched a segment from Kurt Vonnegut’s lecture on the Shape of Stories. CONTEXT In Kurt Vonnegut’s …

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Using images to prompt creative reflection

ABOUT THIS PROMPT: I have no idea where I got this one from, but I’ve modified it slightly for readability. Many apologies to the original source! Some people are more …

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GUIDE – Composing Shots and Scenes for Cinematic Storytelling

Understanding Shots and Scenes Understanding Shots In the context of cinematic storytelling, a “shot” is a short clip of visuals in motion that you plan to cut together with other …

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ABOUT – Genres and Purposes for New Media Writing

Here’s a brief overview of the features relevant to some of the most common genres used in new media writing. To learn more about the approaches to new media writing …

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WEB RESOURCES – On Developing Screenplays, Synopses, Storyboards, and Shot Lists

The resources below help you learn more about using writing to plan a visual project. But before you try these strategies, make to explore the variety of cinematic techniques available …

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GUIDE – Common Characteristics of New Media Storytelling

Here are some characteristics that distinguish new media storytelling as a subset of digital storytelling. TOPIC: The story is based on an emotional truth from the storyteller’s personal experience (regardless …

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DESKTOP, WEB & MOBILE APPS – Apply Cartoon Effects to Video and Photos

Using these apps gives you an easy way to turn photos and video clips into custom content for your projects. DESKTOP APPS Cartoonize Video (for Windows — free trial available) …

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GUIDE: Rough Cut vs. Final Cut for Video Projects

Criteria for “Final Cut” Quality Definition: A “final cut” is the filmmaking equivalent of a writing project that’s ready to publish and distribute to audiences, which means that it’s gone …

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GUIDE – Borrow Cinematic Strategies from the Big & Small Screens

Before you start thinking about how to bring your story “alive” via multimedia, make sure you actually have a good story to tell. A compelling story told through stick figure …

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HOW TO – Embed a Video in a Blog Post

EMBEDDING VIDEOS FROM YOUTUBE OR VIMEO Embedding a video from YouTube or Vimeo is super easy, as these are by far the most popular video hosting sites. For details on …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Love One Another

PSA video by Wylie (WRTG 3020 – Fall 2012) Tools/Approaches: images, audio clips, iMovie I’ve created this piece for both Christians and non-Christians alike. I want to show how negative …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – The Search

Pitch: A young girl is separated from her dog when her mother is arrested for child abuse. Story by Sheena (WRTG 3090 – Fall 2013) Tools: Pixelmator, PhotoPuppet (iPad app), …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – And Then Came Fireworks

Sometimes surprising things happen when you kiss another woman. Playable Audio Audio Essay by Nicolette (WRTG 3020 – Spring 2011) Rhetorical Analysis My target audience for this project is other …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Liberating Encounters

Comic strip by Hannah (WRTG 3020 – Fall 2011) Hannah used Pixton.com to create this free-form comic about what she learned about gender and sexuality through her sister’s journey. To …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – The Rush: A Digital Poem

A Kinetic Typography Poem by Dustin (WRTG 3020 – Fall 2011) Topic: The rush of energy and excitement that comes from being at a gay bar for the first time …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Deafness is SEXY

Web Site by Zoel (WRTG 3020 – Fall 2012) My website is called ASL Gender and Sexuality Terms. It is about American Sign Language (ASL) and its representation of gender …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Manly Men Can Bake Their Cakes and Eat Them Too

GENDER SUPRESSED SKILLS by glen.gomez on GoAnimate Animation by Glen (WRTG 3020 – Summer 2011) Comments by Amy: What I particularly like is how the animation allows the student to …

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WEB SITES for Hosting Content to Share by Link or Embed in Blog Posts

A “hosting” site is one that allows users to upload and publish their own content, so that they can easily share the content with others by distributing the link or …

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HOW TO – Insert an Image or PDF File into a Blog Post

IMAGES: Must be in a web-ready format: jpg, png, or gif Please also resize the images for the web, as described on: HOW TO – Make an Image Web-Ready PDFs: …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – SVT (or, The Day I Flatlined)

Pitch: A story about the day a young boy flatlined. View on YouTube Story by Christian (WRTG 3090 – Fall 2013) Behind the Scenes To recreate this story I went …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Fluffy Little Protector

Honey PLAYABLE AUDIO Audio Narrative by Natalie (WRTG 3090 – Fall 2013) ABOUT THIS STORY This story is a reflection of some of my past experiences, both good and bad, …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Bathtub Hopping

PLAYABLE AUDIO Audio Story by Trent (WRTG 3090 – Fall 2013) Description This story is about a time that I woke up in my bathtub and the events that caused …

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