The Future of Narrative
Titanic had James Horner. Jaws had John Williams. And now, New York Times has graphic director Steve Duenes. With “Snow Fall” and “A Game of Shark and Minnow,” reading reaches a whole new level of experience. I cannot agree more with Jeremy Rue (The SnowFall Effect and Dissecting the Multimedia Longform Narrative), “opening animated images set the mood of the project [story] in a similar fashion to background music setting the mood of a movie.” I imagine the Rose and Jack saga would not have brought nearly as many tears without the melodramatic whine of the orchestra and certainly the great white’s teeth would not have been nearly as scary without the iconic rhythm of the celli and trombone. In the same sense, the digital movement in multimedia journalism has the potential to engage students with text in a way that traditional journals or pop-up style linking cannot.
As a writer, I think this new concept is exciting! How fun would it be to write a piece of fiction and integrate scrolling mechanisms that allow for such integrated animation, music, and pictures that come to life with motion and interaction? Or write a memoir with recordings of friends and families, still pictures that come to life, interactive links that attach artifacts to the tale. What a way to hook the reader with emotion while stretching creativity beyond getting the words on the paper. Clearly, I’m excited about this. If only I could find my own Duenes…and someone to fund the project.
As a reader, I think multimedia narrative would be great in small servings. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. Just like e Books- they’re great to have in easy reach on a handheld device, but it’s also necessary to hold the actual pages in your hand from time to time. I can also understand where “snowfall” type journalism can distract the reader. Too much “technological fluff” can overwhelm the reader. In Greenfield's article, “”The New York times Fights ‘Snow Fall’ Fatigue- And It’s Working” (2013), she claims that people didn’t actually read the article because it was overwhelming images and movement. “Sharks and Minnows” approach was more balances with intentional images. I personally think the article was just more interesting. Good writing, great storytelling is what gets the reader engaged, the graphics take it that extra depth. I agree with Greenfield when she points out that, in “Sharks and Minnows,” the shiny images do not make sense without the prose. Without the foundation of a great story, building the multimedia graphics is worthless for getting people to actually read the words.
As a teacher, I think this would take textbooks to a whole new level, if not for the cost. History lessons could really come alive if we added in era-appropriate music and audio with pictures. To some degree, we do this already, but having a seamless flow as you scroll through the read may make the information that much more potent. The same can be said for literature. Right now, we have literature that is interactive- students can hear the words, annotate the text, and look up vocabulary using their electronic device. I think it would add to the engagement if they could “participate” in the novel like we could with “Sharks and Minnows”. Even in my junior and senior classes, they enjoy reading the Scholastic magazines simply because of the interaction. Again, maybe not something to use every time, but enough to break away from the traditional and stir things up a bit.
Choire Sicha makes it clear in his article, “Everyone Secretly Hates ‘Snow Fall’ (The Awl, 2013), that these sort of multimedia projects are expensive and time consuming to create. That may be the case right now, but I think this sort of technological luxury could be made more efficient and accessible over time.
iPad for Literacy Learning
Unfortunately, my district offers iPads to teachers, but not students. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don’t necessarily use my iPad for much more than a distraction for my own children who use it to watch Netflix or play games. After reading Hutchinson’s article, and combining that with the articles on multimedia narratives, I am realizing that I could be doing much more with the iPad.
In my particular environment, students are working at an independent pace on individualized curriculum. So- perhaps my one iPad could easily be shared among my students to complete tasks using certain apps. I appreciate the framework that can serve as a baseline for building apps into the lesson plan- determine learning goals, parameters of each learning experience, and nature of the activities that would comprise the learning experience, and finally, select apps that would best help meet those learning goals (Hutchinson 2012). The idea of bringing in apps is overwhelming as there are so many, but narrowing it down based on lesson and goals might make that search seem less daunting.
Since I read the wrong articles for the first blog post (I read all of the “readings” tab articles instead of the linked posts), I think now would be a good time to connect back to the article by Pensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001). The readings from today are making me realize I am a digital immigrant growing more excited about the digital world the natives are so comfortable in. That reality definitely carries over into my classroom. I am not teaching the same students I grew up with and we are definitely teaching in a different world than the one I grew up in. While my immigrant mind may have some insight for the natives, it would be a huge disservice for me to make them adapt to my ways rather than learn theirs.
That being said, I can appreciate what Pensky had to say about how students today: they want information fast, they multitask and parallel process, they want images before text, and networking is a must, along with immediate gratification (2001 p 2). It’s only my second year as a teacher, and I came into this pretty confident I was “with it’ and ready to adapt to new technology. I was wrong. I am ready to adapt and eager to learn more and try new things, but ‘with it’, this immigrant is not.
Titanic had James Horner. Jaws had John Williams. And now, New York Times has graphic director Steve Duenes. With “Snow Fall” and “A Game of Shark and Minnow,” reading reaches a whole new level of experience. I cannot agree more with Jeremy Rue (The SnowFall Effect and Dissecting the Multimedia Longform Narrative), “opening animated images set the mood of the project [story] in a similar fashion to background music setting the mood of a movie.” I imagine the Rose and Jack saga would not have brought nearly as many tears without the melodramatic whine of the orchestra and certainly the great white’s teeth would not have been nearly as scary without the iconic rhythm of the celli and trombone. In the same sense, the digital movement in multimedia journalism has the potential to engage students with text in a way that traditional journals or pop-up style linking cannot.
As a writer, I think this new concept is exciting! How fun would it be to write a piece of fiction and integrate scrolling mechanisms that allow for such integrated animation, music, and pictures that come to life with motion and interaction? Or write a memoir with recordings of friends and families, still pictures that come to life, interactive links that attach artifacts to the tale. What a way to hook the reader with emotion while stretching creativity beyond getting the words on the paper. Clearly, I’m excited about this. If only I could find my own Duenes…and someone to fund the project.
As a reader, I think multimedia narrative would be great in small servings. Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. Just like e Books- they’re great to have in easy reach on a handheld device, but it’s also necessary to hold the actual pages in your hand from time to time. I can also understand where “snowfall” type journalism can distract the reader. Too much “technological fluff” can overwhelm the reader. In Greenfield's article, “”The New York times Fights ‘Snow Fall’ Fatigue- And It’s Working” (2013), she claims that people didn’t actually read the article because it was overwhelming images and movement. “Sharks and Minnows” approach was more balances with intentional images. I personally think the article was just more interesting. Good writing, great storytelling is what gets the reader engaged, the graphics take it that extra depth. I agree with Greenfield when she points out that, in “Sharks and Minnows,” the shiny images do not make sense without the prose. Without the foundation of a great story, building the multimedia graphics is worthless for getting people to actually read the words.
As a teacher, I think this would take textbooks to a whole new level, if not for the cost. History lessons could really come alive if we added in era-appropriate music and audio with pictures. To some degree, we do this already, but having a seamless flow as you scroll through the read may make the information that much more potent. The same can be said for literature. Right now, we have literature that is interactive- students can hear the words, annotate the text, and look up vocabulary using their electronic device. I think it would add to the engagement if they could “participate” in the novel like we could with “Sharks and Minnows”. Even in my junior and senior classes, they enjoy reading the Scholastic magazines simply because of the interaction. Again, maybe not something to use every time, but enough to break away from the traditional and stir things up a bit.
Choire Sicha makes it clear in his article, “Everyone Secretly Hates ‘Snow Fall’ (The Awl, 2013), that these sort of multimedia projects are expensive and time consuming to create. That may be the case right now, but I think this sort of technological luxury could be made more efficient and accessible over time.
iPad for Literacy Learning
Unfortunately, my district offers iPads to teachers, but not students. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don’t necessarily use my iPad for much more than a distraction for my own children who use it to watch Netflix or play games. After reading Hutchinson’s article, and combining that with the articles on multimedia narratives, I am realizing that I could be doing much more with the iPad.
In my particular environment, students are working at an independent pace on individualized curriculum. So- perhaps my one iPad could easily be shared among my students to complete tasks using certain apps. I appreciate the framework that can serve as a baseline for building apps into the lesson plan- determine learning goals, parameters of each learning experience, and nature of the activities that would comprise the learning experience, and finally, select apps that would best help meet those learning goals (Hutchinson 2012). The idea of bringing in apps is overwhelming as there are so many, but narrowing it down based on lesson and goals might make that search seem less daunting.
Since I read the wrong articles for the first blog post (I read all of the “readings” tab articles instead of the linked posts), I think now would be a good time to connect back to the article by Pensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001). The readings from today are making me realize I am a digital immigrant growing more excited about the digital world the natives are so comfortable in. That reality definitely carries over into my classroom. I am not teaching the same students I grew up with and we are definitely teaching in a different world than the one I grew up in. While my immigrant mind may have some insight for the natives, it would be a huge disservice for me to make them adapt to my ways rather than learn theirs.
That being said, I can appreciate what Pensky had to say about how students today: they want information fast, they multitask and parallel process, they want images before text, and networking is a must, along with immediate gratification (2001 p 2). It’s only my second year as a teacher, and I came into this pretty confident I was “with it’ and ready to adapt to new technology. I was wrong. I am ready to adapt and eager to learn more and try new things, but ‘with it’, this immigrant is not.