Category: Assignment 1 – Blog Posts

Storytelling Techniques

In the article “The 7 Storytelling Techniques Used By The Most Inspiring TED Presenters” I found the first speech very inspiring to me. It’s an issue that we would most likely never experience in our lives and he explained it flawlessly factoring in many of the techniques we’ve learned about. Of course, immersing us in the story by properly setting the scene as well as the visual aid. The use of visual aid was done well and didn’t contain unnecessary information. The story is also personal to him being an issue his family faced which cause issues with their livelihood. He finishes it with a positive ending on how he’s helped not only himself others and changed his own life.

Artificial Intelligence

In some of the last readings, we covered artificial intelligence and its place in learning. I have used AI multiple times previously using a program to create art just to explore the possibilities. AI is very interesting and I hope more ways can be found to use it in a learning environment. It is impressive the speed at which it has developed in recent times. While AI has become an incredible tool it does also have its drawbacks causing issues with academic integrity. While I do find chatGPT more intriguing I decided to use DALL-E to assist me with my storyboard helping me create a better visual for whoever is reading hopefully leading to more retention with visual representation.

Storytelling

When I created a storyboard for a how-to video on making jalapeno poppers, I knew I had to incorporate the principles of storytelling to keep my audience engaged and make the recipe easy to follow and delicious. Using Merrill’s Principles, I made sure to keep the recipe simple and easy to follow, while also adding visual aids and graphics to help viewers follow easier. The storyboard helped me to create an easy-to-follow idea for my video and gave me the freedom to add my own ideas with visual and speaking aids. Overall, creating a storyboard for this project taught me the importance of planning and organization in film and video production, and how following these principles can make a large difference in keeping the audience engaged and having a good video.

Script

I’ve made a rough script for this video which I will show here. I used the A.A.A.A formula to develop my script helped give it a more proper structure.

[Open to a plate of steaming poppers]

[Soft music playing]

Narrator: Welcome to the step-by-step tutorial on how to make these delicious Jalapeno poppers!

Narrator: I have been making these for a few years now and they are a crowd favorite, Let’s begin!

 [Cut to the table showing ingredients]

Narrator: Here we have everything you will need to make these poppers

Narrator: Your gonna want some good size jalapenos to have a filling popper

Narrator: Next your gonna need Cream cheese it’s up to personal taste however, I enjoy using herb and garlic flavored

Narrator: and finally we need prosciutto used to wrap the jalapenos

[Soft music plays as it cuts to the cutting board]

Narrator: To begin we must cut the jalapeno half down the middle and repeat this for all of them

Narrator: After cutting them we will take a small spoon and scoop the insides of the jalapenos out, seed can be left in for desired spice level

Narrator: Once they’ve been emptied you will fill them with cream cheese leaving a smooth surface

Narrator: You will now take them and wrap them in a slice of prosciutto

[Show initial shot of steaming jalepenos]

Narrator: And lastly all you must do is put these in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes and you will have some fresh delicious poppers!

Sources:

Chibana, N. (2022, September 27). 7 storytelling techniques used by the most inspiring ted presenters. Visme Blog. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://visme.co/blog/7-storytelling-techniques-used-by-the-most-inspiring-ted-presenters/

Knott, R. (2023, March 10). How to write a script for a video (Free template!). The TechSmith Blog. Retrieved March 12, 2023, from https://www.techsmith.com/blog/how-to-write-script-for-video/

Graphic Design

The recent reading has been intriguing as I’ve always enjoyed the idea of graphic design and seeing how different people’s ideas differ so vastly. While I do not have much experience with graphic design I’m excited to explore the topic. Working on finding the right ratios and how to cater to them in a way that doesn’t create a cognitive overload for someone trying to understand. Mayer’s principle becomes important to think of during this as you don’t want to overdo the images to go along nor the words. 

Powerpoints

The “How to avoid death By Powerpoint” Presentation I found useful as it helped me see a lot of mistakes I’ve made in the past with presentations. The redundancy effect was interesting as I have experienced this myself with teachers in the past and this helped explain it very well. His points in the headline made me think about how I’ve used them in the past and I see how I can improve in the future to help to manage the cognitive load and direct people’s attention. In past presentations I’ve found I used too many objects, the presentation puts into perspective just how important it is to not overload your presentation. As a whole using these points to improve my PowerPoint in the future will be important as it creates a better experience all around.

After watching this I decided to make my own attempt at a simpler slideshow than I have done in the past. Using the Unsplash website as recommended by the video ‘Creating WordPress MultiMedia posts’ helped a lot with high-quality images. I tried following the rules I learned from this slideshow as well as some color theory with my choices. This helped me understand the simplification a lot better and I will use these points in the future

Slideshow

Merrill’s Principles

Merril’s principles brought up points that can be seen in real-life examples which I have personally been part of in a real situation. The first point “Learning is promoted when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems” was my favorite as the idea of gradually increasing the difficulty and losing the “sink or swim” mindset helps those learning understand an idea a lot easier and more effectively. From my experience, I believe that much of schooling still follows old principles which do not reflect as much promotion in the growth of knowledge in the ways stated here. While I’ve seen these principles used a few times reading into them helps give me insight into how I could portray myself when teaching something new. It has also brought up several points we have discussed in this course such as having relevant media which I found interesting.

Sources:

Cuevas, N. (2022, January 11). What every brand needs to know to use color effectively – Adobe Inc.. Adobe Express. Retrieved February 20, 2023, from https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/what-every-brand-needs-to-know-to-use-color-effectively

Merill, D. (2019, December 19). Merrill’s first principles of instruction. James Greenwood. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://www.james-greenwood.com/instructional-design/toolkit/merrill/#:~:text=The%20premise%20of%20Merrill%E2%80%99s%20first%20principles%20of%20instruction,principles%20are%20necessary%20for%20effective%20and%20ehttps://www.james-greenwood.com/instructional-design/toolkit/merrill/#:~:text=The%20premise%20of%20Merrill%E2%80%99s%20first%20principles%20of%20instruction,principles%20are%20necessary%20for%20effective%20and%20efficient%20instruction.%E2%80%9D%28p44%29fficient%20instruction.%E2%80%9D%28p44%29

Paskevicius, M. (2022, October 5). Creating WordPress multimedia posts. YouTube. Retrieved February 19, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUz6mCd0Pg