Evaluation of the story telling process

Story telling

            The process of story can either be easy or complicated depending on the person.  When sharing a personal story it can be tricky how to convey your message in the best way. One especially hard part is making the story shorter when it is so personal and close to your heart. Through the story telling process of sharing and rewriting to prefect the story you can gain a better understanding of the story you are telling.

 As for my self I found telling a personal story to be harder because you feel as if every aspect is necessary to leave in. Through the process of sharing in the story circle and hearing my story out loud I was able to cut some things out. This was one of the hardest parts of deciding what were the most necessary parts to leave in and what other parts were not as important. The quality of being able to tell a whole story as short as possible can help with pulling out the most important aspects. The story circle helped by hearing feed back from others as to what they thought grabbed them the most. From hearing the feedback I was able to finalize my story.

Processes

            The process of working on a project can differ greatly depending on what you are trying to convey. For the digital story telling project the process of working in a group had a huge impact as to how the final story was completed. Hearing your story out loud helps you to better understand what aspects of the story work and what doesn’t. Hearing the feed back from others in the group lets you know what parts of your story were the most engaging. From hearing what people liked let’s you know what to emphasize and what to maybe cut out.

            Working on a story individually can create a whole different out come when it comes to story telling. When working on story individually there is no feed back as to what works and what doesn’t so you are going solely off of your own opinion. This can be a good thing depending on the type of project or story you are working on. For the second project we worked on the need to work with a group and hear feedback was less. When telling the story of someone else it is easier to be more objective but when it is a personal story it can be harder to be objective. Having the feed back from someone is more important when the story is personal opposed to not about you.

Platforms/venues

            Depending on the type of story there are different platforms that would work better. Some stories could be told through a number of platforms while others work the best with one kind. The digital story worked best on you tube because it is easily accessible to anyone to watch it. Having the digital story on you tube also gives the opportunity for it to be seen by a very wide audience. For a written piece there are many options of where to post it to. For a longer story the best place to share it might be a blog. If the story is not as long you could share it on Cowbird or exposure. These sites are best for shorter stories that have an image to go along with them. By having only one image big on the screen it brings more power to the picture because people are forced to take a closer look at the small details.

            For my self I have liked working with exposure and Cowbird because I think it can change the whole perspective of a story when it is shorter. You are forced to pull out all of the important aspects and leave any thing else out. The picture you chose can also help add a lot to the story. Having the picture be so big gives the reader a better idea of what you are trying to convey because they are forced to take a closer look instead of just seeing a smaller version and scrolling past.

Social media and technology

            Social media has a huge impact on the ways in which people live their lives today. There is no way of getting around it almost everyone uses some type of social media. People are posting things in order to get likes and for people to pay attention to them. Even when people try and stay away social media is everywhere it is even apart of how we get our news. Now many people get news from places like twitter or Facebook, this has become so commonplace today. This is neither a bad or good thing but the way our society has become and continues to go in this direction.

Specific technology

             Over the course of this semester we have worked with a number of different technologies.  For my self I have never worked with imovie before this class. It took me some time of just playing around with all of the aspects to learn how to work the program.  The process of learning how to use imovie was not hard and I learned my way around very fast. When did come across a problem I either asked a friend to help or google what to do. Either way I was able to figure out how to fix the problem shortly.

Conclusions

             Telling a story can be a complicated process but with the help of working in a group this process can be easier. Working in a group opposed to individually can drastically change the out come of a story. Once a story is done choosing the best online platform is important so it is received in the best way possible. Knowing how to use different technologies to create the best project possible that effectively tells the story is important. Depending on what platform you chose can effect the way the story is perceived. All of these aspects come together and make the story special and unique compared to others.

New Jersey

In 1987 Mary and John purchased their home that they would spend the next 27 years living in. The  New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia was the perfect place to make their home. 

Their son Michael had just been born and John was 3 years old at the time.  Mary said” when I first saw the house I knew it was the place I wanted to live” it was the perfect little home with a big back yard for the kids to play in. 

“I Knew this would the perfect house to raise a family in” said john. As of today Mary and John still live in the same house.

Honeymoon

After being married in 1978  John and Mary decided to go to Disney World for their honeymoon. Shortly after the wedding they took off for Florida, both 22 at the time had never been to Disney before.

 Mary and John both had no idea what Disney world would be like before going there. Both being very afraid of roller coasters somehow found themselves on space mountain. 

Space mountain is a roller costar that takes place in the dark so you have no idea what is happening. “I thought this is Disney nothing can be that scary” said Mary. 

“I thought I was going to die on that ride, I couldn’t wait for it to be over” said John. 

Now all these years later all three of their children happily ride space mountain and are not the least bit scared.

Story Series

I am doing a story series on my parents Mary and John. 

They have been married for the past 35 years and I thought It would interesting to share some of their stories.  

I have grown up hearing these stories all of my life and wanted to share some of them form their early years of marriage.

My parents

My parents met in college and have been married now for 35 years. This is the story of how they fell in love and eventually got to where they are today. A lot has happened over all these years while a lot had stayed the same. I wanted to share a little bit about their lives because I think they are great …but I may have a bias being their daughter and all.

 Mary and John each went to an event that was held at Le Moyne College in upstate New York. This is where they were both studying and had not met each other prior to this. Mary was from up state New York while John was from New Jersey.

They were both 21 years old at the time and in their junior year of school. Le Moyne is a small college with only a little over 2,000 students who go there. The event they were attending was a dinner held on campus and they just happened to have mutual friends and sit next to each other.

Mary was the more out going one while john was shy, so she had to do all the taking to get the conversation started. They really hit it off at the dinner and had a great time talking to each other. After talking and meeting for the first time at the dinner they began to hang out more with their friends.

As they become better and better friends they started to fall for each other. Over the last year of college they got closer and closer and better friends. Towards the end of their senior year my dad proposed to my mom. They were married the august after they graduated in 1978 at 22.

John had plans to attend law school at Rutgers University in New Jersey. So they made the move to New Jersey, little did Mary know that she would be spending the next 35 years there.

While they were getting on their feet they lived in not so great areas and made they best of what they had while John was in law school. After grading law school they moved to south jersey.

 After a few more years of getting on their feet they bought their first house.  This is the house they would spend the next 28 years in and raise three kids in.

Over the next few years they had their first son john at the age of 28. Two years later they had their second son Michael and then five years later their daughter Maria. 

Mary had dedicated her life to her children, staying home to take care of them. While John has been a lawyer for the past 30 years ,running his own practice specializing in personal injury. John also became a judge and is still doing both as of today. While they are still live in New Jersey in the same house. They plan to move to California in the coming years to join their two children. John who lives in LA and Maria who lives in San Francisco.

 A lot has changed over all these years but a lot has stayed the same also.

Cowbird

http://cowbird.com/story/91330/My_Parents/

 More photo's on Flicker

https://www.flickr.com/photos/115592674@N07/sets/72157643566746693/

Evaluation of Storify

Storify and scoopit both use different ways to tell a story. Scoopit lets users post links from other places in to topics that you have created. While you can create your own content most of the things posted are from other places with insight added by the user. This can be a good format if you want to organize content from many different websites in to one place. With scoopit you can get a better feel for the interests of a person by looking at their topics. This is telling people the story of who you are as a person and what you are interested in. I liked how easy it is to get a feel for what a person is interested in.

With storify you can tell any kind of story that you want. It is very easy to add content from other places in to your story. people do not have to go click links to other websites. I liked how easy it is to add content from other places so people do not have to click on links it is all right there for them.

Scoopit has effective aspects when saving articles for later. It is easy to have all your things in one spot and organize them. Scoopit lets you see others topics without all the mess of having to scroll though many at once. Some things that are not effective are finding other peoples content and reading it. You only follow a topic of someone and not the person so this could be a problem for some people who want to follow a person. There is also the problem of having to pay to get more topics; this might turn off some people.

Storify has the effective qualities of being easy to use and connect with many other sites. I really liked how easy it was to add content in from other places. Also to have this content be right in the story instead of having someone click on a link to another site. Some of the set backs are that I have not seen many stories from storify around the Internet, so I do not know how wide their user base is. Another set back is not having some sites linked to it, so they are not as easy to add content from.

Some elements that drew me in to stroify were how easy it is to post from other sites. This makes more of a dynamic story that is not seen on many other sites. I was drawn to how many different aspects can go in to one post making the story more interactive.

What drew me in to scoopit was how you can create your own topics and decide what goes in to them. This power to create what you want and organize them is appealing. Another thing that draws me in is seeing other people’s topics and what they think is important and interesting.

I was more drawn in to the stories on storify because I felt they are more dynamic. The stories are also more interactive and interesting because everything is all within one post.

I think the photography comes off well on scoopit and the images look nice. This is a good way to show pictures within different topics.

Scoopit is more about other people’s stories and what they have to say. While storify is more about your own personal story and what you have to say. Each has their purpose and people can be use them in different ways. Scoopit is good for finding stories on the Internet while story is good for creating your own story.

Platform wise storify is easy to use and has a professional feel to it. It looks nice and was easy to learn how to use the first time I posted a story. Scoopit is easy to use and has a nice look to it. Scoopit limits you to the amount of topics, so you have to choose the two most important things to you unless you want to pay.

After using all three of the blogging platforms I found the easiest one to use is blogger. The lay out is more simple then wordpress and tumbler, making it easier to navigate. I found blogger to be the best place to write long form post, while tumbler is better for more short posts. Wordpress is also good for longer stories but I found the options to be more confusing. I feel that each has good options that will appeals to different people, for me I feel that most comfortable on blogger. Wordpress and blogger allow for the most use of options and are the easiest to use.

The lay out and design that appeal to me the most is that of blogger. I feel that blogger has a somewhat simple lay out but is nice looking enough to have a professions feel. I like this lay out because I feel that it is easy to understand and use, this is why it appeals to me. You have the options to make blogger look nice and more professional. Blogger has the ability to be viewed by the most people; I come across blogger blogs on a regular basis. I do not see as many blogs from wordpress, while many are on tumbler this is not as a good setting for long form stories. This is why I am I am drawn to blogger because it has the opportunity for more people to see it.

I have been using blogger longer than wordpress or tumble so this is possibly why I am drawn to it as of right now. Posting content on blogger is something I find easy to do and I like the look. wordpress does have a professional look also but I feel it is seen less.  After some more time of exploring these other sites my opinion could change about which one I think is the best. I plan on trying each site and exploring the options more to see which one I feel the most comfortable on.

Link to my tumbler

/http://mmaria91.tumblr.com/