"After Digital Storytelling"
A fitting article to read at this point in my multimodal journey, for I am only a few minor steps away from completing my Remediated Teaching Philosophy video through iMovie. This has been my first time working with iMovie to this extent, and it also has been my first remediated video. As such, the process has certainly been new, uncertain, and a bit intimidating at times, though I can testify to the truth of these arguments Fulwiler & Middleton make here. Here are 3 observations they make that resonated as true for me:
1. Cognitive Wrestling
They define this as the experience where "a variety of modes and their separate meanings must be prioritized, while simultaneously the interaction of these same modes in any given frame of video must also be addressed" (43). I wrestled with several segments of my video, ultimately trying to decide which kind of mode was most effective for a given moment. I started with a lot of still images, enhanced by the Ken Burns effect, but when I discovered screencast-o-matic.com, new possibilities opened up of things I could show my viewers. I began weighing the effectiveness in a given moment of still imagery versus text or moving film.
2. Circling Back
Fulwiler and Middleton also describe "new recursivity" as a "process by which composers circle back" through their work, assessing and revising and revisioning as they do (44). How true this is to any kind of writing, but especially this kind! I've had many an alphabetic paper take shape through this organic, "chaotic" means (40), but it seems an inevitable and necessary way to experience digital storytelling through video. I think the variety and number of variables are what necessitate this; multimodal compositions like this one have so many moving parts, especially when compared to one-dimensional modes. I think that inherent volatility of the work means there isn't a neat and linear way to plan, anticipate, and proceed. Lots of circling back is required because various inclusions of modes changes the tone in ways you don't experience on black and white alphabetic forms.
3. Problem-Solving
I had to do a lot of troubleshooting. At one point, I even made an appointment with the Geek Squad at Best Buy here because my various google searches of online forums with my various questions-- they weren't solving issues I was having. But after a little more searching, I'm proud to say I "troubleshot" this on my own. It made for some frustrating chunks of time, to be sure: Several hours where all I accomplished was clearing space in my Photo library, for example. It wasn't always fun stuff, and I didn't always leave victorious and accomplished, but as I look back on it now, I recognize what a value learning experience it is to have to take your own initiative to figure something out. More than anything I've ever composed before, this process required that of me, and so too do I want to expose my students to that!