Sometimes the words “multi-media presentation” create joy and
excitement. People may think about really good presentations they have
witnessed, how the combination of the speaker, videos, music, and effects all
mounted together to create a nearly perfect atmosphere for learning. These types
of presentations strike a chord with nearly every person present. The audience
is engaged the whole time and leave feeling full, adamant, or even excited
about what was presented. Done correctly, these types of presentations can be
extremely effective.
Shoot back to reality and here I have sat, greatly
intimidated, and even frustrated at times with creating my own version of a “multi-media
presentation” and all its complexities. While I hope that my final project
brings awe to everyone in the class by informing them on eagles, I more
importantly have developed skills and understanding that is very important to
remember as well. There are many layers to a project like this, and each one
takes specific care and caution while culturing them to make sure that it
accomplishes the task I hoped it would.
For starters, I needed to find a way to get my point across
quickly, yet effectively. In this Digital Story project, I had only a certain
amount of time to spend discussing my subject. I needed to be thorough, yet concise,
which is something that I struggle with in my daily speech. Figuring out what I
wanted to say in that allotted amount of time and then performing it was the
first step to this project. The next was finding images to match my subject. I
needed to focus on finding things that would help enhance my subject matter and
portray it in a way that I wanted it to be understood, which was a sense of awe
and respect for my subject. When considering images for this project, one
needed to be mindful of how each image would either assist or hinder the
messages or the presentation.
Lastly came the painstaking process of layering all the
pieces. This portion tried my patience the most, but probably taught me the most
as well. I learned the difficulties that accompanied the intricacies of such a
project. Every picture needed to be edited with effects and positioning, along
with a music playing in the background. Along with that, I needed to add and
match up my narration to the pictures and vice versa. These steps of layering
taught me a lot about both the technicalities that come with a Digital Story
and also how I need to be patient in the process.
At the end of the day, the Digital Story came together and I had
before me a more polished and pretty version of my original narration. I had
all my facts and opinions in the story, but they had been enhanced and
supported by the images, music, and effects that I added into it. This type of
project can help enhance our presentation, the learning of those who view it,
and even our own skills of informing and teaching.
