Course Content

Background

If the students in this course where students who are enrolled in the Educational Technology program, we would be looking for a completely different set of artifacts for this assignment. However, this class is made up of individuals who are taking C&I, Educational Leadership, as well as some folks who in a doctoral cohort. Also many folks have yet to take EME 6209 – Still and Time Based Media. So, to level the playing field we need to come up with a project that:

1- demonstrates your understanding of story as your personal definition has evolved over time, and
2- takes into consideration your level of expertise with media. This makes for an interesting challenge.

So, we have come up with the following plan:

The artifact for submission 1 must be in text format that is saved as a pdf file. For submission 2, you may also provide a text format (also saved as a pdf file for easier peer reviewing), or a video that is saved as either a wmv or mp4 format. More on this below.

Backstory/Setting

You are either a teacher of faculty member in P-20 or the media director for a company. Your job is to create a story to teach history/civics (in the case of K-12 or Higher Ed) or tell your company’s story to get the message out (i.e., tell about your company’s history, who you are and why your company matters).

To begin, we need a main character. You can select yourself (as in a meStory), or a famous person from history, or the hypothetical leader/founder of the company that you work for. 

Submission #1 is a fictional profile in the form of a chronological catalog. Remember, a catalog is a narrative that centers on a central topic but does not have the necessary elements of a story as we have finally defined its construct (i.e. the five essential characteristics from Branigan and Kintsch).

In order to assist you, we have provided some names to pick from. You may use one of these or choose your own:

Examples Famous Person From History	Examples Business Leader/Founder
Martin Luther King Abraham Lincoln George Washington Thomas Edison	Mary Barra (CEO of GM) Steve Jobs (Founder of Apple) Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo) Biz Stone (co-Founder of Twitter)

You may select anybody of importance who you feel worth doing this for and who ‘as a story to tell’ (i.e, could be the CEO of the company you work for)

This project has two parts with four major artifacts total.

Part 1:

Submission1

• Create a catalog documentary style narrative for your chosen main character. To make it easy, write out a 3-4 page text that MUST BE SAVED AS A PDF FILE. Some of you may have already created this in advance as PowerPoint slides. Simply save the outline as an rtf , open it in word then export it to a pdf.
• Make sure you provide information about the character that lets us know who it is and why that person was selected. This documentary-style, non-story introduces the chronological life of the main character and answers to the following questions:
  

  -date of birth?
  -important aspects about/moments in the person’s life?
  -changes? such a moves, change of job, marital status, baby, death in the family, etc.
  -five interesting things about that person?
  -information about how and when they died (if they are not still living)?

Post this narrative in the drop Box on Canvas marked Final Project Submission 1.

Part 2:

Submission2

Create a second narrative about this character that includes all five elements of a story. This can be a 2-3 minute video or a second text file that runs about 6-8 pages. This story you combine your knowledge of the character’s history and include a turning point in which a judgment is made by the main character and results in some transformation that occurs that which changed this person’s life. Again, make sure you incorporate the five elements of story that we have been introducing: Branigan’s four elements of story and Kintsch’s subject/predicate analysis:

1- show time passing with a set up,
2- the cause and effect disruption
3- judgment that the character makes, and
4- tell your story in a credible way.
5- and finally, make it predictable: The best way to make the outcome predictable is to introduce the protagonist in a way that either makes his or her judgment predictable (allowing for a surprise) that is based on how you relate his or her character/personality. In video game parlance, we call this the character’s ‘allowable actions’. A good example is Mr. Spock in Star Trek (i.e., the ‘businessman’ archetype). Recall, he never displays emotion or is never known to make any emotional decisions. So, you would normally predict his reactions to events and everything he does as unemotional and based only on the facts. In the old days, on the TV show Dragnet, Sgt Joe Friday used to say whenever a victim would get emotional “Just the Facts, M’amm… just the facts” It would be a complete surprise if he ever did anything different (which he did during the last episode of the show).

• This real story can be up to 3-4 minutes that was created by a video editor or a converted self-playing, narrated PowerPoint slide show that is exported to a wmv file. The only allowable file formats only be a .xlsz, .pdf, or a .mp4, or .wmv. These three file types are the only ones the uploader function will allow.
• YOU MUST NAME THIS FILE lastname_submission2 no exceptions!
• Self Assessment – To verify that you checked your story construct, use this Simple Check sheet that you have successfully incorporated the five elements in your story.

https://emeclasses.org/?p=494183″>Use this uploader to upload your submission #2.

The Password for this page is found on the assignments checklist in Canvas. Note: the maximum file size is 200 megs.

DO NOT UPLOAD THIS FILE TO CANVAS

The third part of this assignment includes creating a storyboard and requires you submitting your productions notes.

Here is a link to several  You Tube videos that demonstrate how to create a story board.

Production notes:

• The chronology and story must be historically accurate… please do not have George Washington talking on an iPhone, for example… while it would be cool to actually re-position your story in another time period, that really is the subject of another project.. the idea here is to incorporate some academic content into this stuff.
• Remember, the only file type that will be accepted for submission 1 is a pdf. The only file types accepted for submission 2 are pdf, wmv or mp4.
• The second submission MUST be named ‘lastname_submission2’, regardless of file type.
• You can use your phone or iPad etc. to shoot your video but it must be converted to an mp4 or .wmv file when done. The best way to create the file format is to export the video to a laptop or desktop and use a video editing package such as Filmora to convert it. PowerPoint allows you to export the file to a wmv format
• If you use a phone make to shoot the video, be sure you rotate the phone longways so the aspect ratio is widened instead of the amateurish looking elongated frame that comes from phones held upright. Also if you are going to shoot live shots, a small tripod especially made for phones can be purchased for about $10 on Amazon.
• The maximum file size that will be accepted is 200 megs. If you complete the project and realize that it is larger please contact me so we can figure out how to make it smaller. This means you should plan on having the project it done a few days prior to the final due date in order to ensure it can be uploaded correctly.
• The first submission is basically a catalog… a simple listing that tells the facts of the person’s life. It is a NON story.The second video is a real story that contains all four elements of story as we discussed from Branigan and Kintsch’s subject-predicate analysis. The purpose for the two submissions is for you to demonstrate that you understand the difference between a story and non-story.

There are three possible grades you can receive for this project, as outlined by the three separate deliverables noted above:

“A” Project Grade (assuming all due dates are met)

1- The 1st product/artifact (the chronology)
2- The 2nd submission includes all five elements of story/narrative and accompanying self assessment using the check sheet
3- A rationale/theoretical foundation (for the lesson or marketing plan)
4- You submit the check sheet review of the five elements as required.

“B” Project Grade (assuming appropriate due dates are met)

1- Both artifacts as outlined above but with one or more of the five story elements OR THE CHECKSHEET is missing from submission #2
2- A rationale/theoretical foundation (for the lesson of marketing plan)

“C” Project Grade (assuming appropriate due date is met)

1- Both artifacts are included as outlined above but with one or more of the five story elements or the CHECKSHEET is missing
2- The rationale is missing

Note that late projects automatically qualify for a “C” Project Grade