Multimedia Story – Lily’s Big Day
Lily’s Big Day by Amelia
https://canva.link/xr6dx25rljdws2p
The Process
For the week I was planning to take Lily on our walk, Eastern Saskatchewan was hit with a severe storm. It was on and off pouring outside, and severe thunderstorm and tornado alerts. We took our 3-hour break of not raining one morning, I decided it was the only chance we had for our walk.
We took off for our walk, still beating the rain. There were not many people out on the walking path, and luckily not a ton of bugs.
To our surprise, the unpaved part of the trail had lots of water in them, and was very muddy. I should have suspected this due to the storms, but I had never even thought about it. Lucky for us, we didn’t find any ticks at the end of our walk, as we ended up having to walk around the water in tall grass.
As suspected, Lily was unwilling to go on the dock to see the water. She is a very anxious dog and refuses to do most things that are unfamiliar to her. If I would have gotten her on that dock, she would have been shaking and would have probably been mad at me. However, she planted her feet pretty hard, and enjoyed the view from a distance.
As we kept walking, it started to lightly rain, making me nervous it was going to pour again. I made Lily pick up our pace and had to put my hood up as we walked. Luckily, it did not pour, just lightly rained for a few minutes. The intensity of the last storms made me very nervous, so we had our lucky day that it did not storm until that afternoon.
When we got home, we made sure to take a good rest after that walk. There was definitely more stress than there would have been if it was a normal walk. We had the weather looming on us, as well as trying to make Lily participate in content as best as she could, causing overall stress. I do not think she enjoyed having to stop walking for videos and photos, however she did like sniffing around and being outside in nature. When creating my story, it definitely felt like a challenge to put my ideas together. I thought I would have more ideas, but looking at the photos, I felt trouble putting words to the images. However, I was able to do it, creating a children’s story about Lily’s big adventure on Canva.
Principles of Multimedia Learning
I incorporated images, text, and sound to using my multimedia story. I was able to provide visuals with images, and have readers put themselves in the image with the audio attached. The words carry along with the story, adding more descriptors to the story than the images and audio can. I greatly applied Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia, as well as the Principles of Multimedia Learning. With limited capacity, I wrote my story to not be overbearing of information, keeping it light and easy to make it accessible to any age.
Redundancy principle
With creating a children’s story book, I focused on keeping the words light and easy, so anyone would be able to read the book. I tried my best to not repeat any information, avoiding unnecessary repetition of information. The images show what is happening, while the text explains it more in depth, but still easy enough for a child to read it.
Coherence principle
The book I’ve created leaves out irrelevant information, only having information that pertains to the story. The information in the book is relevant to what the pictures hold, sharing a story to the audience. It sticks to the story line, adding more information to the images and audio that creates a basis for the story.
Segmenting
Since this book is written with a younger audience in mind, it is broken up into many pages, with limited words on each page. The pages build onto each other, continuing with the story in a way that is followable. It is written very light-heatredly, with not too many words on each page, making it easy to read.
Modality
With the story element, each page holds an image and narration, rather than an image with labels. The words tied to the image helps with comprehension of the story, especially for younger minds who are just learning. It is written very light-heartedly, making understanding even easier for those reading.
Peer Feedback
After sharing my story idea with my pod group, I received beneficial and positive feedback on my idea for my story. I as well received beneficial feedback from the professor on my draft. My pod group liked my idea and gave good ideas for extension to the story. I took these ideas into consideration, adding more to think about as I took my adventure.
Final Thoughts
Having the chance to create a multimedia story based on an adventure boosted my creativity, as well as gave me a good chance to get out of the house. Being home in Saskatchewan, there are not that many hiking trails, or places I would find interesting. I now recognize that to people not from Saskatchewan, that would be enjoyable to see as it is something new, but to me, it is just another day on the prairies. It really tested my ability to be creative, using parts of my brain that I typically do not use, especially on “summer break”. Overall, I really enjoyed this project, and got the chance to document my summer in Saskatchewan!
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