BP4_Review, Web2.0 Tool_One True Media

The discovery of another cool Web 2.0 tool. For this assignment, I have chosen to use One True Media. It is a way to create slideshows with your own photos and videos. There is a free account, which limits you to 30 seconds. For my students that would be fine. 30 seconds can be a long time when writing something.

I am using Digital Storytelling for my Action Research Project. I want to encourage motivation for writing by making it more exciting and interactive. The students will become more engaged when using an interactive medium to tell their stories.

With One True Media, the student will be able to add their own photographs and video clips. They can edit the photos in the application; add transitions, titles and different colors for various items. They are able to change the length of a photo, add a video style, choose music within the program, and create a text slide.

Since the music is within the program there are no copy write problems. When applying a video style the project becomes a beautiful smooth flowing presentation. I created a presentation in less than 10 minutes. That works very well for a 40 to 90 minute language arts block.

The assignment would be to bring a camera home and take pictures or shot a video, to tell a very short story. They would only need about 5 photos with a 4-5 second view. Then, they would add a title and an ending credit to bring the slide show to 30 seconds. The challenge is to add the story text. My students have a difficult time writing a complete sentence, this would benefit them with the extra practice in an interactive mode. The text can be added as a sub-title on the photo.

This would be the beginning of how to tell digit stories because of the time limit. After they have hopefully, had fun with this, and mastered a short story, I would find another free Web 2.0 application that would allow for more time or pages and let them master that. Eventually we would build our process so that by the time I have them create a movie in Movie Maker, they will have a relatively easy time elaborating on their story telling skills.

The tool has a share option. The creator can opt to share on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more. You can also buy a DVD, or share by inviting others to view the slideshow within the tool. The user is able to go to share my video page, select the video from the list, choose “Share Online” and then check the “Show on My Share Page” option.

One True Media

If 30 seconds isn’t enough, it costs $3.99 or $39.99 a year for a Premium Membership. With the Premium Membership the user can, have no limit on sharing, download to your PC/Mac or iPod/iPhone, have colors and fonts in text slides and captions, premium effects and transitions, high quality post to YouTube and Facebook, gain access to more music and no video song limits, and finally, no limit on storage space.

I like this tool. I may buy a membership for myself. One True Media