Coursera - Professional Development Learning Online

Just wanted to write a quick post about the course I've just signed up to on Coursera.

Digital Storytelling for Education.

Link here for the course: https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalstorytelling

And the original site here: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu

Am planning on using this to teach Pecha Kucha better next year as well as teaching myself how to flip my classroom more effectively than just lecturing.

I love the format of Coursera. Love that I can learn in my own time, at my own pace and that more importantly I can do it wherever. Right now I'm keeping warm in bed haha.

More info from the course:

Course Syllabus
"Over the course of five weeks, we will cover the following topics:

Week 1: Choosing a topic and purpose
Week 1 introduces you to the basics of digital storytelling. You will learn to identify the fundamental elements of a good digital story and review examples used by educators across a varied curriculum. By the end of week 1, you will be able to choose a topic and define the purpose of the story you want to create for your classroom.

Week 2: Writing an effective script and creating a storyboard
Week 2 will focus on scriptwriting as you learn the steps in developing and writing a script for a digital story. You will explore the basic elements of a script, such as introduction, character development, tension and resolution that are necessary in developing a useful script. By the end of this week, you will begin to understand the important steps and elements of scriptwriting. You will also learn to recognize the importance of selecting appropriate images and the value of creating a storyboard.

During Week 2, you will also explore several useful ways to choose images for your digital story, including taking your own photos with a digital camera, using software applications to create charts, graphs and other images, and finding and downloading images from the web based on size, quality, type and usage rights. A step-by-step approach will be used to illustrate how these images will be used to support your script as a part of creating a digital story. By the end of this week you will be able to envision your story's script in a visually interesting and useful storyboard.

Week 3: Recording audio narration
In week 3, you will learn to record audio narration using digital devices so that your voice can be added to the digital story you will create. You will gain hands-on experience using some of the most common features of audio recording software to create high quality audio narration. In addition, you will explore ways to improve your audio recording with basic editing tools. You will also learn how to find and download appropriate music for your digital story that is in the public domain or is free of copyright restrictions.

Week 4: Using technology to build a digital story
In week 4, you will learn to use WeVideo, a free online video editing application to assemble all of the elements (text, images, narration, music) to create the full  version of your digital story. In addition, you will learn to use basic editing techniques to improve your digital story so that all of the components of your story fit together and look and sound good.

Week 5: Revising, publishing and sharing the final digital story for use in the classroom
In week 5, you will revise the final version of your digital story, publish it online and discuss how it might be used in the classroom to support teaching and learning. You will also have an opportunity to reflect on the digital storytelling process and discuss the challenges you faced, how you dealt with these challenges, the most significant things you learned during the course and how you think you might use digital storytelling in your classroom."

Am halfway through the first week. I just need to think of my first project. Ideas?