For Assessment 3, I am creating an original “born digital” story that will incorporate text, sound, audio, and video features (Allan, 2017, p. 21). The story’s working title is ‘Head to the Treehouse’ and it will be aimed at middle grade readers aged 8-12.
Storyline
My original story is inspired by Inanimate Alice Episode 1 where the protagonist, 8-year-old Alice, finds out that her father is missing, and she tries to locate him.
In my story, the protagonist Flo awakens to find that her older sister Juniper is missing. Juniper has left her a series of clues that Flo must decode to, ultimately, reunite with her and find out why she has gone into hiding. It is not as eerie as Inanimate Alice, it is more adventurous and light-hearted, and the journey takes Flo to settings such as the local library, botanic gardens, and the zoo.
Digital Platform
I will be using the online digital platform Canva to create my story and have been playing around with some features already to learn what’s possible. I have launched a month-long free trial of Canva Premium so that I can access premium features, such as audio sounds and the expanded visual content libraries.
If I was a technical wizard, I would love for the story to be ‘choose your own adventure’ style and more like an interactive game, with different clickable options… but I think that I will end up exporting the linear story as a video file, and I will add my narration of the typed text as the final layer.
Rationale
I am excited to make this story as a work of digital literature, as I hope to enhance the experience of Flo’s journey of puzzle-decoding through technology. For example, I want to bring the settings to life – so that as Flo is wandering through the library, readers can hear background chatter and search for visual clues with her. I am wary of digital stories where technology distracts the reader, so want to make a conscious effort to use technology to complement the narrative (Javorsky, 2014).
Reference List
Allan, C. (2017). Digital fiction: ‘Unruly object’ or literary artefact? English in Australia, 52(2), 21-27.
Canva. (2022). https://www.canva.com/
Javorsky, K., & Trainin, G. (2014). Teaching Young Readers to Navigate a Digital Story When Rules Keep Changing. The Reading Teacher, 67(8), 606–618.
Pullinger, K., Joseph, C., & Harper, I. (2005). Inanimate Alice (Episode 1) [Computer software]. The BradField Company.
Image Source: Original design created by the author using Canva.
kstolz
September 4, 2022 at 1:16 amHi Emma
This sounds like a wonderful and appropriate story for middle to upper primary students. You are very talented and creative to write it.
Be adventurous and try a platform that is going to make your story more interactive as you clearly wish and desire. Have you explored Wix? Essentially you would create a website that could have students clicking a link to different elements of your story. It is also easily accessible from all devices.
Enjoy the process and the struggle! Wishing you the very best in your digital venture.
Kelly
ala_muti
September 4, 2022 at 4:20 amI love your proposal, Emma! I personally really enjoy Canva as I think it is simple, user-friendly, and really can be used to produce a very engaging digital story. Not sure if you know, but if you are a teacher employed by the DET you can actually access all the premium features of Canva for free through the portal.
I also chose to create my digital story through Canva as I feel that it may inspire older students to have a shot at creating their own digital story. Your idea is fantastic in that it can demonstrate to students how they can create their own digital stories through this platform, adding interactive elements to enhance and complement an existing print text.
Looking forward to reading your digital story!
jcheetham
September 7, 2022 at 6:24 amHi Emma,
Head to the Treehouse sounds like a fantastic story to have written! Your digital ideas are amazing and I cannot wait to see the final product! I appreciate the want of technology to complement the narrative, rather than distracting the reader. I think if you have time to figure out the tricks of Canva to create a puzzle-decoding game or any type of digital enhancement at these exciting parts of your story, it would be loved by the users.
I’ve picked up some tips from these comments too! As I’m exploring Canva as my platform, I will be signing with my DET account to see if I can get premium. I’m also going to check out WIX as an option and sticking with the most user easy option.
Best of luck.