Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
These slides are from an updated version of that first multimedia presentation I did back in high school. I used
the lyrics from a Tower of Power song called “Can't Stand to See the Slaughter” to introduce the theme of the
talk. (Images in slides from
iStockphoto.com
.)
The Visual Matters
Traditional literacy is important, of course, but today multimedia literacy—text, audio,
and images, including video—is just as important for learning, teaching, and
communicating ideas that are both complex and simple. Some might consider it even
more important. Multimedia is immediate and rich, and it enables us to amplify and
clarify the meaning of content in ways text or narration alone cannot. The language of the
twenty-first century includes images like never before. The legendary Will Eisner writes in
his topic
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
(W.W. Norton & Co., 2008): “The
proliferation of the use of images as a communicant was propelled by the growth of
technology that required less in text-reading skills...visual literacy has entered the
panoply of skills required for communication in this century.”
High-quality images make it possible to become true digital storytellers. The late Dana
Atchley, the father of the digital storytelling movement, coined the term
digital storytelling
and according to him, “...digital storytelling combines the best of two worlds: the 'new
world' of digitized video, photography, and art, and the 'old world' of telling stories. This
means the 'old world' of PowerPoint slides filled with bullet point statements will be
replaced by a new world of examples via stories, accompanied by evocative images
and sounds.”
Atchley was right. While there are still too many uninspiring presentations that use a strict
bulleted format or are overly cluttered, more and more people are getting the message
about the need to become better storytellers. They are starting to understand the
profound power the effective use of multimedia has for helping us tell better stories.
