Multimedia Story: When Wiggles Didn’t Give Up

The Idea:

While I was hiking Mount Benson with my dad, I was really inspired to write my story about the Wiener dog I had seen on the hike. There was a man hiking down with two dogs, one was a German Shepard and the other was a Wiener dog. While I have seen plenty of larger dogs out hiking before it was the very first time I had seen a Wiener dog on the trails, due to their long backs and short legs. I found this very interesting and decided to write a fictional story about how I imagined the dogs experience hiking and turn it into the children’s style book I was already planning on creating after my hike.

The Process:

I began by writing out a plan of what I wanted each page to say so I could use it as a rough draft during my creative process.

I then used the Canva app to place my words and spacing for my images on the pages. I found this helpful when later painting my story with watercolors.

Next I began tracing over my printed Canva sheets with my watercolor paper underneath so that the spacing on the page would line up the way I wanted it to without having to measure everything out

After all of my pages had been traced onto the watercolor paper, I began painting.

Here is a short video of one of the watercolor paintings:

I wanted to keep all the pictures fun and colorful, the same way I imagined all my favorite children’s books.

After I was happy with the paintings for each page, I waited for them to dry then went in and added some final details before cutting the pages out.

After, I completed my story and had all the pictures/words the way I wanted them to look, I recorded a video of the pages with my voice reading them as a live story telling.

 The use of Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Learning:

In the end, I followed my draft and created watercolor images to add colorful visuals, text/words on the pages, and as well an audio recording of the story to incorporate an accessible mode with many forms of media. Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Learning were incorporated into my story the different inclusions of multimedia including audio, visuals, and text to flow together and avoid causing “extraneous cognitive load”. By planning and going through different preparation jobs I believe I was able to prevent any repetitive/overwhelming images or “word vomit” on the pages. As well, the site mentioned the importance of “voice principle” and having a real human voice rather than an automatic/robot voice. So while recording my video I tried to use expression through my voice since my face would not be seen by viewers.

The four specific principles I incorporated include:

Redundancy:

Throughout my story one of my main goals was to keep it simple for the age group I was designing it for, without it becoming to repetitive or boring. I tried to keep the backgrounds simple yet still different from each other and I used different colors to do so. For the words, I think it got a little repetitive with the number of times I used the name “Wiggles” but I also think that it is normal for a children’s book. I also made sure not to narrate every single thing that was happening on the page and instead just what was needed to tell the story.

Coherence:

I tried my best to avoid any “off topic” material. I focused on what was needed to help the flow of the story and move it along without it feeling too choppy. I wanted to create a story that was short but made sense.

Signaling:

I used images that reinforced the story lines/words. A few of my pages included very brief word bubbles to show communication between the characters.

Contiguity:

I focused a lot on the layout of my pages, I wanted them to each have a nice flow. For this purpose, I kept the lines in the same spot on each page so viewers would know where to look when reading. I also tried my best not to spread anything out too much on the pages.

Feedback:

I really appreciated how my group was very welcoming and excited to hear about my story idea. I was a little nervous about taking a slightly more fictional path than I had originally anticipated, however I think it turned out really well. It was also really interesting to hear from one of my group members who was previously a vet tech. They were able to share some information about Wiener dogs and the importance of safety for their backs. They also shared a really good idea about creating a part in the story where Wiggles gets picked up and could have been placed in a backpack to be carried for a bit as a cute moment. Although I really liked this idea, I decided to stick with the determination theme in the children’s book to show that people (or in this case animals) if they try can do hard things.

Overall:

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I loved the use of multimedia and getting to do something hands on. I incorporated audio, visuals, and words to display the use of multimedia. I think the hardest part was planning out the story as I was unsure if it would be okay to take a fictional approach and whether or not my story would be long enough. However although it was on the shorter end, I think I did a good job getting my point across without over/under explaining anything so that it would be easy (especially for kids) to be able to follow along with. As well, I love that I got to go on a hike for this project as I don’t think I would have come up with this idea without the experience of seeing the Wiener dog on my hike.