Alebrije, a digital story project, narrates the impact of Pedro Linares’ artwork in Mexican folk art. Alebrijes are whimsical and fantastical creatures of our imaginations. The intended audience are undergraduate students.

Thoughts on creating this digital story project

When I designed this digital story, I followed these two principles:

• The Redundancy Principle “explain visuals with words in audio or text but not both” (p. 131).
• The Personalization Principle as “that people learn better when e‐learning environments use a conversational style of writing or speaking (including using first‐ and second‐person language), polite wording for feedback and advice, and a friendly human voice.” (p. 179).

Some factors that I took into consideration:

• Pronunciation and intonation. As a non-native English speaker, I decided to speak slowly and try to enunciate each word. There was a section that I encountered a problem reading my script, but I believe viewers will understand my accent. 
• Time constraint. It took me three days to draft a script and storyboard. However, I modified the storyboard several times to utilize the limited CC resources on the topic. For editing, it took me a day to use the video editing software.
• On-screen text. The only text on the screen is the Spanish word: alebrije.
• Background sound. I limit the use of background sound to the dream sequence to enhance the oneiric effect.
• I decided to use Creative Commons (CC) licensed and Public Domain resources. Even though there is an extensive library for CC resources, the material is limited compared with copyrighted material creating a limitation in selecting or adapting audiovisual material.
• Video editing. To create and edit the video, I used the iMovie app, which is included in any Mac computer. iMovie has limited capabilities in editing video and audio. 
• The format of the digital story project is a simple narration. At the end of the story, I invite the viewer to buy an alebrije creating a conversation style (The Personalization Principle).
• There is always room for improvement. I can ask a native English speaker to read the script. Perhaps, I can use copyrighted resources for educational purposes (fair use) to enhance the video.

Reference

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning. Wiley. 

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