The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling

Activity #1
Element 1:
First Example: The purpose is to briefly show people how salt is harvested.  The point of view and the voices seem to be from the students who created the video.
Second Example:  The purpose of the video is to show how this school is raising fish for a science project.  The point seemed like it could have been from the students or the faculty.  I only remember hearing music, not voices.
Element 2:
Example 1: "Are you making our island ugly?" is the dramatic question.  We did not get an answer but I think it is intended to make people think.
Example 2: The dramatic question could be, "How can we save our natural resources?" There was a resolution to how the woman could save her fish.
Element 3:
Example 1: The emotional paradigm in this video is the difficult feelings most teens have at times that can lead to depression or thoughts of self harm.
Example 2:  I think the emotional paradigm in this video is guilt.
Element 4:
Example 1:  The elderly woman's voice helped the story seem more interesting and credible.
Example 2:  The children's voices are adorable singing and speaking so, yes, they improve the overall effect of the story.
Element 5:
Example 1: The music makes the video's location seem relaxing and shows the culture so I do think it helps the purpose of the video.
Element 6:
The first two examples seemed to make sense and sequence well but the third was missing a lot and did not make sense.  It had a variety of images that did not coordinate with each other or match a theme.
In the first video, it worked well how they quickly went from one slide to the next.  On the slide with the girl in the tree they did not acknowledge she was sleeping in the tree like the other video did.
Element 7:
I did not think the students paced very well in this video.  I feel it was a bit too fast.  At least at the end they could have spoken more clearly, slowly and with more inflection when the young man said, "Practice and be prepared."

Activity #2 

Participant/Observation

The point of view and the voice is from the author and creator of the video.  Maybe the dramatic question (although not really a question) is, "I was supposed to be an observer."  The emotional paradigm is the regret of making a bad decision due to being naive, young and unaware of the gravity of a situation at the time.

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This story is from the point of view and in the voice of the author and creator, a woman who describes the role she is playing in her mother's battle with cancer.  The dramatic question maybe could be, "Water scares me."  It prompts the viewer to think, "Why did water scare her?" or "What made her afraid of water?"  The emotional content is strong with incidences of the bond between mother and daughter, stress in crisis, watching a loved one suffer with illness and helping someone through a difficult situation.

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This video is in the point of view and the voice of the creator.  The essential question could be, "How did he get his father to stop beating him with the garden hose?".  The emotional content includes the struggles between parent and child, the struggle of being physically abused, the struggle of being abused by a parent and the feeling of reliving a painful childhood memory.