Digital Story Design Document

Part 1

Designer: Kerry Whitehead

Audience:
[Who is the general audience for your story? You should consider age,
culture, language, access to technology and any other audience related
factors that could have an impact on your story. When you write your script,
plan the images and select your technology for completing your story, you
will need to consider your audience.]

My personal reflection is really for any age group.

Story Topic and Personal Connection:

[What is the topic for your story and what is your personal connection to this
topic? The stronger the connection to the story topic, the more compelling
and engaging the finished story will be. Stories are personal so you will want
to consider topics that you can personally connect with.]

My story topic will be focusing on a personal reflection of sending a family member

to the military. I have personal experience with this because my son joined the Air
Force and is currently in Tech School.

Purpose
[What is the purpose in telling this story? You dont want the purpose to be to
complete an assignment for some class you are taking in grad school.
Reallywhy are you telling this story? What compels you to want to share
these thoughts and what do you hope others will experience, feel and do
when they experience your story?]

I want people to understand the sacrifices our military members make to keep our
great nation free. Not only the sacrifices they make but the sacrifices that family
members make. I want people to understand our military members are someones
brother/sister, son/daughter, husband/wife, father/mother.
 Just One Face of Freedom Script
Slide 1
How many times have you said that you support the military? Have you ever really
thought about who the military are? Have you ever really thought about who is
fighting for our freedoms that we enjoy today?

Slide 2
I have said my entire life that I support the military. I have known many people who
have served our great nation. One of our church members served in the U.S. Navy,
my father-in-law served in the U.S. Air Force and my dad served in the U.S. Army.
These are just a few.

Slide 3
I have heard about their experiences in the military. But none of it REALLY hit home
until Feb. 2015 when my 18-year-old son made the decision to join the Air Force.

Slide 4
I want to tell you about one of the faces of freedom. According to the DoD there are
currently 1.3 million faces of freedom.

Side 5 & 6
James Loren was born September 25, 1996. He weighed 8lb 3 oz and was 19 in
long. He had a sister join him in 2000. His first words about her, I dont want her.
LOL. As any parent, you know your child is destined for great thingslittle did I
know. JL always excelled in school and graduated 5 th in his class in 2015.

Slide 7
It has been quite a rollercoaster ride getting him into the Air Force. It started in Feb
2015 when he made the final decision to join. Next was Sept 2015 when we found
out he would ship in Jan 2016 and his job would be tactical aircraft maintenance.

Slide 8
One date that will not soon be forgotten is Jan. 27, 2016. This was the day JL left for
BMT (Basic Military Training) at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. We got to
watch him swear in and take his oath. That was quite a day of emotions. He had
never been on an airplane before. We got his call around 11 p.m. that night that
they had landed at the San Antonio airport.

Slide 9
Our next phone call came that Saturday. He was able to text us his address and
then call and talk to us for 5 minutes. This is normally not the case. We would not
hear from him again until WOT 4 and WOT 6. The only contact with our son was
through letters.

Slide 10
During these 7.5 weeks I had one date in mindThursday, March 17. This would be
when we would get our first glimpse of JL since he left for BMT. JLs graduating
group with 751 recruits was the largest since the 1970s. After the Airmans Run
they have the Coin Ceremony where the trainees become official Airmen. They
receive coins from their MTIs (Military Training Instructors). After the new Airmen
have received their coins they have to remain in formation until they are tapped
out. They must stay in formation until someone taps them on their shoulder or
grabs them in a bear hug. This momma received Thursdays tap out. I have to say
that hug was the best hug I have ever received from him.

Slide 11 & 12
Friday is the Parade and Review ceremony. The new Airmen are dressed in their
dress blues. The Airmen recite their oath and the Airmens Creed. To listen to the
Airmen recite the Creed sent chills up my spine. Once again they must remain in
formation until they are tapped out. Fridays tap out was given to his sister.

Slide 13
Once done with BMT, JL went to Tech School at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita
Falls, TX. He will be a crew chief on F16s. He will graduate Tech School on August
2nd. He will then go for more hands-on training. After that we arent really sure.
But I know thismy boy is having the time of his life. He has found his calling.
Listening to my son talk the talk of planes is AMAZING!

Slide 14
I am one PROUD Air Force mom!

Slide 15
Family members make many sacrifices for their loved ones to be defenders of this
great nation. One of the greatest of those sacrifices is time. JL was my first child to
leave the nest. His father misses his son but definitely held it together a lot
better than I have. His sister misses her brother more than she thought she would.
But once he left she realized how much she loves and misses him. As a parent it is
so gratifying to see them together getting along with each other and taking
advantage of every visit.

Slide 16
I sent my boy to the Air Force and what I got in return was a man. I have never
been more proud of my son. The motto in our family these days is The journey has
just begun. Hang on and enjoy the ride.

Slide 17
So, the next time you say you support the military please keep in mind that our
military has a face. It has 1.3 million faces.

Music I have not figured out exactly where my music will go but I know
that these are the pieces I plan to use
Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder
God Bless the USA Lee Greenwood
America the Beautiful Ray Charles
Bibliography
Charles, R. (2010). America the Beautiful. Retrieved from
https://mp3.gisher.org/songs/2830/

Greenwood, L. (1992). God Bless the U.S.A. Nashville: Capitol Records.

United States, A. Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder.

https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/dwp/dwp_reports.jsp

All images used were searched through Google and had the search parameters of
labeled for reuse
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Demon_Roller_Coaster.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Crew_chief_marshals_an_F-
15_Eagle_during_a_33rd_Fighter_Wing_exercise_Eglin_AFB.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/USAF_logo.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Seal_of_the_United_St
ates_Department_of_the_Navy.svg/2000px-
Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_the_Navy.svg.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Flag_of_the_United_St
ates_Marine_Corps.svg/2000px-Flag_of_the_United_States_Marine_Corps.svg.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/US_Army_logo.svg/76
5px-US_Army_logo.svg.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Coast_Guard#/media/File:US-
CoastGuard-Seal.svg
 Just One Face of Freedom Storyboard
The PowerPoint is embedded just double-click to view the presentation

Different components of the story I need to produce

I still need to record my narration and place my music in the appropriate places. I
have my videos and still pictures in the order that I am happy with. I am waiting
until the end to place my music in my project. I think right now my biggest issue is
recording my narration and making sure everything matches (the narration with the
pictures/videos). I do have a few pictures that I still have not put in yet because I
am waiting on JLs graduation on Aug. 2.

If I look at the different elements of digital storytelling this is what it would look like:
The overall purpose of the story
o To focus on one member of our armed forces that defend the freedoms
that we enjoy today
The narrators point of view
o The point of view I am using is that of a parent sending their child off
to the military
A Dramatic Question or Questions
o Do you REALLY know who is defending your freedom?
 The choice of content
o This is very personal to me. I have never experienced what I am
experiencing/feeling now
Clarity of voice
o I have started practicing for my recording and it is going well
Pacing of the narrative
o That is what I am having to work on
o My issue: do I record and make my pictures fit my narration or do I
try to make my narration fit my pictures/videos?
o Another issue: I am worried about the length of the story. But with
the videos I am using it is just hard to try and keep it short. I do have
it under 10 minutes. I am really trying to keep it under 8 minutes.
Use of meaningful audio soundtrack
o Right now I am planning on using two different songs, maybe three
Ray Charles America the Beautiful
U.S. Air Force Band Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder
maybeLee Greenwoods God Bless the U.S.A.
Quality of the images, video and other multimedia elements
o I have viewed my project many times and the pictures/videos seem to
be of good quality
Economy of the story detail
o I think this is an issue for me. I am worried that I am including TOO
much information. I may have to edit my script as I go through my
recording.
Good grammar and language usage
o I have made sure that my grammar is correct and conversational

Types of technology used to develop these components

I decided to go with Windows Movie Maker. Since I am using so many still pictures I
decided to also use PowerPoint. What I chose to do is put the pictures I wanted to
keep together on a slide. I animated the slide the way I wanted and set a transition
for the slide. I then save the slide as a video. I then pulled in the video into my
project.

Notes:
For me this was a fairly easy process, physically. Emotionally, was a different story.
I did manage to keep it together for this project. I can cry at the drop of a hat when
I talk about my son. Anywayeven though I had never used Windows Movie Maker
before it wasnt that hard for me to figure out.

I would definitely have to evaluate the skills of my students. I would have to do

quite a bit of prep work with the students to make sure they understand how the
program works. Of course theirs would not be as long as mine. I really tried to keep
it under 10 minutes but I just couldnt.
I really enjoyed this project. I would love to incorporate this with our
teachers/students at the secondary level.