One of the predicted downfalls of digital media was that the original pioneering spirit of creativity and sharing would succomb to monetization. After the original hosting service discontinued my videos on its library, I was frantic to recover what the company who hosted my paid subscription did not value and deleted (along with a small, but vital video catalog. I was beyond relieved to find that Edublogs retained the original video. This is the backup of the original video posted on March 6, 2020.
I am so grateful to Edublogs for maintaining the special creative relationship with its bloggers.
Digital paranoia has caused me to re-record, save, and re-upload the original mp4 file. Here is the re-recorded, re-save, and reposted file.
Visual Learning (Mayer, 2001) is the basis for successful educational Professional Development (PD). To design an impactful Professional Development (PD) session, educators and Instructional Designers (ID) utilize trusted tools. They follow the following actionable “Do’s and Don’ts” to avoid cognitive overload, engage learners, and model best practices for peer educators.
Presentation Design & Cognitive Load
DO:
Keep it concise: Follow Mayer’s Spatial Contiguity Principle (Mayer, 2001) by placing minimal text alongside relevant visuals to prevent information overload. Use short bullet points on slides and expand verbally (Mayer & Moreno, 1998).
Utilize dual-channel encoding: Pair simple graphics and images with spoken (verbal) information rather than relying strictly on text blocks (Mayer & Moreno 1998).
Design for accessibility: Choose high-contrast text and built-in slide layouts to ensure screen readers can easily interpret the content (Ayres, 2025).
Use a background or your slide show. The background you choose can be another visual learning source (Teague, 2025).
Do Not:
Leave media uncontextualized: Do not drop (or post) an audio or video file onto the screen without providing informative titles, descriptions, and a clear purpose (Teague, 2025).
Use animation and text simultaneously: Do not animate text as it forces learners’ brains to follow both moving images and text at the same time, risking cognitive overload (Rutgers Online Learning Conference, 2023).
Clutter your slides: Avoid flashy transitions or stuffing too much data onto a single screen, which distracts from the core learning objectives (Martin & Novak, 2021; Rutgers Online Learning Conference, 2023).
Video & Audio Elements
Do:
Segment videos into chunks: Keep your videos in the 3 – 6 minutes time duration (Ayres, 2025; Bote-Vericad, 2026; Wordley, et al., 2024). This allows you to pause for quick reflections or hands-on activities.
Prioritize audio quality: The subconscious heavily judges a presentation’s quality based on sound. Always test your microphone and record in a quiet room.
Keep a personal, authentic feel: Avoid making videos feel like a formal lecture. Speak with conversational enthusiasm and maintain eye contact (Cheng, 2026; Guerrero & Miller, 1998, Liew, et al., 2020; Wallwork, 2026) .
Do Not:
Use distracting backgrounds: Do not film with strong light sources (such as windows) behind you, as this will cast shadows and obscure your visibility (Rutgers Online Learning Conference, 2023; Teague, 2025).
Although it is tempting to speak extemporaneously (Wordly, et al., 2024) a best practice for educational videos designed for adult colleagues in PD is to use a script or transcript (Ayres, 2025; Stoica, et al., 2021).
Facilitation & Collaboration
DO:
Model the strategies: Demonstrate exactly how you want educators to teach by experiencing it firsthand. If you use interactive tools like Miro, explain why you are using them (Martin & Novak, 2021).
Build in frequent breaks and collaboration: Provide structured peer dialogue and short inclusion activities to keep educators engaged. Include regular “What-I-Need” (WIN) breaks (Martin & Novak, 2021).
Do Not:
Overwhelm with too much tech at once: Do not try to implement every digital tool available simultaneously. Ease participants into multimedia instruction to avoid overwhelming them (Ayres, 2025; The Classroom Nook, 2023).
References
Ayres, P., & Ackermans, K. (2025). Some do’s and don’ts of educational videos. Learning and Instruction, 96, 102077.
Bote-Vericad, J. J. (2026). Information-seeking and content creation: The impact of YouTube educational videos on learning practices in library and information science. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 58(1), 270-284.
Cheng, F. W. (2026). How EFL students experience and adapt to asynchronous video interviews: The need for a multimodal ESP instruction. ESP Today, 14(1), 2-22.
Guerrero, L. K., & Miller, T. A. (1998). Associations between nonverbal behaviors and initial impressions of instructor competence and course content in videotaped distance education courses. Communication Education, 47(1), 30-42.
Liew, T. W., Tan, S. M., Tan, T. M., & Kew, S. N. (2020). Does speaker’s voice enthusiasm affect social cue, cognitive load and transfer in multimedia learning?. Information and Learning Sciences, 121(3-4), 117-135.
Martin, K. & Novak, K. (2021 ). 6 tips for setting up virtual professional learning sessions. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/6-tips-setting-virtual-professional-learning-sessions/
Mayer, R. E. (1997). Multimedia learning: Are we asking the right questions. Educational Psychologist, 32, 1-19.
Mayer, R.E, (2001). Multimedia learning. Cambridge University Press.
Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (1998). A cognitive theory of multimedia learning: Implications for design principles. Journal of educational psychology, 91(2), 358-368.
Rutgers Online Learning Conference (2023). Do’s and Don’ts of Video 15 Tips in 15 Mins. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XqckEyRwSRE?si=8M7QQj9sn2C2E8Nq
Saunders, L., & Wong, M. A. (2020). Designing instructional materials. Instruction in Libraries and Information Centers. https://iopn-pb.library.illinois.edu/pressbooks/instructioninlibraries/chapter/designing-instructional-materials/
Stoica, A. S., Heras, S., Palanca, J., Julian, V., & Mihaescu, M. C. (2021). Classification of educational videos by using a semi-supervised learning method on transcripts and keywords. Neurocomputing, 456, 637-647.
Teague, H. (2025). Visual learning through videos. 10-Rep Learning-Edublogs. https://4oops.edublogs.org/2025/09/04/visual-learning-through-videos/
The Classroom Nook (2023). Creating a multimedia-rich classroom: 3 tips for success. (From the Upgrade Your Teaching with Multimedia Workshop Series: Part 10). https://www.classroomnook.com/blog/multimedia-instruction-part-10
Reflection on Patriot Day, 2024 and the Healing Impact of Artwork
“The most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.” ~Dr. David Ausubel
Diaries, Journals, notes, and transcripts are linguistic artifacts of reflection. These archival artifacts help us to retrace our thoughts and actions (Button, 2023). Diaries, Journals, notes, and transcripts are linguistic artifacts of reflection. These archival artifacts help us to retrace our thoughts and actions (Button, 2023).
Artwork in all media formats is another pivotal act of reflection. “In times of emotional unrest, children often express themselves through art,” (9/11 Museum, 2023). There were 72 million children, most who experienced indirectly the events and trauma of September 11, 2001 (Del Rosario, 2021).
Hope Buzzelli, who was born just two months after September 11, 2001, is the daughter of Pasquale Buzzelli, the structural engineer who was found alive on top of the rubble and ashes of the fallen Twin Towers (Hasson, 2017; History Channel, 2021). Pasquale Buzzelli was trapped inside the north tower of the World Trade Centre as it collapsed, and he fell 18 floors to the ground and was rescued alive and barely injured (60 Minutes Australia, 2021).
Hope, like so many of the children who survived and observed expressed her emotions, memories, and thoughts through art. Today, as a young adult, Buzzelli’s artwork is her emotive outpouring and her vocation as an artist in New York. She still paints wearing the sweatshirt from Ladder 20 FDNY.
Creating and representing events, thoughts, and recollections through artwork is an important expressive and psychological benefit (Malchiodi, 2003; 2018; 2020. Visual renderings stimulate two to three times as much narrative than just talking alone (Gross & Haynes, 1998). A visual collection of 75 renderings by children ages five to eighteen was the result of a collaboration by the New York University Child Study Center and the Museum of the City of New York. In 2002, this artwork was collected in the book “The Day Our World Changed” by Harry Abrams. The Day Our World Changed is on sale through traditional booksellers. This book is also available for reading without charge at the Open Library, a section of the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/dayourworldchang00good/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater
For Personal Reflection- only if appropriate and not trauma-inducing for you: Please take a few moments or many minutes to digitally click through the page of artwork contained in the online book, The Day Our World Changed.
References
60 Minutes Australia (2021). 9/11 survivor remembers the horrific terror attacks 20 years later | 60 Minutes Australia. [Video File.]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRpzOaFmUQM
Abrams, H. (2002). The day our world changed. Open Library. https://archive.org/details/dayourworldchang00good/page/38/mode/2up?view=theater
Ausubel, D. P. (1968). Educational psychology: A cognitive view. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Del Rosario, A. (2021). History Channel Sets 9/11 20th Anniversary Programming Slate With Four Documentaries. Deadline. https://deadline.com/2021/08/history-channel-9-11-20th-anniversary-programming-slate-four-documentaries-1234816409/
Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (1998). Drawing facilitates children’s verbal reports of emotionally laden events. Journal of experimental psychology: applied, 4(2), 163. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-898X.4.2.163
Hassan, S. (2017). And then there was Hope. The Valley Echo. https://pvhsecho.com/and-then-there-was-hope/
History Channel (2021). 9/11: The Legacy.
Luke Button Blog, (2023, May 22). 4 Strategies To Remember An Idea That You Forgot. https://www.lukebutton.co/blog/how-to-remember-ideas
Malchiodi, C. (2021). What We Learned from Children’s Drawings of 9/11. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/arts-and-health/202109/what-we-learned-children-s-drawings-911
Malchiodi, C. (2020). Trauma and expressive arts therapy: Brain, body, and imagination in the healing process. New York: Guilford Press.
Malchiodi, C. (2014). Neurobiology, creative interventions and childhood trauma. In C. Malchiodi, (Ed.), Creative Interventions with Traumatized Children (pp. 3- 23). New York: Guilford Press.
Malchiodi, C. (2003). Art therapy and the brain. In C. Malchiodi (ed.), Handbook of Art Therapy (pp. 17-26). New York: Guilford Press.
Today at 11:30am, our Creative Classroom Presentation Features a “How-Focused” approach to Digital Storytelling and its implementation in your classroom. The location is the Library at the Tampere University of Technology (TUT).
The main idea of our presentation:
All learners benefit from the opportunity to harness their imagination through the creation of a story using digital tools
Creativity Should Be: *Unique *Useful *Task Appropriate
Pedagogical constructs connect Socio-Cultural, Cognitive, and Affective Learning cognates
This presentation has instructional and pedagogical application for K-12th grade. It is scalable for global audiences, which is good because our venue, #CCEFinland features participants from 21 countries.
PBS Learning Media has thousands of lesson plans that embed creativity and digital technology. Go to https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/ to explore the full library of lesson plans and resources.
Confined on the XR train traveling to Tampere? Stuck in the States without a travel budget? Follow our presentation via QR Code or shortened link:
We’ve all experienced the thrill of engaging students in a digital storytelling project, guiding them to include content and deep analysis… only to have the excitement stall during the visual image search phase. Image searches may face pitfalls such as unsafe image returns, lack of citation information, failure to adhere to copyright, and inability to download or link to the image.
Age Appropriate Images – All images are appropriate for the school setting, thanks to Flickr and Pixabay SafeSearch and our proprietary filters – Read More
Automatic Citation – Downloaded images automatically cite the author and the image license terms – Read More
Creative Commons – All photos shown are, to the best of our (and Flickr’s / Pixabay’s) knowledge, licensed by Creative Commons for public use
Photos may be downloaded and saved or accessed via link. Photos may also be shared among 12 social media sites.
I tried several search terms and found Photos For Class to return robust results for not only digital storytelling projects but also for hyperdocs, illustrated journals, website icons, social media posts, and blog posts. Halloween is usually a minefield of both savory and unsavory images but the image below was harvested from the Photos For Class site. Attribution for use in citations appears as a caption in a black border at the bottom of the photo.
Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/12707238@N00/22622863856/
Prioritizing meaning making in Digital Storytelling: A Latte with Angeline Koh
The Hotel Jen in Singapore is known for steaming salted caramel lattes served in a tiny cafe surrounded by artwork, photographs of Singapore landmarks, tall chairs, and gentle nudges toward languid conversation.
Today was the perfect day for sips and smiles with my friend, Angeline Koh. Angeline is the Director / Principal Storytelling Coach at Tyros Global. Angeline’s digital storytelling work has been featured in a National Day Rally for Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
On my first trip to Singapore, my fellow doctoral colleague, Oscar Guzman, arranged for Angeline Koh to speak to our digital storytelling SIG (special interest group). Then, the first insight I learned from Angeline Koh is that “Conversations become as much about story-telling as ‘story-listening'” (Koh, personal communication, March 17, 2015). Angeline and I went on to co-present a digital storytelling session for Pepperdine GSEP Student/Alumni Symposium in 2016.
Today, I had my notebook ready to learn more.
As our latte’s cooled, Angeline agreed to speak a little about the universal appeal of digital storytelling.
The sharing of ideas, experiences, and cultural perspectives found in digital storytelling videos has the potential to shape a common and dynamic cultural and historical heritage, background (Barab & Duffy, 2000) while intersecting and strengthening different perspectives (Beare, 2008) and building trust (Copeland, S., & De Moor, 2018).
Angeline Koh promotes storytelling as a tool for empowerment for us to “live our great story.”
Angeline enthusiastically encourages the art of storytelling expression reflecting “a community with a significant history, a common cultural heritage” (Barab & Duffy, 2000, p. 14).
Digital storytelling provides opportunities for many people in healthcare, business, and education to utilize multimodal affordances in meaningmaking (Teague & Pruett, 2016; Kress, 2010).
Digital storytelling production forms a foundational commonality that mirrors Lave’s anthropological conclusion that “meaning is connected to practices and contexts” (in Barab & Duffy, 2000). The meaning-making experience is pivotal to obliterate bias in communication, increase awareness of stereotypes among generations, and encourage open channels of dialogue
These digital storytelling conversations often extend beyond the contest submission incident to additional conversations. Students describe a strengthening of their identity and seeing themselves included in the aging continuum. Identity is
a vital and essential component of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998). Stories from older adults to the younger, listening student, reflect the older adults’ identity and purpose. They offer a shared knowledge between the senior subject of the photo and the younger student apprentice. Continual dialogue prevents a community of practice from becoming a “hostage” to understanding (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 10). As a result of the contest experience, a nurtured practice
develops. The practice is a shared history of intergenerational learning in an ongoing, social and interactive arena (Lave and Wenger, p. 101).
Or, as Angeline says, “You can tell a story. Digitally.”
Thank you, Angeline, for a very enlightening Latte break!
(l to r) Angeline Koh and Helen Teague, Hotel Jen, Singapore
Barab, S. A., & Duffy, T. (2000). From practice fields to communities of practice. Theoretical foundations of learning environments, 1(1), 25-55.
Copeland, S., & De Moor, A. (2018). Community Digital Storytelling for Collective Intelligence: towards a Storytelling Cycle of Trust. AI & SOCIETY, 33(1), 101-111.
Hardy, P., & Sumner, T. (Eds.). (2018). Cultivating compassion: How digital storytelling is transforming healthcare. Springer.
Koh, Angeline. Personal Communication, Singapore. March 15, 2015.
Kress, G. (2010) Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge.
Lave, J., Wenger, E., (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation (Vol. 521423740). Cambridge: Cambridge university press.
Teague, H., & Pruett, C. (2016, April). Intergenerational Digital Storytelling Goes Global and Mobile: The Images of Aging Photocontest. In Global Learn (pp. 414-419). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning as a social system. Systems Thinker, 9(5), 2-3.
It is a unique situation to begin a weekend across the International Dateline. I am posting on Friday here in Singapore, yet it is still Thursday in the U.S. My thoughts continue to center on stories, storytelling, and digital storytelling. I’m looking forward to my visit with Singapore’s Digital Storytelling coach, Angeline Koh. Read my post about our conversation tomorrow at this link.
Here is your weekend Ed. Quote on stories, storytelling, with a peek to the opportunities for digital storytelling.
