Hello, storytellers. In this series of weekly videos, we will be providing an overview of the learning objectives, course content and assignments expected to view each week as you progress through this digital storytelling MOOC. Let's get started with Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning Digital Storytelling. Week 1, choosing a topic and defining your purposes. [MUSIC] This MOOC is based on an intensive 15-week course that we teach at the University of Houston, called Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling. The main purpose of this MOOC is to provide an introduction to Digital Storytelling. So to do that, we've condensed the fifteen weeks of content from our course at the University into a shorter time period of just five weeks that's presented here. So for example, in the graphic on our educational uses of digital storytelling website, there's a diagram of an eight step process for digital storytelling. In this book we have combined some of the steps and created a simplified version of the digital storytelling process that is divided into five steps, which form our five main content weeks. You will learn more about these steps in the video The Digital Storytelling Process, which can be found in the week one course content. But please remember that these five weeks are designed to give you just an introduction digital storytelling. And we're not able to cover every aspect and detail of the digital story telling process in such a brief period of time. The objective of week one is to choose the topic and to define the purpose of your digital story. Week one introduces you to the basics of visual story telling. You will explore the fundamental elements of a good digital story and review examples used by educators across a varied curriculum. This first week's lecture content is a collection of videos that have been designed to help you form an understanding of what a digital story is, as well as some readings on digital stroytellings, applications and education. Furthermore, we have also provide a selection of sample digital stories to help you visualize the different kinds of visual stories that you could potentially create by the end of the course. By the end of this week you will be able to choose a topic and define the purpose of a digital story you will create for your classroom or informal learning setting. Assignment 1 requires that you formulate the general topic, and give a brief description of the digital story that you will create. Additionally you will also participate in the discussion forums, and share some introductory information about yourself. Once these assignments are completed, you're ready to move on to week two. That concludes the first of our weekly overview videos. Have a great week, Story Tellers. And I'm excited to discover the digital stories that you will tell. [MUSIC]