Communication Basics [en]

[graciellehigino]

Here is the lesson folder.

[why?] We are going to start with communication basics because we need to build a common background with participants. It is important that everyone think about why it is important to communicate their research, how we can do it and get familiarized with communication jargons.

[how?] This is the basic outline of this lesson:

• [x] 1. What is science communication?
• [x] 2. Why is it important?
• [x] 3. Research and fake news.
• [x] 4. Building your Persona.
• [x] 5. Storytelling.
• [x] 6. How to avoid jargon.
• [x] 7. Bonus: communicating with the press, with the government and with the industry.

You can help by creating fancy slides in Google Presentations using our template, making an activity roadmap in a md in the folder or in Google Docs using our template, gathering resources in a md file in the folder (or here in the Issue) or giving feedback here in the issue.

Please, consider taking a look at our tips on making our lessons more accessible.

[what?] An 8h lesson on communication basics.

[opendigitalsafety]

For research and fake news, you could start a conversation by having people play with Factitious:

http://factitious.augamestudio.com/#/

Then, once they've played that game, you could introduce them to the CRAAP Test:

https://libguides.cmich.edu/web_research/craap

Finally, you could give them several resources that they could use the CRAAP Test on--like news articles, blogs, data sets, statistics, and scholarly research.

[opendigitalsafety]

For storytelling, I sometimes help students make digital stories about their research. This is what I do:

1. Ask students some questions. What is the definition of a story? What is its purpose? What do you think the history of storytelling is? What does it mean to be a storyteller? What does it mean to make a counter story or a counter narrative?

2. Ask the students if they've ever made a short video or film. What did you make? What tools did you use to make it? What was your video's purpose, subject, and audience?

3. Ask the students if they know what a script is. Have you made a script for a film or video? What does it look like? How is the genre of script-writing different from other genres, like newspaper writing or academic writing? (We usually end up speaking about how, in scripts, everything has to be seen or heard.)

4. Have the students write super short scripts. Here, I give the students 10-15 minutes to write a short script. It can be about anything. It could be about their research or what they ate for breakfast. It could be fictional.

5. Have the students analyze their scripts and brainstorm about images, video clips, sound effects, and music they might want to use. Now, I have the students look at what they wrote and think about what images they might have to find. For example, if they mention "apple" in their script, they could find an image of an apple, an apple tree, or an orchard. Looking at their script, they might decide they want happy music or scary music or weird music. At this stage, we also begin speaking about copyright and how, if they make all their own images and music, they don't have to worry about copyright. But if they want to use things that others made, then they have to be aware of licenses. After all, if they make a video with their favorite pop song, and if they post it to YouTube, it will get taken down in one second.

6. Look for images, music, and sounds that are free and open to use. Now that the students have made their script, and now that we've thought about the materials we need, we can look for things online to use. I often recommend students use sites like unsplash.com, pexels.com, freemusicarchive.org, and http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/ I also show them how they can find licenses for images and sounds in Google, Flickr, and YouTube.

7. Put everything together in WeVideo. The free version of WeVideo isn't too bad for making digital stories, though you do end up with an ugly watermark on it. In WeVideo, I show the students how to upload images, video, music, and sounds. For editing, I focus on making images fill the screen--as well as dropping in fades and putting in animations (like the Ken Burns effect). For audio, I go over how to cut and splice it as well as how to adjust levels. We also speak about how to get a good sound recording when you record yourself reading your script. Here is the WeVideo link: https://www.wevideo.com/

8. Caption for accessibility. This is absolutely the most important step. Using WeVideo, I show the students how to write and edit their captions. By putting in this work, I think the students not only make their videos more accessible but also learn about how precisely their images need to go with their sounds and words.

[graciellehigino]

Superb tips, @opendigitalsafety ! Thank you SO MUCH! ❤️ Those are great ideas for the activities.

[graciellehigino]

A little heads up: the lesson is almost finished! I need feedback on the activities because they need to be very clear. Here are the links:
Slides
Activity 01 - simplify your words
Activity 02
Activity 03

@mlbonatelli could you pleeaase take a look? ❤️

[graciellehigino]

Watch Your Words - Science vocabulary with dual meanings
Mock Interviews – Practice Makes Perfect
Storytelling Training Exercises and Resources
Spacetime Labs
3M Guidebook on Storytelling

[mlbonatelli]

I am on it! :D

2018-07-17 22:08 GMT-03:00 Gracielle Higino notifications@github.com:

A little heads up: the lesson is almost finished! I need feedback on the activities because they need to be very clear. Here are the links: Slides https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gJ0DbWRYvKdgpzCfLOLcOn7jGwrhcdYArGSeNmkN-i8/edit?usp=sharing Activity 01 - simplify your words https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vduiJJc6TjTsuSVW7rNehEaIhbkJ8HZFpKrInwVHdls/edit?usp=sharing Activity 02 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HRVYhXNt2zf7iTT-Ts6kNguZG6cktjUzdPZFze-H7e4/edit?usp=sharing Activity 03 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wDTUh8FyMgD9j8t6lpfXRdiYd4qj54YqlkjXC3Efg8s/edit?usp=sharing

@mlbonatelli https://github.com/mlbonatelli could you pleeaase take a look? ❤️

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/graciellehigino/IGNITE/issues/7#issuecomment-405776477, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/Aj28AvPKIXVj3dOcg2UJJqL9Fj25WPWMks5uHoqigaJpZM4TLW9_ .

-- Maria Letícia Bonatelli Biologist at University of Campinas MSc. in Science at Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture/ University of São Paulo PhD in Science at Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture/ University of São Paulo Cel. +55 19 9.9204-4886

[graciellehigino]

I've been thinking about adding some activities to plan a scicomm product, such as a project canvas, ideation, etc. What do you think? This is an example of an activity to explore what you know about your project
Resources from Strategyzer

[mlbonatelli]

Wooow! Really nice :D

[graciellehigino]

Pasting here to remember to make English versions of them: Modelo_de_projeto-Canvas.pdf Modelo_de_projeto-Canvas_Splash.pdf

[graciellehigino]

[PT-Br] Boas práticas para cientistas conversarem com jornalistas.

[graciellehigino]

Versão 2.0 PT-Br do Básico para completar durante o Retreat2019