Story of Stuff

I would like to finalize my last post on the IIT projects that our hardworking Graduate Assistants are working on but there is some additional information that may be included and so I will delay that post.



Instead, I will share a very interesting and informative piece of web based interactive multimedia designed to educate Americans about the underside of our production and consumption patterns - Story of Stuff

You can watch a short preview of the video to see if it interests you.

Produced by Free Range Studios and narrated by Annie Leonard, this video
exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

The short movie is just that, a fact-filled video that teaches the viewer through the use of great design utilizing audio, video and animation.

From an instructional design stand point, the website was well designed for educational value and holds some more great content for learning about the topics brought up in the movie.

• The movie has a great navigation sequence for short clips of the major issues.
• A user can sign up for email notifications for more information.
• There is a blog that Annie posts about issues and feedback on these issues in which readers can post comments directly to Annie.
• There is a additional resources for in-depth details about topics that were presented.
• Volunteers can host screening of the movie as an introduction to the topic. The page also includes down loadable PDF's for everything needed to organize an event.
• Also, there is a download section for people to publish the information and content onto their own sites, blogs allowing for maximum web penetration.

This combination of features is a great strategy for quickly and effectively conveying the goals of the organization as well as give us great insight into all the stuff in our lives that affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. It is great work and I hope you can watch and enjoy the movie.