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Editor's Notes

1. Have this up as people enter the room
2. Have this up as people enter the room
3. GAIL This presentation is designed to represent a range of perspectives on digital storytelling in higher education. At Simmons, I and other faculty members have involved our students in a range of digital story-making assignments over the past six years. Based on formal and informal feedback (observations, surveys, etc.), we’ve refined our process, instructional design, and strategies for support. WE”VE COMPILED OUR LEARNING INTO THE BOOKLET THAT I’M HANDING OUT AS PART OF THIS SESSION But there are really two components to assessing assignments like this – assessing the assignment to improve its design and assessing the learning experience proper. Until recently, we hadn’t followed up with story-makers to elicit their thoughts on how the story-making experience contributed to their learning. So about a year ago, began to conduct follow-up interviews. I then reviewed the interviews, looking for patterns or themes in interviewee responses. This presentation is an outgrowth of that process.
4. GAIL Thanks to Rachel, Ellen, and Vaughn For lending their voices to this presentation so that you could hear their perspectives.
5. Presentation in four parts (CLICK FOR EACH ONE): How are we using digital stories at Simmons? What can story-makers tell us about what it feels like to make a story? What do we learn from listening to learners? Exercise: Put yourself in the learner’s shoes Based on faculty/learner feedback, what’s the educational value of digital stories? Why talk about what it “feels” like? One of the major findings of my interviews is that digital story-making is an embodied learning experience. When I listened to the words they used, and to their comparisons between “traditional” assignments and digital story assignments, it appears that more of themselves is involved, physically and emotionally in addition to intellectually.
6. NOTE FOR PURPOSES OF DEFINITION: Digital storytelling IN GENERAL is the use of digital media and the Internet to serve storytelling purposes. It could involve web pages, maps, mobile phones … the possibilities are endless. HOWEVER, “Digital storytelling” has come to mean a 3-5 minute video produced in final cut or iMovie, often using voice-over narrative and still images. It’s a distinct GENRE of video production. This is because Joe Lambert, of the Center for Digital Storytelling, uses this format for his DS workshops. What follows is an example of a story produced by a faculty member during the 2006 Simmons Faculty Institute.
7. Digital storytelling IN GENERAL is the use of digital media and the Internet to serve storytelling purposes. It could involve web pages, maps, mobile phones … the possibilities are endless. We’ve linked web-page stories to Google Map Example of a first year, introductory assignment for incoming students Boston Story Map Involves placing narratives on a map – linking all of a class’s stories together to create larger meaning. … once the assignment was developed, handouts created, timelines and issues understood, it was easy to adapt this assignment for a completely different use. For example (click) Personal stories of Immigration
8. CLICK TWICE TO SEE TEXT SAMPLE AND VIDEO SAMPLE more recently, we’ve created mash-ups between PBWiki and the Mapping tool Platial Once the assignment was developed, handouts created, timelines and issues understood, it was easy to adapt this assignment for a completely different use. Example of a culminating assignment for first year students Personal stories of Immigration Place markers on a map Link to text, images, and video from that map (use a wiki for this)
9. At Simmons, we’ve used these “classic” digital stories in three contexts: MCC 101, Stories of Service Learning Faculty Institute (faculty make their own DS, with the thought that after they’ve experienced it firsthand, they will be able to make curricular connections) SOM course in Corporate Social Responsibility – digital cases (for example, examination of pesticides in the international cut flower industry, green dry cleaners, etc), some of which will be posted on the Aspen Institute website WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A STORY THAT ELLEN GOODMAN PRODUCED DUING OUR FACULTY INSTITUTE – WARN THAT IT IS HEAVY
10. Produced over three days in the context of a summer institute, facilitated by Joe Lambert of the Center for Digital Storytelling Warn that this is a powerful piece After video – Ellen has since used this piece for a number of purposes. She shared it with her brother, which set the stage for a “healing” conversation that she says would not have been possible otherwise She also presented it at a faculty lunch during which she described the process and benefits with her peers Here’s a typical response that we’ve gathered during the standard evaluation of courses that have use Digital Storytelling (CLICK)
11. This typical of what students are writing in their course evaluations. These quotes were written by graduate students in the Corporate Social Responsibility course final evaluations
12. Have you ever felt this way? Given over to an intense flow of engagement in crafting a project? What was that like? What were the hallmarks of the experience?
13. GAIL? Take 5 minutes to jot down ideas for a story about a learning experience that you’ve had in the past. Criteria: Deeply engaging (lose track of time) Got you thinking about how you learn – helped you learn better moving forward Memorable (still is a vivid recollection) IMPORTANT NOTE: (type is up to you – formal, informal, life experience, etc.)
14. Why get into this? 1. UNDERSTANDING THE GESTALT OF DIGITAL STORYMAKING IS A RESEARCH INTEREST OF MINE. I don’t think we devote enough attention to how learning _feels_. There is a physicality to experiential learning that can’t – and shouldn’t – be denied. It can be difficult to express in words, but we need to do what we can to understand this aspect of the learning experience. Without a nuanced understanding of how different modes of learning feel, it can be difficult, from an instructional design perspective, to understand what types of learning experiences would be best suited to a particular learning goal. 2. COMMENTS ABOUT HOW IT _FELT_ TO MAKE A DIGITAL STORY CAME UP TIME AND AGAIN IN OUR INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENTS. This leads me to believe that digital storytelling is a form of embodied learning.
15. JAMES PAUL GEE – What Video Games have to teach us about learning and literacy Gee came to this conclusion by considering the experience of video gaming. Yet digital authorship is also a complex, physical experience – one that includes most, if not all, of the “36 design principles” that Gee identified in his work on the relationship between games and learning. Yet we often gloss over this dimension of the experience. HERE’S WHAT OUR INTERVIEWEES HAD TO SAY (CLICK)
16. Here is what our interviewees had to say: TITLE: What’s the difference between writing and digital storytelling? TITLE: Difference in flow Vaughn - 00:11:09;26 While you’re writing, either through a keyboard or sitting down and writing in a book, it’s all in your head and coming out through your eyes onto the page. The images that are in your head are becoming the words that your hands are writing. But with iMovie you can take actual images out of the world that you see and show them to other people. 00:11:39;28 Ellen - 00:02:31:? You know it was hard work, but it was good hard work. It was very focused hard work – the kind of thing you can see losing time with. …. Much more time than you have. 00:02:44:17 TITLE: Goes beyond the “five paragraph essay” Rachel - 00:08:52:? When you’re writing a term paper, you’re just using words and you have a structure to do it. But with storytelling, it’s a completely blank board and you can do whatever you want with it. You have all these thoughts in your head about what you want it to be, and you have all these experiences, and you have your journaling, and other things throughout the way. For you to get across your message and what you’re trying to say in a way that’s visual, audio, and with text, I think is really using different parts of your brain.…Using all the senses vs. just reading it. 00:09:43:? TITLE: Can represent internal and external worlds Vaughn - 00:11:52;02 There are so many times when I wish I could record my thoughts, like attach something to my head and let people see what I’m seeing while I’m writing. But with the iMovie I can actually do that. Though it’s not exactly the way I picture it in my head, it’s the best interpretation I can give them. It’s also very real, because it can come out of the actual world 00:12:17;05
17. JAMES PAUL GEE – What Video Games have to teach us about learning and literacy Yet digital authorship is also a complex, physical experience – one that includes most, if not all, of the “36 design principles” that Gee identified in his work on the relationship between games and learning. Yet we often gloss over this dimension of the experience – and in so doing, fail to build them into the instructional design of digital story-making assignments.
18. Henry Jenkins – McArthur-funded New Media Literacies initiative In addition, we need to be intentional about fostering new media literacies. It’s not just enough for the teacher to know that NMLs are embedded in the assignment – we need to build in meta-cognitive opportunities, self- and peer- critique, etc. so that students can examine their development, identify areas in which they need to grow, and make connections across their DS experiences over time and across courses.
19. !!!THIS SLIDE HAS THREE CLICKS!!! If life is like a box of chocolates, then CLICK Digital Storytelling is a lot like three dimensional tic-tac-toe CLICK As opposed to written assignments, which usually only involve effective use of text, successful stories challenge student to make connections (AND meaning AND effective arguments AND provocative statements) across dimensions of time, sound, and image. CLICK
20. So how would you do that if you were asked to make a digital story about a powerful learning experience? NOTE: THIS WORK CAN TAKE DAYS TO DO – THE POINT IS NOT TO CREATE A STORYBOARD, THE POINT IS TO CONSIDER WHAT THIS ASPECT OF THE STORY-MAKING EXPERIENCE FEELS LIKE TAKE 10 MINUTES FOR THIS
21. So how would you do that if you were asked to make a digital story about a powerful learning experience? NOTE: THIS WORK CAN TAKE DAYS TO DO – THE POINT IS NOT TO CREATE A STORYBOARD, THE POINT IS TO CONSIDER WHAT THIS ASPECT OF THE STORY-MAKING EXPERIENCE FEELS LIKE TAKE 10 MINUTES FOR THIS
22. SHARE OUT, then CLICK How can we help faculty incorporate these experiences into their teaching and assess the quality of student work?
23. REFER TO SAMPLE SEQUENCE BOOKLET – THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS OF DESIGN, SEQUENCING, AND SCAFFOLDING BUILD IN LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR FEEDBACK, BREAK IT DOWN INTO PHASES, USE YOUR LMS AS A PLACE FOR SHOWING EXAMPLES, SUBMITTING DRAFTS, GATHERING CONTENT, PROVIDING FEEDBACK, ETC. STUDENTS WILL HAVE WHAT THEY NEED IN HAND WHEN PRODUCTION TIME COMES HOW TO SUPPORT THE REFLECTION AND ANALYSIS COMPONENT OF THE LEARNING PROCESS? RUBRICS ARE PART OF IT NOTE THAT RUBRIC, SAMPLE STORYBOARD, AND SAMPLE LEARNING SEQUENCE ARE IN THE BOOKLET
24. GAIL?
25. LET”S RETURN TO THE QUESTIONS I ASKED YOU TO CONSIDER IN IDENTIFYING A STORY TO MAKE We asked you to try to remember powerful learning experiences that successfully addressed three challenges: Engagement, time on task, refuting and/or refining ideas Metacognition – understanding how they learn, “owning” their learning, learning how to learn Making learning both memorable and manageable DURING INTERVIEWS, WE REALIZED THAT DS ADDRESSES THESE NEEDS IN A PROFOUND MANNER – warn that this is the longest clip of the presentation (CLICK)
26. Here is what our interviewees had to say: TITLE: What’s the educational value of digital storytelling? TITLE: Makes learning memorable Vaughn - 00:34:34;00 It was a memorable time and this is actually something that I can remember. I can’t remember much else about my life, but I can remember certain parts, and this is one of the things that I remember because I have things to remind me and I did have mishaps, and I did have misadventures, and it made it more fun – it was a great semester. It was a very profound learning curve for me that semester. 00:34:55;00 TITLE: Production process fosters reflection … and transformation Ellen - 00:08:48:? There was something about working so intensely and in a concentrated fashion with both the dialogue and then matching photographs to it or some kind of visual image that as a producer or whatever, you are, you know you’re so present with the material and the message you’re trying to convey and how you’re trying to convey it and what you want to say that you also have to think much more deeply and complexly about what it is that you want to say. And I think through that process of analyzing it, you can come up with different versions – gez, I’ve thought about it so much, I actually feel a little bit different about it – now I want to say something different than I thought I was going to say when I started. And I think that’s the feedback loop that the more that you’re with the content and you’re really introspective and you’re reflective about … The telling of the story transforms you and transforms the story. 00:10:00:00 TITLE: Demonstrates the progression of learning Vaughn - 00:02:35;20 I put a lot of effort into it, but in two different ways. Into one class, and then also into life outside of class. And the movie at the end showed my effort and told my story, not only my story, but the story of the kid whom I was tutoring. It showed progression and it was a marker for that whole semester. And it’s a great thing to have, to keep. 00:03:05;18 TITLE: Encourages clarity of expression Ellen - 00:28:33:? I think it is also good to help students organize what they want to say because you have to get very clear about what’s the message. What am I trying to say and why am I trying to say this?… a theme in many fields 00:28:34:? TITLE: Increases student engagement Rachel -~00:05:18:? I think I was a lot more connected to my final projects than I was with a research paper, because it was really from my thoughts, at the end of the day, after I had done the steps along the way, versus an outline that I had turned in.~00:05:29:10 TITLE: Fosters student-centered, authentic learning Ellen - 00:14ish:?:? You’re speaking to a larger audience in some way. … thinking about my own beliefs about what people need to succeed in graduate education and how that’s changing … the work has changed … populations people are serving has changed. It doesn’t mean decreasing standards, it means rethinking standards. And so a process that isn’t strictly a written paper speaks to allowing people of very different kinds of learning abilities to engage in something – as opposed to “write this paper, memorize this for a test. 00:16:15:?
27. GAIL? I’ve talked about the connection between _FEELING_ and _LEARNING_. Research indicates that experiences that are strongly felt (emotionally charged) are more memorable. But memory alone does not constitute learning. For a strong memory to be translated into learning, there needs to be another component – reflection and analysis. Experience Research, Reading, Class Discussion, Lab Experiments, Service Learning, Study Abroad, etc. Reflection/Analysis Sifting through “evidence” (aspects of the experience) to make connections, look for patterns, question prior assumptions, change your mind in light of evidence Enhanced Personal Understanding Becomes part of repertoire, applied to other settings/domains Contribute to Learning Community Share ideas and insights with others (cycle -> learning -> teaching) Henry James once said that “Stories Happen to People who Know how to tell them.” Likewise, learning and meaning-making happens to people who know how to express what they’ve learned. This process shapes the story-maker’s world view – they start seeing stories (and opportunities for learning) in the world around them. EXPERIENCE INCREASES ATTENTIVENESS MOVING FORWARD
28. GAIL? Addresses a range of learning styles The physical process involves/requires intense review of material Multi-modal literacy – DS makers gain new insight into the conventions and “grammar” associated with multimedia authoring. -- authorship is MULTIMODAL and SEMIOTIC (interweave aural, visual, textual domains to make and convey meaning). Also, after having the production experience, they are better positioned to evaluate the credibility of the web pages and videos of others It’s transcendent -- Students embed their own experiences into the work and make connections in/outside class learning As opposed to a term paper, others outside of class/academe may find the product compelling, students are prone to share this type of work with family and friends, extending their discourse about what they have learned (experience embedded in video, video is shared in turn – thus feeding back into their lives outside of class
29. Time for questions and comments – END WITH ELLEN’S CLIP IF THERE IS TIME [NEXT SLIDE]
30. TITLE: Final Thoughts Ellen - 00:33:04:? Learning doesn’t have to be one kind of learning in one way. It brings in so many aspects of thinking and learning that I think it’s wonderful and I think there are plenty of people – there are plenty of people like me who have a right brain and a left brain and they’re only using one half of it most of the time. It’s nice to have something that integrates both aspects. 00:34:00:? LET Ellen Goodman have the last word!