Story or Storytelling?

Bernajean Porter tweeted a link yesterday to an article she wrote about digital storytelling. Here's why this is not just another article to read. Let me explain.

WebQuests and Digital Storytelling have been two of my interests for many years.

Americans Bernie Dodge and Tom March, from San Diego State, created the WebQuest method in 1995 and Dana Atchley has been credited for starting the Digital Storytelling movement back in 1993 which was later adapted and refined by Joe Lambert in the late '90s.

Why these two examples?

Well, as many of us who work with teachers and students do as early adopters, we try the latest method with the hopes of engaging and motivating teachers and students to go deeper in their daily school work and have a meaningful learning experience. But do we really get it? [read me]

I remember my first WebQuest attempt back in 1999 being no more than an electronic scavenger hunt. Bernie Dodge's method requires higher order thinking and transformation of knowledge. I remember my first digital story was really just a retell of a story about my Grandfather. Bernajean talks about living in your story and lessons learned.

So what do Bernie Dodge and Bernajean Porter have in common?

Well, they articulate in various ways, through websites, podcasts, articles and books, just what it takes to create a WebQuest or Digital Story. They talk about what is required to go deeper. These two methods of communication require a deeper understanding that, for me, didn't happen right away. After all, I was trying to make sense of it from books, podcasts, articles and the exemplars offered having not sat in on a session by Bernajean or Bernie.

Bernajean explains the elements of digital storytelling very well in the article above. For me, this is good timing as I prepare another resource for the provincial level. For many of us who will be attending NECC in D.C. this is also good timing before our "Birds of a Feather" meetup with Bernajean next Tuesday.

So, if you want to "go deeper" when you create a digital story, I suggest you read Bernajean's article or better yet, listen as she explains the process . Bernajean explains the difference between stories and storytelling.

If you are like me, you'll need it repeated over and over again to get it just right.

Digital Storytelling - Gr. 7 to 9 History

"..they had students produce a series of digital images to visually communicate meaning and provide a narration for the video.."

Source: M.D. Roblyer, 4th edition, 2006, page 298.

Many of us have either read an edition of M.D. Roblyer's Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching, or purchased our own copy.

Back in May of 2000 the 2nd edition of this book was my very first Amazon.com purchase. Back then, there were no mentions of digital storytelling.

I am happy to note that digital storytelling, and some various morphs of the original craft, is mentioned on the following pages of the 4th edition:

Pages 297 - 298: Producing series of digital images.
Pages 253 and 354: As a top 10 strategy for technology in social studies.
Pages 358 - 359: As a strategy during the study of history.

On page 358 of the 4th edition digital storytelling is defined as:

"..the process of using images and audio to tell the stories of lives, events, or eras. With this technique, students use personal narrative to explore community-based history, politics, economics, and geography. These projects offer students the opportunity to make their own lives a part of their scholarly research."

This quote is listed as part of a technology integration idea for the study of Anne Frank in 7th to 9th grade history.

The possibilities are many!

Story Circle - Digital Storytelling Around the World

Update: I was very surprised to find my very first digital storytelling project listed in this book on page 40. It is the one run in 2006 in Belleville, Ontario.

Gareth Morlais talked about this book on his blog a while back and after trying to find the least expensive price, it has arrived today. I think this may be the book I've been waiting for.

As I've mentioned before, I got hooked on digital storytelling back in 2004 when I discovered the Scott County digital stories. Just a year later during the winter of 2004-2005, I brought digital storytelling to our school district after putting together a digital storytelling proposal which ended up to be a digital storytelling writers' workshop, day long session in 8 different locations for enrichment writers. In all we taught about 128 children how to tell a compelling digital story about their lives.

Fast forward to 2009 and Story Circle, Digital Storytelling Around the World, edited by J. Hartley and K. McWilliam has been published.

After having read the 5 page list of contributors, which reads like a Who's Who of digital storytellers, I really can't wait to get started reading this one. Here are the names of two contributors from the list.

Joe Lambert Co-Founder and Executive Director, Center for Digtial Storytelling.
Daniel Meadows, Creative Director, Capture Wales 2001 to 2006.

Usually I flick to the chapter I think will interest me most - - not this time. For me this will be a cover-to-cover read. That way I can prolong the fun!

So, if you decide to check this book out of your local library or purchase it, I'd like the opportunity to have a conversation with you about anything from the book. We could start here in the comments section or create a wiki or a book-blog.

There are a couple of good quotes on the back cover, but I won't spoil your fun and write them here just in case you decide to read this one!

Note: Go ahead and use any of the ideas from my digital storytelling proposal if you wish.

CBC Digital Archives - Primary Sources

"The most powerful way to immerse students in critical thinking using digital video is to engage them in student authorship - - that is, creating video. As students compose a documentary using historical artifacts, they learn the content, develop their research and primary-source analysis skills, and even come to understand the interpretive nature of historical accounts."

Quote by T.C. Hammond and J. Lee

With the 65 anniversary of D Day just a couple of days away - "The sun was just coming up over the Normandy coast at about 5 a.m. on June 6, 1944 – D-Day." there is no better way to introduce our students to this event than by using our historical archives.

The CBC Digital Archives has 13 television clips and 14 radio clips on the topic. Primary sources at hand for our young people. Why not have our students create a special video using materials from the archives.

Developing Digital Short Films

One of my favourite reference guides in my digital storytelling library is a book by Sherri Sheridan: Developing Digital Short Films.

The book is divided into 4 parts with part 1 devoted to Digital Storytelling. This section is packed with ideas, quotes, graphics, charts, notes, and suggestions.

Here are a couple of quotes from page 18:

• The first and primary goal of a filmmaker is to evoke a series of strong emotional responses from the audience throughout the entire story.
• You engage the audience when you tell the truth emotionally based on your own experiences and original insights about life in your film.
  

On page 27 there are some well written questions on "Being a Filmmaker".
"It's a great responsibility to be a filmmaker....

1. How do you want people to feel when they see your film?
2. What emotional responses are you trying to evoke?
3. What are the new themes for the 21st century that you are passionate about developing in your own stories?"

Page 36 speaks to how people often choose films based on what type of emotional ride or world they are craving to experience. The author calls this segment: "Story Flavors: 37 Varieties" - - Many topics are defined including historical, personal, societal, biographical.

So, I recommend this book to you. Perhaps your local library has a copy. Well worth reading.

Telling Stories with Video

I was very encouraged to see the June/July 2009 Learning & Leading with Technology magazine's Learning Connections segment.

This month's segment devotes a full 10 pages to using video in the classroom. Here's the link to my favourite of the lot.

Telling Stories with Video

by Carl A. Young and Sara Kajder

Professors Young and Kajder write about how important video is as a part of students' multimodal learning. Here's a quote from the article.

"integrating visual images with written text, as done in most digital stories and multimodal compositions, enhances and accelerates comprehension. Meaning here is more layered, interactive and complex. Text and pictures often convey more meaning when juxtaposed. This effect is further intensified with digital video, where motion, design, and interactivity are added to the mix."