Comments on: End of Semester Thoughts: Digital Storytelling, Wikis, and the Changing Conversation

By: Dan Priest

Dan Priest — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:54:51 +0000

Just a note about digital storytelling:
Maybe it’s just semantics. I could present a “digital story” to you using only images and music and it would be just as valid as one with words. The best example I can think of in terms of this is the marriage montage at the beginning of Pixar’s ‘Up.’ The phrase “digital storytelling” does not make me think that words are a must to get a message across.
Perhaps students need to think of the project in another way. Compare their voice-over to those heard in documentaries: informative and consistent. Or the narrator in ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’: melodic and poetic. Give them an outside connection so that they can apply what they already know to this new genre.
And perhaps your students (just like everybody else) do no like the sound of their voice, and would rather not use it.
Force them.

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By: EVIE JOHNSON

EVIE JOHNSON — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:09:47 +0000

I am just beginning to develop a wiki with my advanced reading students, all of whom are teachers. They are distance ed students and the class is experimental. I wanted to link Troy’s digital writing space to our wiki so they could learn more about wikis, etc. I found the comments on the home page really compelling, and wanted to add some ideas.

Having recently finished a class on storytelling, I guess I would also want students who are building a digital story to reveal their story and storytelling schemata — as well as share samples of what is and what is not a digital story. I’ve seen a lot of digital stories and even multi-genre pieces that are assemblages of assets — lacking story. What is the repetend and how does the digital space open up new possibilites?

And in reflecting on instructional outcomes, the model of hypothesis testing might be interesting to try. Find at least five possible hypotheses for why something did or didn’t work–then have a conversation with colleagues or students. That could be a very cool way to “change the story.” I’m trying this now with a student who observes students in the computer lab doing what they do (gaming, surfing) instead of digging up “prior knowledge” to prepare for a unit on something in a content area. What accounts for these students’ online behaviors? Some answers to that are knee jerk, but what if we think beyond those?

Evie

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:02:46 +0000

Troy,

I’m raising my ugly head from the depths of a dissertation in progress to add one quick comment concerning your thoughts and questions about digital storytelling. I’ve noticed the same thing (although I haven’t worked with this in over a year with students). Often, when something doesn’t seem to work out the way I expect, I ask myself what schemas my students have.

schema + my instructions = product

If the product isn’t what I had in mind, there are two likely culprits: the schema they have for the concept or my instructions. Might be interesting early in the semester to ask them to bring in samples of what they consider to be digital stories – would go a long way to figuring what schemas they have and may help you craft the instructions to modify or replace their schema.

Hope all is well – I’m hoping to be finished by the end of summer – so far I’m on schedule (if not a little ahead of schedule).

Karen