Digital Storytelling and Dynamic Media

1. Digital Storytelling and Dynamic Media By Aimee Sirna, Portsmouth City Public Schools

2. Minutiae, by Mark Rubin-Toles • Check out this digital story from the Center for Digital Storytelling. • Select the film’s title from the bottom right corner, and click to play. • How many of you can relate?

3. Introduction • I am an art teacher with 10 years of teaching experience, all at the elementary level. I have 800 students and adhere to the VA Art SOLs as well as our PCPS Art Curriculum guide. I have a Promethean Board and maintain a blog and wiki. • The purpose of this presentation is to tell why digital storytelling and dynamic media belong in our diverse curriculums, and to make the classroom process of creating a digital story more clear. • I hope to inspire listeners to take on new technology projects and try something new!

5. Tools For Success • Here in Portsmouth, we have access to all tools needed for digital storytelling. These are: • Computers: Mobile or Computer Labs • Headsets and Microphones • Digital and Flip Cameras • The freedom to maintain blogs and wikis. • Technology Resource Teachers who love to help.

6. Rationale • Digital storytelling and dynamic media help students to develop understanding because these processes require higher-order thinking skills, traditional research methods, and critical thought. Students are more apt to develop understanding during these tasks because often, they are making their own choices about content and responding to the essential questions in unique ways.

7. Important Definitions & Examples • Dynamic media: Presenting information in a way that is re-mixable, sharable, social, interactive, multilayered, and mobile (Bull & Garafalo, 2009). • YouTube, a site for social sharing of videos • Facebook, a social media tool

8. Important Definitions and Examples • Digital storytelling Using modern technology to tell a story. Features the following components: call to adventure, problem solving transformation, Closure (Ohler, 2005). • There are several examples of digital stories in this presentation!

9. Important Definitions and Examples • Web 2.0 : A catch-all term for web applications that facilitate the creation, social sharing, and discussion of dynamic media projects. • Voicethreads: upload pictures, sequence, comment, and share. • Pageflakes: pulls the latest feeds from all your favorite blogs.

10. Important Definitions and Examples • Essential question A major content-related question that functions as a focus for students while emphasizing critical and creative thinking. The essential question is always reflective of the unit or lesson’s key concept (Greenville Public Schools). • How does the surrealist artwork of Salvador Dali reflect an interest in psychology? • What role does water play during the stages of a ceramic work of art?

11. A digital story for Art Education • Essential Questions: How do paintings from the Surrealist movement reflect an interest in psychology and dreams? What sensory and emotional responses are evoked by Surrealist art? • Objectives: The learner will define the surrealist art movement, listing main artists and identifying characteristics of the style. The learner will evaluate three surrealist paintings by describing and responding in a way that considers the viewer’s emotional and sensory responses.

12. A Digital Story for Art Education • ISTE NETS: Research and Information Fluency : Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources • VA ART SOL: 6.17 The student will demonstrate inquiry skills and appropriate art vocabulary for describing works of art; responding to works of art; interpreting works of art; and evaluating works of art. 6.18 The student will interpret the ideas and emotions expressed in works of art, using appropriate art vocabulary. 6.24 The student will explain orally and in writing the means by which visual art evokes sensory and emotional responses. • Partnership for 21st Century Education Communication and Collaboration Media Literacy Information Communications and Technology Literacy

13. A Digital Story for Art Education

14. A Digital Story for Art Education Storyboard Planning, courtesy of JakesOnline

15. A Digital Story for Art Education

16. More Examples of Digital Stories • Memory Drawings from Ryan Elementary • In this presentation, students describe and explain their artwork using Voicethreads, a Web 2.0 application.

17. More Examples of Digital Stories • Artist Biography- Mary Cassatt • This project was created by a Middle School student and is posted on the School Tube video-sharing site. • This digital story was probably created in Photostory.

18. How can the use of digital storytelling and dynamic media promote the development of understanding in the classroom? • Digital storytelling promotes the development of understanding because the process engages students in a thoroughly modern, popular task while still emphasizing the writing process. Because students are engaged in the lesson, they are more likely to try harder and even excel at the task. Although a digital story seems namely like a technology project at first glance, a successful project will require students to gather information, answer essential questions, and make critical choices. In classrooms, we try to accomplish these things each day. Digital Storytelling is another vehicle for successful, modern teaching.

19. How can digital storytelling and dynamic media be integrated into the classroom in order to promote understanding? • To integrate dynamic media into the classroom, the teacher should select a big idea and essential questions that will have multiple responses. Students will search for information, interpret the facts, and decide how their findings will be best-presented. (Regina and Jeff Royer, Developing Understanding) As a starting point, the teacher might consider a specific content standard or project that has become a regular part of their teaching, and then ponder how students can demonstrate understanding of key concepts using technology. Next, the teacher should plan support documents and experiences that will help the student along the way, as well as an assessment rubric. When planning the lesson’s pacing, it is advised to plan for most of the writing-intensive work to be completed away from the keyboard, to feature a tutorial on how to use the programs, and to provide practice time for trying out narration. This may sound like a frustrating process for many teachers. As educators, we must step outside of our comfort zones to keep up with modern educational approaches. Technology resource teachers, staff development sessions, and online forums will be helpful resources when integrating digital storytelling into general practice.

20. In an upper-elementary school setting, which three Web 2.0 or software applications would be ideal in the creation of digital stories or dynamic media? How can lessons be structured to maximize understanding, use time wisely, and contribute to student success? What examples can you list of art teachers who have been successful in this endeavor, and what have you learned from their stories? • Voicethreads is an ideal, free Web 2.0 tool for the elementary school setting. Photostory, which is also free and supported by PPS, is also appropriate. Art teachers often feel apprehensive about planning technology projects since we see our students for only forty minutes per week, however, the lesson can be structured to make the most of our time. Consider three to four class periods- one for web-based research with a guided worksheet, a class away from the keyboard for reflection and planning, and one or two class periods for students to build digital stories on the computer. Unfortunately, I feel like this sort of approach is still in its infancy for art teachers. Thorough online searches only seem to yield digital media that art teachers have made FOR their students, and there is very little that has been created by the students. Considering this, it is even more crucial that we safely share our students work online and reach out to other teachers who are planning similar projects.

21. In celebration of our modern participatory culture, how can students safely and successfully view and respond to peer-created digital stories in a school setting? What web-based options exist for sharing stories with other students and parents? Since digital stories can’t exactly be hung on the school walls, like traditional artwork, what strategies can be used to share quality products? • Sharing digital stories can be easier and more convenient than hanging artwork on the walls. Think about it this way- hanging a grade’s worth of projects takes about forty minutes. Students and teachers see the artwork every day, but most parents will never see the art display. Posting completed digital stories, however, takes less than half the time and is accessible at school and home. Many families have computers now, or at least, the parent has access to a computer at work. If children take the web address home and bug their parents to view their digital stories, not only will the work be viewed, it may also be forwarded to friends and family members. This is very valuable to a teacher because it shows off all the great work we do, emphasizing the fact that we are staying current with modern educational practices. Projects created on Voicethreads are automatically stored online, and Photostory movies can be uploaded to SchoolTube. If the teacher has a classroom wiki or blog, projects can be stored on these sites. Hopefully, parents will spend some time looking around at all the other resources provided by the blog and wiki at the same time. Because our modern culture truly is a participatory one, teachers must begin these sorts of projects with the assumption that they will be shared. It is imperative that we maintain good common sense in order to protect the safety of our children by not using names, faces, or other distinguishing characteristics. At the same time, children need to fulfill their responsibility is to properly cite their sources and make good ethical choices.

22. Classroom Process • Write: create a narrative with multiple drafts. Narrative has a theme to which the student’s peers can relate. • Script: the narrative is condensed to create a script. • Storyboard: draw pictures associating each part of the narrative with different imagery. This guides the student when searching for images online or in a folder the teacher has created. • Find Images: look online, scan original drawings or print photographs. • Create Digital Story: First class- demonstrate software and process, provide tutorial resources. Next, build the digital story using your chosen software or web 2.0 tool. • Share: view together in class, post on a sharing site, respond to student work (Jakes).

23. Closing As the years progress, paper and pencil reports are going to be fewer and fewer. We are already teaching students who have had a computer in their homes during their entire lives, and who have always coexisted with the internet. It is imperative that all of us get out of our comfort zones and not only learn about newer technology but also follow through by integrating technology on a regular basis. Digital storytelling, dynamic media, and Web 2.0 have a ton of possibilities to help our students absorb more of what we are trying to teach, deepen understanding and create a sense of pride in our students that will carry through to other subjects.

25. Citations • Athletica, L. (n.d.). Flickr Creative Commons. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/lululemonathletica/4108700363/ • Bull, G., & Garafalo, J. (2009, February). Dynamic Media. Learning & Leading with Technology, 40-41. • Essential Questions. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/League/esques.html • Jakes, D. S. (n.d.). Jakes Online. Retrieved from http://www.jakesonline.org/dstory_ice.pdf • Johnson, D. (n.d.). Flickr Creative Commons. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/deanj/2398424227 • Ohler, J. (2005, December). The World of Digital Storytelling. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 44-47.