NERALLT 2008

1. NERALLT 2008 Multimedia Narration in the Classroom: Writing with Digital Storytelling Nicole Vaget, Professor of French Shaoping Moss, Information Technology Consultant Mount Holyoke College

2. Table of content • Traditional method for teaching advanced seminars in French Studies • New approach using text, images, and sound • Description of the new method • Integrating the new method through collaboration • Implementing technology step by step • Demonstrating student projects • Conclusion

3. Traditional Method for Teaching Advanced Seminars in French Studies • Before the IT age, a typical advanced seminar in French Studies would consist of class discussions, individual oral exposés, and an occasional slide show • Students sat around a large table and everyone was invited to participate in the interpretation of the book assigned for the discussion • Students wrote a term paper at the end of the semester

4. New Method • A large screen has replaced the central table • Presentations are done in PowerPoint • There is a Website (DreamWeaver) for course management • Multimedia narration in iMovie is required as a term paper • Participation of technology consultants

5. Why a New Method? • Most students hand in mediocre papers • Most students have difficulties using the written media as a source of information, while they are very comfortable with visual material • Students learn to decode information about historical and cultural context of paintings, and transfer such knowledge to literary texts • In multimedia narrations students combine their expertise on art, history and literature

6. Examples of Courses with Multi-Media Narration as Term Papers Course on history and film • Political Passion and National Predicament in French history: the collaboration of France and Nazi Germany during the Second World War Course on art and literature • 17th, 18th, and 19th century French theater. Molière, Marivaux, and Musset: Interplay of Love, Money and Seduction

7. A Course on History and Film Political Passion and National Predicamentin French history: a spectacular revolution in 1789, and the startling collaboration of France and Nazi Germany during the Second World War Films studiedMarcel Ophuls:The sorrow and the Pity” Alain Resnais: Night and Fog Claude Berri: Uranus and Lucie Aubrac Louis Malle: Lacombe Lucien and Au revoir les enfants François Truffaud: The Last Metro Claude Chabrol: A Woman’s affaire Multi media narration produced by students Le marché noir à Paris sous l’Occupation Les affiches de propagande du Régime de Pétain De Gaulle et la Resistance Syllabus on line: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/nvaget/370sp05/index.html

8. Course on Art and Literature This semester I teach 17th, 18th, and 19th century French theater: Molière, Marivaux, and Musset: an interplay of love, money and seduction Syllabus on line: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/nvaget/331sp08/syllabus.html

9. Courses on Art and Literature The multimedia narrations are: • Libertins and Libertinage in 17th and 18th century France • Marriage in the Ancien Régime • Evolution of Love and Passion from the Baroque and Rococo period to the Romantic era • The Role of the King's mistresses at Versailles: Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV, Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV • Love and Marriage in Beaumarchais' plays “The Barber of Seville” and the "Marriage of Figaro” • Baroque, the Age of Illusion: Molière, Versailles and the Catholic church

10. History of the New Approach • IMovie is on all Mac computers for everyone to use • I took a workshop at the Digital Media Center in Middlebury in 2004, and created a project on Haiti • I approached Shaoping Moss, technology liaison for the Foreign langues, and we worked on integrating multimedia narration into the course curriculum starting in 2005 • LITS supported the project, providing a technology mentor for the students

11. Description of the New Approach Students have to do the following tasks: • Choose a topic • Research background information • Write the essay • Edit the essay for iMovie • Record the essay as a sound file • Select and prepare images in Photoshop • Research musical documentation • Combine all media (text, images, and sound) to produce a digital narration • Customize the iMovie narration in iDVD • Burn the final project on a DVD

12. Role of Faculty, Technologist,Tech Mentor and Students • The faculty member oversees the project, check students’ progress, and verify the quality of their work as the content specialist • The technology consultant, in close collaboration with the faculty, puts in place a strategy to implement technology, runs the workshop, and supervises the tech mentor • The tech mentor helps run the workshops, and provides individual help to the students by maintaining regular office hours, and accepting individual appointments • Students are divided in groups of 2 and collaborate equally on the project

13. Implementing Technology Step by Step Course syllabus: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/nvaget/331sp08/syllabus.html • Overview of multimedia narration project • Workshop for images • iMovie workshop • iDVD workshop

14. Audio and Video Tools • iMovie • iDVD • Photoshop • Audacity & lame DLL mp3 encode (free)http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ • ella – electonic learning arena https://ella.mtholyoke.edu

15. Integrating Information Literacy Function of the librarian: • Where to find images on the Web • How to create a bibliography • How to cite images, audio files, books and articles • How to use the course management tool ella - electronic learning arena https://ella.mtholyoke.edu

16. Students’ Comments • Students enjoy the method and welcome the chance to acquire expertise in technology • They believe that they have benefited from the use of “combined different learning styles and different ways of thinking” • Some find it “fun and interesting”, and treasure their first DVD, enthusiastically labeled “a project that can be kept forever”

17. Students’ Projects Demo of Multimedia projects: • The Black Market in Paris during German Occupation (1939-1944) • Propaganda Posters of the Vichy Regime • De gaulle and the Resistance Movement

18. Pedagogical Benefits to Faculty and Students • Technology opens the communication channel with students • Students are placed in the driver’s seat, and deliver professional presentations that empower them • Multi media awakens students’ interest for a literary world that could be considered as obsolete and irrelevant • Students produce a better product, that is well researched, well written, and read to the best of their ability

19. Challenges • Technology is time consuming for teacher and students • Technology requires a tight collaboration among students, faculty and technologists • The technologist maintain a tight schedule of workshops following the development of projects timely acquisition of skills • Faculty have to monitor the quality of the content at every stage of production (research, composition and style of the written narration, phonetic transcription of the script, etc…)

20. Questions & Answers • Would you like to use a multimedia narration in your classroom? • Do you feel it is requires too much extra effort and time?

21. Contact Info Nicole Vaget Reverend Joseph Paradis Professor of French Chair of Romance Languages and Literature Mount Holyoke College Email: nvaget@mtholyoke.edu Shaoping Moss Information Technology Consultant Research and Instructional Support Mount Holyoke College Email: smoss@mtholyoke.edu