by Bulent Dogan, Ed.D.

1. DIGITAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOPMonday, November 24, 2008University of Texas at San AntonioAcademy of Teacher Education &School of Science and Technology by Bulent Dogan, Ed.D.

2. STORYTELLING • Power of storytelling • Storytelling is the ancient art • Crucial elements of storytelling • It existed as long as humanity • Modern tools for storytellers

3. Digital Storytelling (DS) • New technology brought new possibilities • What is Digital Storytelling? • DS is a process of creating a short movie • Script or an original story • Images, video, music • Narration • 2-10 minutes • Topics: • personal tales, • retellings of historical events, • teaching/introducing a specific subject

4. SAMPLE DS 1 • ALMOST PARADISE

5. Types of DS • Personal or narrative stories • Stories that inform or instruct • Stories that re-tell historical events

6. Elements of DS (Lambert, 2003) • Point of View • A Dramatic Question • Emotional Content • The Gift of Your Voice • The Power of the Soundtrack • Economy • Pacing

7. Process of Creating DS • Writing • Script • Storyboarding • Locating Multimedia • Creating Digital Story • Sharing

8. Benefits of DS • Developing social and learning skills • The director’s chair effect • Representing individuals' voice • Identity construction • Personalization of learning • Transformative process for students • Increase in: • Student motivation and engagement, • Creativity, • Self-confidence • In the classroom, DS helps • Students respect for each others’ backgrounds • To facilitate discussions in the classroom • Shy students to express themselves

9. Benefits of DS (CONT’D) • The process of creating DS claimed to develop 18 out of 20 of these skills (Jakes, 2006). • Students most notably develop certain skills: • Information literacy, • Visual literacy, • Technological literacy and media literacy, • Creativity and taking more risks, • More effective communication (Howell & Howell, 2003; Jakes, 2006; Robin, In press).

10. DS in K-12 Education • Common Uses of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom • Effective use of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom • Challenges and Barriers for Using Digital Stories in the Classroom

11. Uses of DS in the classroom • Who is going to create Digital Stories? • Teachers themselves • Students • Stories created by others • Primary use is to teach a subject • Other uses: • Graduation portfolios • Collaborative team work • State use of DS for meeting technology standards • Two most common uses of DS: • Using Digital Storytelling to Teach Writing • Using Digital Storytelling for Targeted groups of students

12. Common uses of DS • Two most common uses of DS: • Using Digital Storytelling to Teach Writing • Process of creating DS is suitable for teaching writing • Scott County Schools example: State required writing portfolios • No more: “I don’t have nothing to write about” (Banaszewski, 2002). • Technology aspect is motivating factor for students • Using Digital Storytelling for Targeted groups of students • Transformative and empowering feature of DS (Hull & Nelson, 2005). • Motivational benefits for special need students (Salpeter, 2005). • Helps minority students to construct identity (Weiss, 2002).

13. Effective use of DS • Increase in number of educational tools but inadequate guidance for how to use them • Coaching required for DS to see a difference in student learning (Banaszewski, 2005). • Requirements for effective integration of technology & DS • Professional development programs concentrated on integration of technology • More instruction and guidance needed on how to use DS in the classroom.

14. SAMPLE DS 2 • The Pythagorean theorem

15. Current Research on DS • Dogan, B. & Robin, B. (2008). Implementation of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom by Teachers Trained in a Digital Storytelling Workshop. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference 2008 (pp. 902-907). Chesapeake, VA: AACE. http://bdogan.wordpress.com/publications/

16. My Research • To document teachers’ use of DS in the classroom after attending the workshop at the UH. • To what extent do teachers trained in the University of Houston’s DS workshop integrate DS in the classroom? • If they have used digital stories in the classroom, in what ways have they been used by the teachers? What purpose did teachers have in using digital stories in the classroom? • If they were not used, what were the barriers that kept teachers from using DS in the classroom?

17. Results • Sample uses • By students • Video yearbook, • History fair project, • Description of field trips taken, • Social and science investigations, etc.. • By Teachers • As opposed to PowerPoint • Highlighting a time in history • Sharing personal experiences • Teaching a subject matter • Types of Digital Stories • In Survey II • Personal or narrative stories (52%) • Stories that inform or instruct (47%) • Stories that re-tell historical events (35%) • Cross-Curriculum Use • All interviewed teachers shared DS with other teachers

18. Results (cont’d) • 3 main themes emerged from the data: • impacts on 21st century skills, • impacts on motivation and engagement level, • impacts on special groups of students. • The creation process of DS and 21st century skills

19. Results (Cont’d) • Motivation factor & “Director’s chair” Effect (Banaszewski, 2005; Paull, 2002) • Interviewed Teachers • “It’s like they’re creating the new Hollywood” • “Getting to use computers and technology” ”21st century kids” • Chance of self expression: “They were so inspired to create… that they got to tell a story about themselves” • Students’ academic performance

20. Results (cont’d) • Impacts of DS on special groups of students (Salpeter, 2005; Weiss, 2002). • Interviewed teachers: • “Students felt more confident about their work.” –Response to an open-ended item • Another teacher: DS for targeted groups of students, such as students who are new to U.S. • Interviewee #2 saw benefits with his “marginal students” • Expected problem: “Time issues” • Results: “Access to hardware” • Lack of technical assistance and support: No problem

21. Other Results and Considerations • Teaching Style • Interviewed teachers • Digital Storytelling Outside of the Classroom • Both survey results indicated this • Other teachers or family members • potential uses for DS outside of the classroom • Digital Stories: Easy to Use, Learn and Teach • One of the 5 themes • easy to create and teach with available resources • Photo Story 3 • digital images.

22. Future Potential of DS • Future Potential in K-12 • Implementation of DS depends on • access to technology, • proper training of the users, • and on-going technical support. • Remarkable FEATURES about DS: • creates motivation • draws attention easily • Easy to make with already available tools • Motivating factors • director’s chair effect , • the chance for self expression, • opportunity to use computers

23. Resources and Sample Stories • http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/ This website is the University of Houston’s official digital storytelling resource and research site. • http://bdogan.wordpress.com/research/ This website is a research blog about digital storytelling. This website which includes information about Digital Storytelling, tutorials, and current research. • http://techszewski.blogs.com/ Tom Banazewski’s digital storytelling blog • http://www.distco.org DISTCO 2008 Official website • http://www.storycenter.org/ Center for digital storytelling

24. SAMPLE DS 3 • Gettysburg Speech