DIGITAL  STORYTELLING

DIGITAL HISTORICAL NARRATIVES

ELEMENTS OF A DIGITAL STORY

TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

EDEL 435   ASSIGNMENT:

PART ONE 

THINKING ABOUT ASSESSMENT

WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT? 

EDEL 435   ASSIGNMENT:

PART TWO

What's It All About? 

Digital Storytelling

"Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights"

~ Leslie Rule, Digital Storytelling Association

In Acts of Meaning, cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner proposed that one of the ways in which people understand their world is through the "narrative mode" of thought, an area of thinking that is concerned with human wants, needs, and goals. According to Bruner, the narrative mode deals with the dynamics of human intentions and when we are in this mode, we seek to explain events by looking at how human actors (including ourselves) strive to do things over time. As we ponder  these actions, we are not only entertained us, they "help us organize our thoughts, fill us with emotion, keep us in suspense, or instruct us in how to live and act. They also often present dilemmas concerning what is moral and immoral behavior" (Chaitlin, 2003) 

Through these digital stories, valuable experiences and lessons are passed on to readers. They capture:

   What happened to a person
   Why it was significant at the time
   How it affected the person's life and the lives of those around them

The use of digital stories in teaching social studies has great educational value. Stories can share perspective and educate and help build understanding, tolerance, and compassion in students by being informative, questioning, historical, and  autobiographical. 

It is important that the technology tools used to convey the story don't become more important than the story being communicated. Elemental to a digital narrative is a good story. "If you don’t have a good story to tell, then the technology just makes that more obvious” (Jason Ohler). 

Resources

Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom

Capturing Stories, Capturing Lives 

Getting Started With Digital Storytelling

An Example: Gettysburg

Digital Storytelling: Be the Next Ken Burns

Everyone Has a Story to Tell and We'll Help You Tell It

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Digital Historical Narratives

"Storytelling is uniquely a human experience that enables us to convey, through the language of words, aspects of ourselves and others, and the worlds, real or imagined, that we inhabit. Stories enable us to come to know these worlds and our place in them given that we are all, to some degree, constituted by stories: Stories about ourselves, our families, friends and colleagues, our communities, our cultures, our place in history" (McDrury and Alterio, 2003), 

Digital stories provide a format to tell personal anecdotes. Digital historical narratives capture an event or experience from the past and bring it to life. Using electronic primary sources, a 2-3 minute “movie” or slideshow is created that includes audio, video, photographs, and text. A digital narrative presents the perspective of a person from history or an event as seen through the individuals that lived through that event. Through the research process, students will describe and interpret a historic event by analyzing primary documents and then using this reading, create a visual presentation that synthesizes their new understanding into a short story  or a new body of knowledge. As students access historical documents and pictures, they in effect, become historians themselves, by adding a maybe new and previously unexamined perspective to a historical event. This brand of inquiry will transform the social studies classroom from a teacher-centered transmission model to a model that encourages students to inquire and lead. 

In History in Hypertext (1999), historian Edward Ayers suggests that the narrative will add a deeper layer of understanding to the study of the past and will uncover a new level of engagement with history through storytelling:

"But we also think in sequential patterns we call stories. Humans, presented with pieces of information about people, put things into the form of a story. They need not be simple stories, for we know how to deal with unexplained lapses of time, flashbacks, and overlapping narratives. We know how to imagine, infer, things happening at the same time in different places. Film and television train all of us at early ages to weave strands of narrative out of intentional (if carefully constructed) confusion and to take pleasure in that weaving. Stories in which everything is spelled out now seem simplistic, as literal and as limited as a Norman Rockwell painting. History may be the only narrative art in which that kind of simplicity, that apparent transparency, is valued."

  Examples

                                                                    A New Life, A New Home 

An Immigrant's Journey

Resources

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Seven Elements of a Digital Story

       a point of view

       a dramatic question

       emotional content

       economy

       pacing

       the gift of your voice

       an accompanying soundtrack 

From: The Center for Digital Storytelling 

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Technology Tools RETURN TO ASSIGNMENT

 

Technology Tools for Digital Storytelling   Photostory 3   Photostory Tutorial   Using Microsoft Photostory 3

Windows Movie Maker Tutorial   Windows Movie Maker Made Easy   iMovie Tutorial

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Copyright        RETURN TO ASSIGNMENT

Digital Images and Copyright  Copyright in an Electronic Environment   Educational Mutimedia Guidelines  Permission Template (student)  Permission Template (teacher)

Canadian Copyright: Useful Net Resources   The Creative Commons      Comparison of US & Canadian Copyright Law

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Thinking About Assessment

  Raising the Bar on Student Performance and Achievement: Evaluating Digital Products

  Digital Media Scoring Guides 

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EDEL Assignment

Hidden Stories

Digital Historical Narratives

“Central to the vision of the Alberta social studies program is the recognition of the diversity of experiences and perspectives and the pluralistic nature of Canadian society.” 

~ From the Program Vision (2005)

“Coming to know others whether they live on the other side of the tracks or the other side of the millennium requires the education of our sensibilities. This is what history, when taught well, gives us practice in doing. Paradoxically, what allows us to come to know others is our distrust in our capacity to know them.”

~ Sam Wineburg, from Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts

 

Formerly focused on the experiences and perspectives of English speaking Canadians, Alberta’s new social studies program of studies demonstrates an intentional movement away from a curriculum that portrays one story, one voice, and one perspective, to a curriculum that profiles multiple perspectives as a means of developing critical thinking skills and reinforcing citizenship outcomes.  

For this assignment you will turn your attention to three key changes in Alberta 's Program of Studies:

·        an increased emphasis on the importance of multiple perspectives with a focus on Aboriginal and Francophone perspectives

·        the role of critical thinking in the teaching and learning of social studies, and

·        the importance and use of technology in the teaching and learning of the new social studies  program

Using technology as mind tool (objects to think with), you will choose a Canadian historical event and after exploring primary sources connected to that event, you will use your understanding to create a digital historical first-person narrative, 2-3 minutes in length. This first person narrative will be told by someone (real or fictional) who lived (or could have lived) during that time. Fictional characters will be based information derived from your chosen primary sources and will be presented as authentically as possible. Your job will be to collect information and retell it, restructuring it to create a new understanding of the historical event. 

A digital summary recaps the facts surrounding topic, person or an event. For this assignment you will take the information beyond stitching together the existing and known facts Using Windows movie Maker, iMovie or PhotoStory, you will illustrate and narrate your stories using audio (sounds/music), still pictures, video and text.

An example of a classroom produced digital historical narrative can be found at http://tinyurl.com/rk96t (A New Life, A New Home)

PART ONE

"A story becomes a story when it moves past the facts, past the details, to the description of a sequence of events, in which some character is driven by a clear desire, acts to realize that desire, and discovers something in doing so."

~ from These Stories From These Pictures 

Step One

Decide on a historical event that is well-aligned with the Alberta program of studies for Grade 4 (2006) or Grades 5 and 6 (September, 2003, Validation Draft). Decide if your story will be based on a real historical character (ex: Father Lacombe) or a fictional character (an Albertan homesteader during the Great Depression).

Step Two

"When a digital story is finished it should be remembered for its soul, not the bells and whistles of the technology tools."

~ Bernajean Porter, 2004

Research your topic (making use of as many primary sources as possible- see suggested resources below) and begin writing your narrative (your script ). It is important to remember that your digital project will "stand or fall" on the narrative content of the project, not the technology. In view of this, give this part of the assignment adequate attention. The finished digital story presentation will be 2-3 minutes in length. Your goal is to narrow the story down to a single "nugget" or one central idea. Consider the following questions when writing your narrative:

* What happened to the narrator?
* Why it was this event significant at the time? Why is this an important story to tell?
* How did it affect the person's life and the lives of those around them?

Plan an accompanying storyboard. 

You will need to cite all your sources in your presentation credits.  

Scripting Worksheet (Developed by Stacey Beamer, Iowa State University) 

Storyboard Sample (Developed by Bernajean Porter)

Step Three

Using the resources suggested in Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling, locate the audio, pictures, for your digital story. You may also use your own pictures (digital or scanned) and copyright-free pictures from your primary sources. Ensure that all images used in your project are free from copyright restrictions or that you have obtained proper permission to use them. Be Aware that digital images require the same copyright compliance as written material. If need be, use the permission templates provided in the Copyright section above.

Using the Technology Tools from the course web site, familiarize yourself with Windows Movie Maker 2, iMovie or PhotoStory and begin work on creating your digital historical narrative. Sequence the images into the video editor. Add the narrative track and add special effect, transitions and soundtrack.  

After completing your digital story, you will need to burn it to a CD or DVD or save it on a memory stick for the class presentation. We will have a screening of all digital historical narratives the last two classes of the EDEL 435 course.

What is a Primary Source?

A firsthand, participant or contemporary observation of a time, person or event, or elements of the material culture associated with a time, person or event.

Sites to Get You Started

Using the Technology Tools from the course web site, familiarize yourself with Windows Movie Maker 2, IMovie or PhotoStory and begin work on creating your digital historical narrative. Sequence the images into the video editor. Add the narrative track and add special effect, transitions and soundtrack.  

After completing your digital story, burn it to a CD or DVD or save it on a memory stick for the class presentation. We will have a screening of all digital historical narratives the last two classes of the EDEL 435 course. 

Hidden Stories Project Rubric: Part One

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PART TWO

Stepping Back

"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"         ~ E.M. Forster

For this part of this project, you will step back and think about your learning and consider the place that digital storytelling and digital historical narratives could have in the teaching of social studies core concepts in your future classroom.  Based on the North Carolina School's Reflection Cycle, this "think aloud" assignment will be 1000-1200 words in length and will address the following areas:

1) Describe

Describe your digital historical storytelling project, what did you do, the steps you followed , what philosophy or research base guided your decisions as you prepared your project, what you were trying to achieve, and the roadblocks you encountered along the way. 

2) Analyze

In this section, consider how digital historical narratives could be used in your teaching practice. Evaluate the appropriateness of this tool for elementary grades, alternative ways of using it and how it could be used within a differentiated classroom. What was the most important element of the project? How would you scaffold this assignment so that students could successfully meet learning outcomes? What changes would you make to the assignment so as to avoid the roadblocks written about in your description? Consider how digital storytelling could support constructivist learning principals and what you know about learning theory. 

3) Appraise 

In this section you will enter a reflective mode by writing about your learning. What did you notice that you can relate back to your students? Did you feel overwhelmed or confused and if so, how did you sort this through so that you could move onto project completion? What are your thoughts on the assessment of digital media? Write about the relationship of this topic to your teaching goals, values and philosophy. Does it fit- why or why not?

 Stepping Out

4) Transform 

"Reflection is what allows us to learn from our experiences: it is an assessment of where we have been and where we want to go next."      ~ Kenneth Wolf 

As you look towards an upcoming teaching assignment, this section will ask you to identify an elementary grade level and think about how a digital storytelling project would fit into that curriculum, what content it would help you teach- both the social studies and technology outcomes it addresses. Would you use a digital historical narrative, or would a digital story be a better choice? Would your project be created as a collaborative effort with your class or implemented with individual or small groups of students working together? Knowing the glitches that you encountered as you created your own project, what safeguards would you implement? What type of assessment would you have in place (name at least three)? With the future in mind, how would you implement a digital storytelling component into your classroom?

Hidden Stories Project Rubric: Part Two

  Assignment Package (includes both the assignment sheet and rubrics)

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Web Page and Assignment Designed by:

Brenda Dyck