Digital Storytelling in a Catholic School

The article “This Digital Storytelling,” written by Sister Angela Ann Zukowski in the February/March issue of the magazine/journal Momentum discusses the implementation of digital storytelling and the benefits it can have for students. Zukowski explains that “a digital story is a digital video clip, told in the author’s own voice, illustrated mostly with still images, with an optional music track added for emotional effect, and/or a voiceover… [and that they] can be instructional, persuasive, historical or reflective” (90). She also comments that digital storytelling can be a very good creative exercise, because not only does it require students to actually come up with an idea for a story, but they must also plan it and create it, using such traditional methods as storyboarding and story mapping. Digital storytelling is also a valuable tool in teaching media literacy – “we want students not only to learn with media, but also to learn and think critically about media. Digital stories provide powerful media-literacy learning opportunities because students are involved in the creation and analysis of the media in which they are immersed… they can see more clearly the persuasive nature of the electronic culture in which they live” (91). This article was very interesting for me personally, not just because I am researching digital storytelling, but also because of the Catholic school angle. I am a graduate of 12 years of Catholic education, and although I loved my schools, I don’t think they were really at the forefront of educational trends. I was pleased to read this article, which seems to be embracing the idea of using digital storytelling in the classroom.

Zukowski, A. A. (February/March 2008). This digital storytelling [Electronic version]. Momentum, 90-91.

Center for Digital Literacy

The Center for Digital Literacy is located in Berkeley, California and has been in existence since 1994. They are a largely volunteer-supported “community arts center” and their focus is “education, community building and social change.” They have worked on projects with other organizations both in and out of the U.S., including the BBC, Digital Clubhouse Network, and Australian Centre for the Moving Image. A list with more information about these projects can be found on their Case Studies page. They also offer workshops in multiple locations, including one specifically aimed at K-12 teachers. Besides that sort of information, their website has a wealth of information about digital storytelling, as well as many different examples of it.

Digital Storytelling

My new topic for this blog is digital storytelling, a term that I was unfamiliar with before I heard it and which I am still unfamiliar with, to an extent. So far, I have not been able to find an exact definition of digital storytelling. One reason for this is that this term is still evolving; it does not seem to have a set definition yet.

My understanding of digital storytelling is that it is the act of creating and/or telling a story using the different multimedia and technology that is available today. Rather than just telling the story, digital storytellers use pictures, video, music, voice-overs, sound, graphics and other digital media to tell/express the story. This understanding has come from the succinct summary found on Wikipedia and from perusing the website of the Center for Digital Storytelling in San Francisco.

I viewed several of the “stories” on the CDS website, and they seem very similar to the fan videos that people post on YouTube. The difference that I noticed is that on YouTube, a lot of the videos are very impersonal --- they are created around a favorite song, a favorite TV show, etc. People create stories or express their ideas about songs or shows that are already made and about which they feel strongly. On the CDS website, people are also creating stories and/or expressing their ideas, but the videos/stories are much more personal and seem to be more original. I encourage you to look at the YouTube links that I posted as examples, as well as the Center for Digital Storytelling website for more information. More information is coming!:)

Digital Cameras Wrap-Up

I learned several things from researching digital cameras over the past several weeks. For my last blog post on the topic, I thought I would sum up a few of those things that I think are important.

• There are many uses for digital cameras in the educational realm. One possible use is to incorporate them into the regular K-12 classroom curriculum as a tool to aid in student interest, understanding and creativity.
• I found an interesting article called Scholars Take Notes by the Megapixel, But Some Librarians Object that talks about how academic researchers often use their digital cameras as makeshift copy machines. There are pros and cons to this, but one of the major arguments for it is that it allows rare or endangered documents, books and so on to be preserved for posterity. The thought of bringing my camera into the library and taking pictures of book passages and so on never occurred to me, but the article is very interesting!
• I think that the best use of digital cameras for public libraries and/or K-12 public or private school libraries is the fact that they can add pizzazz to the library website. Librarians can use digital cameras to take pictures of their students/patrons, the library itself, new books, and various events and activities. These pictures can then be displayed on the library website, adding a sense of community to the site, and hopefully drawing more patrons/students to it. A library website with colors and shapes and pictures is generally more exciting and interesting than a library website that is not very interesting to look at, with no pictures and with lots of text and white space. An article that I found which discusses this is called Hot Shot from School Library Journal. It is a little older, but it includes some interesting links.

Starting next week, I will be blogging about digital storytelling. Have a great rest of Spring Break!

Using digital cameras in the classroom

I have had a difficult time finding resources that connect digital cameras to the classroom. Recently, though, I found several interesting articles on that very subject, one of which is attached to this post. The article is very interesting and discusses the practices of several teachers in a school district in Pennsylvania who use digital cameras in their lessons. The teachers mentioned teach different classes and not the classes that you would expect to use digital cameras.

The thing that I found the most interesting was that they connected digital cameras to social networking, and both of those things to use in the classroom. In my experience, when social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Flickr are mentioned in schools, it is as an opportunity to chide students about wasting their time and to warn them about the dangers of using those sites. This article presented social networking in a positive light, however, and acknowledged the fact that it is such an everyday part of many students daily life. Digital cameras go hand in hand with that, since so many students use them and then upload their pictures onto these sites. For that reason, digital cameras are familiar territory for most students, or if not, can be easily learned. They can be a great tool for students to use --- something that is both fun and familiar. The ideas that some of the teachers mentioned in the article about using digital cameras in the classroom are really great and could be easily incorporated.

http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21810
They Get the Picture from T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education)

Podcasting

This past week, we learned about podcasting in class. Of course I have heard of it before, but I was never really sure of what exactly it was. Now, my understanding of podcasts is that they are basically just audio or video content that can be downloaded to your ipod/mp3 player and be listened to anytime.

Since I am quite new to the idea of podcasting, several of the websites that we were assigned to look at (particularly the “weekend project” from CNET) seemed very advanced for me! At this point in time, I think I will concentrate on learning more about what podcasting can do for me; that is, I want to find interesting podcasts to listen to myself and see what I think about it then.

So from that limited perspective, podcasting seems like a great idea, except for one thing --- cost. I would love to listen to particular radio broadcasts, for example, whenever I felt like it. If I could download the podcasts for free (and they were on subjects I was interested in) that would be great! But I highly doubt I would pay for them. I will have to do more research to find out if I am interested in any of the free podcasts. This is partly because I’m cheap, but also partly because I wouldn’t really have a way to listen to them. It would be great and convenient to have podcasts and audio books and that sort of thing on my ipod for when I’m driving around in the car, especially on long trips. However, the handy-dandy little gadget that I bought to allow me to do just that is worthless to me. The content on my ipod plays through the FM radio channels in my car, which I think is very inconvenient. Sometimes it is okay for driving around town, but it is not really necessary because when I am driving around in town, I am usually driving in the car for only a short time. The time that this would be really helpful is when I am going on a trip or driving for at least two or three hours. This gadget is impractical for that, however, because I have to constantly switch channels to find a free station so the ipod content can come through. After several close calls, I have come to the conclusion that that is too dangerous!

I would be a podcast convert and I might even be willing to pay for them if someone would tell me how I can listen to the content on my ipod through my car speakers, rather than through an FM station. Any suggestions?

Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras

I am a complete digital camera novice, so when I read a response to another post on my blog mentioning “digital SLR,” I had to do a big long search to find out what that is! Now, thanks to Wikipedia, I know that digital SLR is a digital single-lens reflex camera. My understanding of this is that digital SLRs use a mirror to direct light upwards where it bounces off of a pentaprism to the photographer’s eye in the viewfinder. When the photograph is actually taken, the mirror goes up and the shutter opens so that the light is projected onto the image sensor (Wikipedia).

That is a major difference between regular point and shoot digital cameras and digital single-lens reflex cameras. While the light is only reflected on the image sensor when the picture is taken with a digital SLR, the light is always reflected on the sensor when the picture is taken with a point and shoot digital camera. This is the reason why people can see the picture on an LCD screen when using a point and shoot, and why they cannot and must look through the viewfinder when using a digital SLR. These are two links to websites with more information about digital single-lens reflex cameras.

Digital Single-Lens Reflex Cameras

Digicams vs. DSLRs