Given the learning curve associated with all things technological and the time it takes to master and effectively employ new technologies in any aspect of our lives . . .
- Where do we find the time to explore the bleeding edge, mining and mastering new technologies, and
- How do we fit teaching these new, non-subject specific skills and their attendant issues (see prompt #8) into our already overburdened instructional time?
- Finally, how do we avoid the time sinkhole computers can become?
(Contributed by Mauro Staiano)
These are good questions Mauro. I've been spending lots of time, thanks to Harriet, working with my students on digital story telling. I'm often asking myself, "What is the value of this endeavor?" and "What am I giving up, in terms of time, to make it happen?" I don't have good answers for those questions yet. My students are thinking about writing in a new way, doing lots of revision to get their stories the way they like them, and thinking about images and sound that help express their message. They are spending more time on the computer keyboarding and revising than they have in the past. They are practicing fluent reading for their narration and doing lots of sequencing as they blend images with text. And, they are critiquing one another's work in new ways. In these very beginning stages, families have appreciated seeing their children's work posted on the internet. All this sounds really good, but I'm still worried that I'm spending way too much time on it. I might feel better if they were doing documentaries, using research skills to explore a topic. Maybe that will happen in the future.
At this point, for me, it feels like a new hobby. I bought an external hard drive to store images, have justified spending money on a flash mic to record sound, and have a great camera to play with. I'm already thinking of a new computer for myself, and have signed up to take the Adobe CS 3 course through extended ed. to get a better handle on Photoshop, Illustrator, and In-design. Not only is time a sinkhole, this technology biz can be a sinkhole for money! Obviously, the more I incorporate technology in my own life, the more I learn, and the less time it takes. In spite of that, I've noticed I spend less time reading now than before...more time keeping in touch with friends through e-mail, and if I look on the bright side, I can say the benefits outweigh the deterrents. I can't imagine having a toddler around though. I'm at a place in my life where I can work for periods of time without being interrupted at home. I don't imagine you get many of those windows.
So...I'd say I'm far from the "bleeding edge," but am having fun learning something new. As long as it's fun, it's worth it for me personally. I'm still so new at incorporating technology in the classroom, I can't say I've developed any kind of criteria to evaluate it's effectiveness as a teaching tool. I guess I'm just riding the wave to see where it will take me at this point. I'll admit this to our small, intimate group, but certainly wouldn't say it out loud anywhere else. I'd like to explore your questions more in our next summer institute.
Catherine
http://buildingbridgestoahealthyworld.blogspot.com/
This whole digital storytelling thing has gathered such momentous momentum! At first, I'll admit, I dismissed it as just another way to tell the winning-touchdown or dead-grandmother stories (sorry!), another way to force personal moments on others. I was wrong. In many ways, writing is writing; writerly decisions are writerly decisions. We can teach that regardless of the medium. But I'm also learning that digital stories are changing lives, changing the world. Reference NWP's Rural Voices movement. Look, too, at this recent post on the Tech Liaison network:
| I was fortunate enough recently to be in contact with someone who lived the Kenya unrest firsthand. She (Ellen) and her twelve year old son were in Kenya volunteering at an orphanage when the presidential race unfolded and the violence began. She shared her story of escape in a blog post on Guy Kawasaki's blog. I contacted her, and we worked together via the Internet to create several versions of her story using various Web 2.0 tools. I used it this past week while training school staff on integrating more technology, and we are going to use it with our high school world history students where Ellen will video conference with them via Skype after they view her story and send her questions about the events. The feedback I received from the teachers showed just how powerful digital storytelling can be regardless of the subject being taught. You can find it at http://scottsfloyd.edublogs.org -- Scott S. Floyd, M. Ed. White Oak ISD Technology Specialist http://scottsfloyd.edublogs.org |
I'm butchering someone when I fumble to paraphrase that what we learn with pleasure we never forget. Perhaps that's what technology allows us to do: learn with pleasure. Perhaps. Tracy
That, Tracy, is my short answer to my own question I suppose. Technology, at least for some of us, is fun! ~Mauro
Tracy, I'm glad you are over your another-dead-grandma phase.
Being conscious of what you want to say as a writer to a reader is important.
The writer of the Winter Storm is ten years old or so--give him a break! Point taken. My apologies to Master Winter Storm. TD
Catherine, doing documentaries is way easier, in my opinion. The writer still needs a desire to say something to a reader/audience. And there is still the issue of voice, and choice.
I do the digital thing as much as I can because it keeps me going in new directions, and the students have a new audience.
--Harriet
Knowing very little about digital storytelling, I'm still willing to offer my perspective which is to agree with you Tracy when you observe that the students are making writerly decisions. The fact that students are willing to spend time writing and revising and choosing images and sound is a testament to their enjoyment of digital storytelling. And I think it is important that students learn to manipulate computer technology, although I'm not clear how much the students use technology other than word processing and how much the instructor uses the technology for them. One of the aspects of digital storytelling that I like best and think is an important part of wanting to write a story is the use of images. What child doesn't like pictures with stories? As an example I'll tell my own story. For one of my favorite writing assignments clear back in seventh grade, the teacher tore pictures out of various magazines and handed one to each student. We then got to spend the rest of the class time trading our pictures to get one we liked and writing a story about the image. And I actually remember the students reading their stories aloud in class. To my seventh grade mind, most of them were really interesting. No dead grandmother stories there. I think students making choices about their learning leads to real learning, and again, from my incomplete understanding, that seems to happen in digital story telling. Finally, as anxious as I may sound about using technology for teaching not just for the sake of using technology, I realize that trial and error are inherent in the process of learning what technology we can use for teaching. Catherine, your concern of not having developed any criteria is a sign of a real professional. Of course you want to develop criteria, but you have to have something to assess before you can assess it. So I'm going to lighten up on my parrot-like squawking of "Does using technology in the classroom help students learn?" because we're all professionals and we all want our students to learn. And we're always learning too. At this point we're the students in Vygotsky's zone of proximal development.
Yes, now I'm trying to score points by namedropping.
LL
Vygotsky earns you an automatic 200 points. Tracy
