Harriet's WR#9

I'm late but here goes: (Ah, but Harriet, you are earlier than us all! ~ Mauro)

I've been cruising around blogs and digital storytelling sites, and searching for articles to read. I passed on some great sounding books, due to time. A site I really found intriguing was linked to the NWP tech stories site, Using Technology to Tell Stories, which Tracy added to the digital storytelling wiki. The site is:

http://www.jasonohler.com

Jason Ohler teaches at U of Alaska, and has a digital storytelling site for classroom teachers, with low budget/high impact ideas. They are not the classic Center for Digital Storytelling version of digital stories, but help show how students can respond to the curriculum through the use of technology. One example is third and fourth grade students presenting their own folk tales based on local story-telling in their community (Alaskan native peoples). The kids write their story, illustrate and perform it on video with their illustrations as backdrops. I think kids learn a lot through producing these projects. They apply what they've learned in social studies, and they have to communicate orally, in writing, and through art. Because they make a video, it is more obvious to the kids that the audience is important. They critique all of their choices--words, structure, images, timing, music, pacing. It's not difficult to see how to use multimedia presentations in different content areas (although time and access are still issues for me).

Dr. Ohler has written a book on digital storytelling, but each chapter comes from his online blog, which is still available to read and download. He is not a big proponent of technology for its own sake, but for what can be done with it. He has lots of ideas (not all ready to use, more food-for-thought) about assessing student work, and lots of tips for hardware and software and other how-to tips. He sees media literacy as having some differences from other literacies, and he sees art as really important in learning, communicating, and in students' future success.

He has said he's not sure what we'll do with technology in the future, but he's sure we'll find a way to tell stories with it!

--Harriet

Harriet,
Thanks for your positive response to Wet Blankets. I really enjoyed reading your review because I can agree that learning takes place with digital storytelling. I'm convinced that humans are hard-wired for storytelling, and that it's been one of the most important learning tools for eons. I'm curious to know, but too lazy to find out, whether the fourth graders compose on computers or write their stories by hand so the teacher can upload them. I just have very little idea what goes on in the elementary grades these days. Finally, I want to let you know that even though I haven't responded to the blogs and emails this fall, I have been following your work, Harriet; it's amazing and you're wonderful.
Leslie

Leslie, you are a stealer of other people's colors! I suppose I will use pink; it looks nice juxtaposed with your green!

Harriet, this sounds interesting and reasonable. I too feel like we need to keep the emphasis on curriculum and how we can use technology to support what we are teaching. I wonder though, will the experience using digital media in only this supplemental way prepare students to critically engage their media-saturated world, or do we need to do more to explicitly teach these media literacy skills even in the primary grades? And where will we find the time? ~Mauro