Ch. 13: The Digital Storytelling Toolbox

Ohler's advice regarding "start with what you have" (pg. 166) really struck a cord with me this week. I had felt a bit defeated in past weeks because my school district lacked funding for technology tools that DST would require. However, after creating the two videos for this class, I felt more inspired (and comfortable) to have my students use the free software (Windows Movie Maker) for creating stories of their own. Having spent some time with my students at Science camp taking digital photos of the awesome sights, I suggested them to try out Movie Maker at home to create a slide show with their photos. It would be great practice for students to become familiar with the program.

Although Ohler expressed some negative aspects with the most current Movie Maker in terms of how it's difficult to mix audio within the video, which I wholeheartedly agree with, I found some nice improvements compared to the older versions. The text features in the newer version mimicked Microsoft Word, which made it much easier to add and change fonts. I also appreciated the freedom to manipulate the text in different ways to fit a particular photo. By having this option, I think the flow of a DST can be better explained since you can move the text to where you need it.

Overall, I think Ohler's advice to first use free software programs to create DST will greatly benefit other teachers, as well as myself,  to jumpstart digital stories in the classroom.

Video #2

I had a wonderful, yet exhausting, trip to the Marin Headlands with my class this last week. This video depicts our trip to the beach; it was the first for a few of my students! Enjoy!

Ch. 12: The Media Production Process, Phases II-V

I agree with Ohler's statement regarding the final assessment and reflection of a digital story after students have completed their projects. He suggested the importance of reflecting over the experience of creating DST "to glean what was learned so that the next adventure can be improved" (pg. 157). I think students (and adults) need the opportunity to take a step back and mull over the process for learning to occur.

The author also offers some great questions for students think about such as, "what would you do differently next time?" (pg. 157). This is a significant question because in my experience with Video #1, I realized that it's important to organize all the pictures and transitions within Windows Movie Maker before adding the captions to my story. I struggled with having the right caption match the picture, or having the same caption overlapping into the next picture. I realized that location of the text affected the timing of the pictures, and I couldn't just drag the text to the right "spot" if the picture length was not long enough. Thus, I eventually had to delete the actual caption and retype it. For Video #2, I will add the captions last so that I won't have to waste time re-doing them.

It was automatic for me to reflect on how my video making skills could have been improved. However, for students, that may not come as naturally. Therefore, teachers must provide time for students to reflect on their experience of DST.

I Run to Be.

This video chronicles my first 1/2 marathon experience! Enjoy!

Ch. 11: The Media Production Process, Phase I

Image: VCU DST

The most important tip that Ohler gives in this chapter pertains to preparing students with how to use the technology tools before creating digital stories (pg. 137). Even though this new generation of digital natives have grown up with technology devices, students need to know how to use it for learning purposes as well. Although the author offers ways to prepare students with short assignments, and "encourages students to simply play with digital tools they'll use outside of class" (pg. 137), he doesn't take in consideration of low-socioeconomic populations. My students would be very capable of creating DST, if, given the necessary tools. This book provides a great guideline to integrate DST, yet I continue to grapple with the fact that my school may not have the basic tools to produce a digital story. Nonetheless, the multitude of strategies and tips (such as chapter 9) that Ohler has presented will at least get my class started on DST!

Ch. 10: Other Kinds of Stories

I completely agree with Ohler's statement about using music videos as a source for students to find inspiration for their own personal DST (pg. 128). With the abundance of videos on youtube, students would be able to gather many ideas to use towards production of their digital stories.

Providing or modeling examples is an important teaching practice for all ages. For our current Culminating Experience proposals for EDTE 299, it was extremely beneficial for me to to have access to previous iMet students' proposals; the examples provided a template to help me organize my plan. Seeing the variations of how students put together their proposal gave me confidence to make adjustments accordingly.

Although this youtube video is not the original music video for Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am," there were some creative features that could potentially be used for my own personal DST. I liked how the creator divided the screen into three parts to show sequence of action shots.

Screen shot from youtube video

Ch. 9: More Story Maps

 "My hope is that if the visual portrait of a story (VPS) doesn't work for you, something else will" (Ohler, 2008, pg. 113).

Ohler's reassuring opening words says it all.

As Christina mentioned in her blog, many of the ideas presented in this chapter (and book) can be easily adapted to my classroom instruction.  I really appreciated this chapter because I immediately thought about how certain story maps would help certain students in my classroom.

For those visual learners like myself, I immediately made a connection with the Simplified Joseph Campbell Map because of the circular shape (Fig. 9.2, pg. 115). The idea about how a character begins at one "place," and transforms as he/she travels along the journey to finally "[come] full circle" home (pg. 115) made the most sense to me in terms of creating a story based on this model.

Non-linear thinkers who appreciate "a more free-form approach to story mapping" might gravitate towards the Treasure Map (Fig. 9.3, pg. 116) or the Adapted Story Map model (Fig. 9.4, pg. 117) because it would allow these students to "more accurately represent the action of [their] story" (pg. 116). The ranging peaks and "reversals" remind me of how some of students might describe the action of their story. These students may be my more "creative" students who don't like to follow the straight path like of the Aristotle Story Map (fig. 9.1, pg. 114). I myself also would find it difficult to match the action of my story using the direct line, and I would prefer to create the path accordingly (with many ups and downs).

Lastly, my English Learners (ELs) would greatly benefit from The Story Spine (Fig. 9.7, pg. 121) because of the sentence starters that sets up the most important parts of a story. EL students can even draw a picture to describe the action if they are unable to write it clearly. Ohler also described how he used this story map as an oral activity to create good stories which also would help my EL students develop better language skills. I think this model would also help students write summaries of the stories that they've read in class as well. With more practice of summarizing stories, eventually they would be able to create their own story!

Ch. 8: Transformation Formation

Image: Updated Bloom's Taxonomy

It was interesting to see Ohler compare levels of cognitive "transformation" to Bloom's Taxonomy. I can see why the author places what a "character knows, remembers, or describes something" (pg. 110) as Level 1, or "Knowledge" ("Remember," in the revised version), and so on with the rest of the levels. While teaching, I'm in the knowledge/remember stage when I'm asking simple recall questions of facts. However, higher order thinking skills result from the questions that teachers pose to encourage students to move up in levels towards "Evaluation" or "Creating."  Recently, at a math training, my colleagues and I observed a math lesson where we recorded every single question that the teacher used during her lesson. We then identified each question, and placed it accordingly by levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. The purpose of this activity was to be aware of what type of questions were being used in the classroom to promote higher order thinking skills.

Ohler advises teachers to help students create successful stories by asking questions to motivate character development to fulfill each level  (pg. 111), which seem extremely productive. This method connected with my district's expectation of developing higher order thinking skills. Since asking more questions at the higher levels result in higher order thinking, does this mean that a story is not successful unless the character experiences transformation at highest level of evaluation/creating??  

Ch. 7: Story Planning Considerations

The plethora of tips and techniques Ohler presented in chapter 7 to prepare students in story planning were very useful to incorporate in my current teaching practices. The author claimed that "part of the art of writing a good story is limiting what is included so that a focused, coherent narrative emerges..." (pg. 98). His point resonated with me because I usually pay attention to what parts students are leaving out of their writing instead of what is really needed. As I mentioned in my previous entry, my students constantly practice how to make their sentences longer by adding more details. Also, in their weekly response to literature prompts or reading logs, I often remind students if they've added enough details to support their answers. Looking at writing from Ohler's perspective, it's important to brainstorm all the possible ideas but not necessary include all the details within the story. This concept has changed my view on what important details to consider while engaging in any type of writing.

The research box diagram that the author provided to support students with their story ideas is very useful since my students are currently writing research reports at school. I can immediately integrate this tool within my classroom practice by having students write down the important ideas for their writing that might work for the report, or ideas that are related but not crucial to the report. Ultimately, regardless of how stories are created, Ohler's multiple strategies to consider while story planning provide a map that will guide students to reach the end result--a successful story.

Ch. 6: Applying Story Maps

I found this chapter extremely helpful by the way Ohler integrated the oral story of William Tell and the questions he'd ask to make sure the components of the story core were fulfilled. As I mentioned in my last blog entry, students must understand what the story core is about before a successful story can occur. I would need to investigate further on how to teach story core more effectively since Ohler failed to do so. However, after my students understand  "the hero's journey" concept, I would definitely integrate the author's model of telling an incomplete or simple story and asking my students how we could improve it so that the story core is complete.

I often use Ohler's model of starting with a simpler idea and asking questions to add more details with my students' weekly spelling sentences. Students would share their sentence to their partner, and partners would ask the basic questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how to extend the sentence. Students practice this exercise every week to build better complex sentences. I think following Ohler's example of extending a simple story with story core as the basis every week would help students develop better stories.

Lastly, the title of this chapter clearly explained the purpose of using story maps to tell a story, but I found the moral of the chapter extremely interesting. The message of the William Tell story and how he shouldn't underestimate the talent of a young girl who knew something he didn't resonated with me because many of my colleagues are afraid of using technology in the classroom. I think Ohler wanted to make a point to teachers to not be scared (of incorporating DST) because they can always ask their students for help if they need it.

Ch. 5: Thinking About Story

My favorite storyteller was my former principal--she had the knack of  "commanding the listeners' attention from beginning to end" (pg. 71) with her great sense of humor, and "[we] couldn't wait to hear what [would] happen next" (pg. 70) as she described stories of past students or weekend mishaps. My colleagues and I would spend our lunches laughing or crying (from laughing so hard) listening to her wonderful stories.

According to Ohler, such great storytelling traits are the necessary components needed to be a great storyteller. He acknowledgeed that there is not special formula, but important guidelines to follow when creating a wonderful story. From my understanding of this chapter, the author suggested starting with the story core, followed by the storyboard (which identifies the specific events-for media-based project purposes), which then finally leads to the development of a story map. I found Ohler's explanation of the story core extremely significant compared to the other parts because the basis of a successful story depends on the understanding of the story core model. The text describes the story core as "the journey that the hero takes [which] consists of of particular stages, including being called to adventure, denying the call, accepting a guide to help navigate the journey, passing tests, transformation, and return" (pg. 71). Conceptual understanding of the story core is crucial, but in my experience, a very complicated idea to teach.

Image: Jason Ohler website.

As 6th graders, my students should already understand the ideas of the "story core" because of their experience in the primary grades where read aloud times are more prevalent. Although I love reading aloud to my students, other subject areas often take precedent. Thus, my students should know "the hero's journey," but I don't think many students do understand it. Many of my students were successful in explaining the beginning, middle, and end (something they've done for years) in their personal narratives writing assignment, but struggled to identify or explain the essential change or transformation of self to find a solution that resolves the tension (pg. 72). Although Ohler's Chapter 6 offers some facilitation for teachers to help their students develop the story core, more support is needed from the teacher's standpoint. As a newer teacher, I'm still learning how to be a better teacher. Thus, specific examples of how story core can be adapted to be humorous or serious would be most beneficial.

Although Ohler makes an ardent point regarding the use of story core "at the beginning of a DST project [to help] students focus..." (pg. 73), teachers have to make sure that their students understand the idea of story core before any good storytelling can occur.