Transcript No More Grading Papers: Using Digital Storytelling to

DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Kristin Norris,
Doctoral Candidate
Instructional Technology Specialist
Interim Assessment Specialist
IUPUI Center for Ser vice & Learning
INTRODUCTION
 Overview of Digital Storytelling
 Benefits for students, faculty, institutions, and community
partners
 Implementation Strategies & Lessons Learned
OVERVIEW OF
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
WHAT IS DIGITAL STORY TELLING?
 An illustration of learning
 A way of documenting an experience(s)
 One way to facilitate the reflection process
 2-4 minute digital video clip
 First person narrative
 Told in your own voice
 Illustrated (mostly) by still images
 Additional music added to evoke emotions
FORMAL DEFINITION
 Short videos that employ images (still and/or motion) and
sounds (spoken words and music) in a multilayered,
economical narrative, the goal of which is to capture the
essence of an experience. (Reilly, D.)
WHAT IS DIGITAL STORY TELLING?
digital story
 Blogs, tweets,
slide shows, some
video reflection,
etc
Digital Story
 Refers to a kind of video story
as well as the methodology
used to produce them
The methodology is
the integration of
knowledge, cutting,
paraphrasing, revising,
synthesizing, and
reflecting (Alexander,
2001).
EXAMPLES
 Graduate Student (Museum Studies), Purpose – Overlap of
civic and professional identity
 Freshman in a First Year Seminar as part of a Themed
Learning Community on Conflict Resolution
 Co-Curricular program – Impact of participation, evidence of
civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions
WHAT MAKES FOR A GREAT DIGITAL STORY?
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Overall purpose of the story
Narrator’s point of view (emotional content)
A dramatic question
Choice of content
Clarity of voice
Pacing of the narrative
Meaningful soundtrack
Quality of the images
Economy of the story detail
Good grammar and language usage
Students
BENEFITS
Faculty
Institutions
Community
METAPHOR
 Writing Assignments = buying a tomato
 Video Assignments = harvesting your own tomato
http://youtu.be/bdl5l-7nGd8
(Andrew Lamas, UPenn, Professor of Urban Studies).
STUDENTS
 Provides evidence of learning in a way that is appealing to
employers (beyond text)
 Enables them to demonstrate skills otherwise hard to articulate
or demonstrate (civic skills)
 Increase student motivation because:
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They see immediate value/application
Not just another paper
Allows them to be creative
Personal
 Demonstrate abilities they have, but can’t always apply (video
editing, production)
 Builds capacity to create something of value to future employers
(learning more than how to work with Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
 Practice their response to interview questions (‘elevator speech’
– what did you learn)
POWER OF VOICE
 When the writer is engaged personally with a
topic, they impart a personal tone and flavor
to the piece that is unmistakably his/hers
alone. It is the heart and soul of the writing,
the magic, and wit, the feeling, the life and
breath.
“When words are infused by
the human voice, they come
alive” – Maya Angelou
(http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/503)
FACULT Y
 Facilitates reflection in a more meaningful way
 Writing a paper
 Experience
 Reflection is important even if not graded
What did the student actually learn?
 Evidence of community impact
 Authentic evidence of student learning (if tied to learning
objectives)
 Source of qualitative data (get IRB)
 Great for program/department/unit marketing (get informed
consent)
 More interesting to grade than papers
 Provides an opportunity for students to practice responses to
challenging questions (interview response, ‘elevator speech’)
INSTITUTIONS
 Students identifying with their institution and/or program of
study and sharing with others
 Evidence of student impact and community impact for
accreditation purposes
 Suitable for marketing and promotional purposes (get
informed consent)
COMMUNIT Y
 Increases awareness of their purpose and programs
 Innovative products they can use as well (grants, program
evaluation, marketing)
HOW THIS DIFFERS
FROM TRADITIONAL
REFLECTION ACTIVITIES
The
Process
PURPOSE
 Forces students to consider the following:
 Audience
 What the experience means to them
 How they identify with others
 Doing this gives new meaning to reflection for the students. They are
forced to find the VALUE in making time to reflect
STORYBOARDING
 Another means that helps with editing/proofing
 Assists with timing & pace of the story
 Helps them identify/highlight important concepts/ideas,
 Provides direction in what images to gather
 Aids in the recording process
GATHERING IMAGES
 Results in deeper learning because it forces them to think
even more about what the important concepts mean
 A new way of thinking about reflection in not only words, but
now images
 Combining words, with images, and then music = deeper level
of understanding
SHARING
 Reflection is not just for me, its for others to better
understand me
 If you are asking students to create a digital story about an
experience/ their learning using this pedagogy, they sense a
greater level of importance. More important than if you had
them write a paper or do a presentation, especially if you ask
them to put it on YouTube (even if not being shared publicly).
The act of putting something on the web for others to see that
is a representation of who they are carries an increased sense
of importance
IMPLEMENTATION
STRATEGIES &
LESSONS LEARNED
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
 Project
 MBA students – Developing a Leadership Philosophy
 Evidence of an identified learning outcome
 Civic learning as a result of a campus-community partnership
 Learning as a result of an experience
 Capturing the essence of an experience
 Reflect upon a paper or an assignment
 Not about the content in the paper, but what you learned as a result
of writing the paper
HINTS & TIPS
 Determine the learning objective
 Develop a well thought -out reflection prompt that will
allow students to demonstrate clear learning associated
with the identified learning objective
 Determine what aspects of the project will be assessed &
associated criteria (see rubric)
 Develop a rubric to use as a guide for students and as an
assessment tool
HINTS & TIPS
 Set clear expectations given the structure and time
 Youtube & Vimeo are good options for uploading large files
 Talk with students in advance about media literacy,
copyright, & intellectual property (see online module)
 Have students turn in script in advance —give them feedback
before recording begins
QUICK HOW-TO POINTS
GATHERING YOUR IMAGES
 Free from the web (Google images, Flickr)
 Educational Opportunity on Copyright Laws and
Intellectual Property
 http://connect.iu.edu/p2l850pbun6/
 Create using PowerPoint, then export as JPEG
 Snipping Tool (Start Menu > All Programs >
Accessories)
 Get your own!
PROGRAMS ANALYSIS
iMovie (Mac)
PhotoStory 3 (PC)
Windows Live Movie
Maker (PC)
Garageband (audio)
Built-in Audio recorder
Built-in music
Audacity (audio)
Pros:
•Ideal for Mac users,
• great templates
(transitions),
•nice editing tool,
•automatically publishes
to YouTube
Pros:
•Great transition tool
•Easy to photo editor
•Built-in tools
Pros:
• More commonly known
Cons:
•challenging to get
started (even for Mac
users)
•hard for non-PC users
Cons:
•Small screen
•Final product can seem
choppier (recording on
each slide)
Cons:
•Less flexibility with
transitions
•Must combine narrative
and music on other
software (Audacity)
MUSIC
 Free MP3 conversion resources
 http://www.youtube-mp3.org/
 www.zamzar.com
 Search YouTube for karaoke version of a song
SHARE/PUBLISH
 YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/)
 Public
 Unlisted ****
 Private
 Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com)
 Your ePortfolio !
QUESTIONS?
Feel free to contact me (Kristin Norris
– [email protected])