“The world needs your stories”: Creating digital stories in an Irish

family literacy program

Dr. Esther PrinsGoodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy

Penn State

Families Learning Summit, Mar. 16, 2015

What are digital stories?

◦ 2-10 minute story created with digital tools (images, video clips,

text, narration, music, and/or other sounds)

◦ Prior research – mainly digital stories (DS) with children and youth

◦ Powerful tool for family literacy and intergenerational learning

Setting◦ Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland

◦ Pop. 25,000, >16% immigrants

◦ Clare Family Learning Project

◦ FL programming since 1994

◦ At the forefront of FL in Ireland

◦ Offers a variety of FL services

◦ Informed by participant interests

◦ Digital storytelling class

◦ Audience: parents of children at Catholic/public

primary school (low-SES)

◦ Focus: developing digital literacy skills + supporting

children’s learning

◦ Promoted by “home-school community liaison”

◦ 9 class sessions (April – June, 2014)

◦ 12 participants 3 remaining

Participants◦ Dipankar – instructor

◦ Indian immigrant, former teacher, play therapist, adult & family literacy

teacher

Kazi (pseudonym)

India; Ireland (2001)

Bengali, English, Hindi,

Urdu, Malay

married, 35-39, 2 kids (1

school-age)

some IT knowledge

< secondary

“I saw in my children, this

interest in learn from

computer….If I learn

something and I teach

them,” they can learn &

do it for themselves.

Bozica

Bosnia; Ireland (2008)

Serbo-Croatian, English

married, 35-39, 2 school-

age kids

some IT knowledge

secondary

“I want enjoy any class

with all other people

who speak English….I’m

really bad with my

computer. I want to

learn something new.”

Monica

native Irish

English, some Irish

married, 45-49, 4 school-

age kids

some IT knowledge

university

“upgrade my computer

skills”; “I get my husband

to do everything”; didn’t

“want to be left behind”

◦ Maldives

Maldives

Australia

Methods

◦ Observations

◦ 7 2-hour class sessions + informal conversations (missed 2 classes, 1 extra

working session)

◦ 2 parents presented DS in children’s classrooms (senior infants, 3rd class

x 2)

◦ Transcripts of interviews with parents (n=3) and teacher

◦ Parents provided “director’s commentary” on their DS

◦ Digital stories (n=3): still images, captions, music, oral narration

Class Sessions◦ Reviewing examples of DS & tools for making them

“The world needs your stories.”

• Websites (e.g., Center for Digital

Storytelling)

• Types of software (e.g., Movie

Maker)

Class Sessions

◦ Creating a mock DS about the school

◦ Looking up information about the school

on the Internet

◦ Deciding what to

say (composing)

◦ Finding and down-

loading pictures

◦ Taking pictures

◦ Putting it all

together: designing

& editing in Movie

Maker

Class Sessions

◦ Designing & producing stories in

Movie Maker

◦ What story do I want to tell?

◦ How do I want to tell it?

• Making design choices in MM

• Images: Photos or video clips? Own or others’?

• Visual effects (e.g., convert photos to black & white, apply color filter)

• Transitions (e.g., fade, pan & zoom)

• Duration of whole story and each component

• Written text: word choice, language, appearance (size, style, color)

• Sound: What kind? When? How long? How loud?

• Narration: Yes or no? What to say? Pacing, tone, inflection, etc.

Multimodality◦ Combination of multiple communication modes

◦ Kress; Kress & van Leeuwen

◦ Made possible by proliferation of digital technologies

◦ Myriad possibilities for expression

◦ Verbal—e.g., spoken or written language

◦ Visual—e.g., photos, video, symbols, color, SIZE!!!

◦ Aural—e.g., sound effects, music, volume

◦ Spatial—e.g., organization, arrangement, proximity

◦ Gestural—e.g., facial expression, hand gestures, body language

◦ Every mode has particular affordances—potentials and limitations

“Students have to be taught how to use and select from all the available semiotic*

resources for representation in order to make meaning, while at the same time

combining and recombining these resources so as to create possibilities for

transformation and reconstruction.” (Janks, pp. 161-62) *signs and symbols that convey meaning

sound

image

typed &

handwritten text

Class Sessions

◦ Presenting the stories

hurley

The Digital Stories

◦ Kazi’s story

◦ Bozica’s story

◦ Monica’s story

◦ Stories focused on culture & place (own or others’)

◦ Kazi

◦ Represented multi-faceted aspects of Indian culture(s) to his children, classmates, & teacher

◦ Teacher used as lesson in culture, geography

◦ Hopes for future:

E: So what do you hope that your son will take away from your story?

K: That place, you know, in north part of India, and how look like…so they [children] should be telling me, ‘Daddy, I want to go that site.’ ‘Okay, no problem, we can go next time.’

E: So are you hoping to take your kids there someday?

K: Yes, yes, of course. I actually want to visit whole India, because India is so huge. Lot[s] of place[s] I didn’t go, and south India I didn’t go. I want to go on south side.

“I want to show where we survive…flooding, but we didn’t lose…that humor side….You know, this is new house. Probably this house made after war in Bosnia, you know? Because poor people move from one place to next place, and many people make new house. You see this house, didn’t finish it. And now they again lost everything. Probably they lost everything in war. Now again they are—And you think, they are still playing [music]….My people always believe in luck….We are optimistic people, you know?....We are not, ‘Oh, my God, what now? We will die.’ Probably this year will be…very hard to keep food, but people don’t cry. They, you know what I mean? [Esther: Yeah, they pick up and keep going.] Yeah, that’s it….Because before that many sad, sad, sad. This picture also sad, but it’s a little bit optimistic, you know?”

• Bozica: Pride in cultural heritage, Bosnians’ resilience

accordion

“I am far from my country, but my heart is…still there and I want to [support them]….Best thing

from this flooding is because all people now together. Before war, they was together. For war

time they are separate. Now we again are one soul, one heart. We are working together to

make our country again to be good, like before. That’s good thing from this flooding. Everything

is bad, bad, bad, bad. But yeah, again [we are the] same. My one cousin he was in…rescue

team….and he said to me, ‘I didn’t ask, “Are you Muslim? Are you Catholic? Are you Serbian?

Are you this?” I just rescue people from flooding. I don’t ask, are you a gypsy or something. No,

we rescue animal, people, everything.’ That’s good things. Thank you, God, for that….We don’t

know who is who when you see it. We looks everything same, you know?...I’m happy with

that….We are again very close.”

Professional tennis players: Novak Djokovic & Nenad

Zimonjić

Transnational solidarity; ethnic & religious unity

◦ Monica: Appreciation of simpler way of life, cross-cultural connections

M: [The most memorable thing about that experience was] just meeting the people of

the island. It was fantastic. It just was like a life-learning experience. They were so

happy with so little. And we were living in America and, you know…it just didn’t have

the same atmosphere in America and it had— It’s like so rich, you know what I mean?

And these people just— They were so lovely, you know? Just, I don’t know, so simple.

A simple way of life. It just made you think about like what’s all the material about?

Yeah, it was kind of very philosophical, meeting people like that….We were in

America. So it was nice to just get away from the rat race, you know?

[later]

M: We just saw people…living more simple styles of life, and, you know, some poverty,

but they were happy, for most of it.

E: So was that sort of the first time that you had kind of thought about these issues in an

in-depth way, or—

M: I’d say not. I’d say I’d kind of be kind of a leftie, at heart…..I’d say I’d kind of be aware

of those issues, anyway. I’m that kind of a person.

E: But it sounds like it sort of gave you a concrete, first-hand experience.

M: Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah, it did, yeah. And even to this day, it’s one of my nicest

experiences. Yeah.

“On leaving I gave Lucy a gift of my hiking shoes that she admired.” (digital story narration)

Interdependence model of critical literacy

◦ Power: “understanding…how powerful discourses/practices perpetuate themselves” (p. 170) –critique

◦ Access: ability to understand and use dominant language, discourses, literacies, knowledge, visual modes, cultural practices (p. 24)

◦ Diversity: acknowledge value of different forms of language, literacy, knowledge, cultural practices, etc.

◦ Design: ability to use multiple modes of expression “to challenge and change existing discourses” (p. 25)

◦ Teach how to design and make multimodal texts

◦ Form of power: choose how to make meaning remake text & world

Interdependence model of critical literacy

◦ Example of multimodal text production

◦ Power

◦ Class did not analyze or critique dominant forms of digital or print

literacy, language, etc.

◦ Class did:

◦ Validate parents’ knowledge, life experiences, & cultural backgrounds

◦ Encourage code-switching during design process

◦ Position parents as both lifelong learners AND experts and teachers –knowledge makers

◦ Access

◦ Access to common technologies & means for designing & making DS

◦ Knowledge: learned technology-related terminology

◦ Abilities: using digital technologies, problem-solving

◦ Increased confidence in technological & other abilities

“I think I’d say [the most important thing parents took away from the class

was] an increased competency in using technology. That would be one

very important thing: the competence. And I guess confidence that they

can do such a thing and also, you know, that it was so well-received in the

class, and then that they were able to stand and present it. Because Kazi

has never been a teacher in his life. Neither has Monica, and Monica was

saying, “God, it felt so good,” you know. She says, “I had never been a

teacher. Never thought I’d get a chance to stand— It was so difficult and

different. But you know, I did it and it felt good.”…And I was seeing Kazi

when he was standing with the hurley and trying to explain, I said, I could

see he was enjoying himself, too.” (Dipankar)

After Monica’s presentation: “When we walked out [of the classroom],

Monica’s elation was palpable. Everyone…agreed that it turned out very

well….Monica said it turned out far better than she expected.” (fieldnotes,

6/19/14)

◦ Diversity

◦ Stories concerned other countries & cultural diversity

◦ Class highlighted parents’ knowledge & validated culture

◦ Stimulated curiosity about native countries of immigrant parents

◦ Monica: interest in & desire to visit India

◦ “So I think that was kind of expanding her horizons, to look beyond a continent, or where she wants to go somewhere and do something

interesting.” (Dipankar)

◦ “Kazi was curious about Bozica’s situation where, you know, there [were] floods and all that….And he was first very casual…because it’s so common in India….But when he saw how affected she was by it, he was curious….I think he was a bit more sensitive talking to Bozica about it happening. And I think he was a bit sympathetic, as well, and he was trying to then help her with what she was doing [with her digital story].” (Dipankar)

◦ Knowledge of other cultures shared with elementary students

◦ Teacher

◦ Talked with Kazi in Bengali

◦ Encouraged students to use native language in Google searches & design

◦ Did not insist on standard English or formal writing or speaking style

◦ Design

◦ Exercised “productive power”: designed and produced multimodal DS

◦ Presented and discussed DS in child’s classroom

◦ Able to tell own story, present own perspective through multiple modes became authors

“The project gave students access to dominant literacies, powerful

technologies, and the means of production” (Janks, p. 171).

Children’s Involvement

◦ Kazi

◦ Did not discuss story with kids beforehand; wanted it to be finished

◦ Bozica

◦ Older son showed her how to make story in Movie Maker

◦ Discussed flooding in Bosnia with family

◦ Monica

◦ Motivation: didn’t want to embarrass children

◦ Children helped choose story

◦ Recorded screams and rat scratching

◦ Looked through Monica’s photos from trip

Why use DS in family literacy?

◦ Fosters learning for participants and teachers

◦ Embeds instruction in an authentic activity

◦ Activates multiple forms of knowledge (Heron, 1996)

◦ Presentational: use verbal and non-verbal modes to express meaning (imagination, creativity, emotion)

◦ Experiential: interact with classmates and teachers to produce story, present story to others

◦ Practical: learn how to use tech tools, create DS

◦ Propositional: develop conceptual understandings (categorize, analyze)

◦ Corresponds to College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult

Education (writing, speaking and listening)

◦ Reveals knowledge and experiences educators may not have known

Why use DS in family literacy?

◦ Promotes self-expression and social action

◦ “To tell a part of one’s story to others is an act of ‘putting yourself out

there’ for others to hear, understand, and perhaps judge. It is an act of

claiming and owning the part of ourselves we are telling.” (Rossiter &

Garcia, 2010, p. 43)

◦ Way to document, analyze, and address shared problems

◦ Accessible

◦ Innate human capacity for storytelling

◦ Everyone has a story to tell

Questions & Discussion

• Acknowledgements

• Clare Family Learning Project – Mary Flanagan, Moira Greene, & staff• Dipankar, Kazi, Bozica, and Monica• Angela Mooney (Goodling Institute graduate assistant)

• Power Point presentation will be posted on Goodling Institute website: http://www.ed.psu.edu/goodling-institute/research/published-documents