The Digital Divide Between Students and Educators:
Digital Storytelling in K-12 Classrooms
Presented to:
Greenville Public School District
School Board and Board of Directors
Presenter:
Evonie Rash
Technological ChangeOverall process of invention, innovation, and diffusion of
technology or processesIs redundant with technological development, technological
achievement, and technological progress
Technological change is the invention of a technology (or a process), the continuous process of improving a technology, and its diffusion throughout industry or society
Looking Backward, Thinking Forward
NO MORE TRADITIONAL CLASSROOMS
• Technology changes everyday, therefore we must keep up with this technological world.
• We cannot continue to bore our students.
• What worked years ago or even last month, must be altered and changed.
• We are in an era where texting, blogging, chatting, twittering, is our students means of communicating. In addition, Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo are sites where our students upload pictures, create their own pages, and creatively express themselves.
• With this mindset of our students, can we properly educate our students using traditional means of teaching?
THE BRUTAL TRUTH• If you ask the question, how can
computers enhance student learning, you will often hear the answer, "The computer is just a tool, like a pencil." The idea is that you don't learn "computers" but you "use" computers to learn something else, the way you use any other .
• With this in mind, we need to move away from teaching computers as a specialty in computer labs and introduce them into classrooms for everyday activities
Let’s Think About Something• Should we as educators be offended by the comparison of technology to
traditional classroom tools? For example, should we be offended by comparing a computer to a pencil?
YES WE SHOULD
• Comparing a computer to a pencil implies that these are both passive tools, waiting to be manipulated by their users. The roles of both teacher and student are changed by the introduction of technology into the classroom because technology empowers children in ways no other “tool” has been able to. Student empowerment is a fundamentally new way to organize the classroom. This is very different from the changes you might expect by giving children pencils or other traditional classroom tools like rulers, paper, worksheets, protractors, or even calculators.
TECHNOLOGY is more than any other educational tool.
What is Digital Storytelling?
Types of Digital Storytelling• While there are many different types of digital stories, usually they may be
categorized into three main groups: personal narratives, historical documentaries, and instructional or informational stories. Personal narratives center around significant events in one's life, while historical documentaries provide insight into incidents of the past. Instructional or informational digital stories seek to show the viewer a particular concept or practice. All three types have a place in high school curricula.
• For example, a class viewing a personal narrative about a family learning English after arriving in the United States, may better understand why their schoolmates, or even people working in their community who are from another country, may sometimes have trouble communicating. This experience could be part of an anti-bullying program or other social skill curriculum. Students creating a historical documentary could use primary sources such as a clip from a speech or other historical material to better understand an aspect of American History. Students could view or create a digital story on the negative effects of alcohol for a Health class, or learn about genetics from a digital story in Science.
The Need for Digital Storytelling
Teachers, Librarians, Staff
• To bridge pre-existing knowledge with new material as an anticipatory set
• To teach a new lesson
• To re-teach a previous lesson in a new way (visual)
• To teach a skill (How to...)
• To provide example(s)
Students
• To connect personal experience to school lesson
• To express oneself creatively
• To supplement an assignment (Science Fair)
• To research
• To teach a lesson (Peer to Peer, Small Group Instruction, etc.)
The Benefits of Using Digital Storytelling
• Dr. Helen Barrett (2005) states that creating digital stories leads to learner ownership and engagement. Students who create digital stories are emotionally connected to the material, give authencity, a voice, to the material, and have access to a "deep learning" tool. "Deep learning involves reflection, is developmental, is integrative, is self-derivative, is self-directive, and is lifelong."
The Benefits of Using Digital Storytelling
• Creating digital stories employs these literacy's in a comprehensive, creative way. Depending on the type of digital story students create, students may improve research skills, writing skills, organization skills, technology skills, presentations skills, interview skills, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, and assessment skills. Students may capitalize on their creative talents, develop enhanced communications skills, and learn to use the library and internet to research "rich, deep" sources while analyzing and synthesizing a wide range of content (Bloom's taxonomy) (Robin, n.d.). "Students spend more than eight-and-a-half hours daily consuming media" (Adams, 2005).
Why not prepare students for workplace productivity by incorporating the use of media with school curricula
though the creation of digital stories?
The Challenges of Using Digital Storytelling
• There will be issues or problems that come up when incorporating digital storytelling into the classroom, but these can be readily overcome. Below are some common challenges with solutions.
Who’s Using Digital Storytelling?
• Teachers- Many proponents of digital storytelling see the connection between the technical aspects of creating digital stories and the need for technology in the schools. Jason Ohler explains how digital stories will survive by being tied to curriculum. He says "they need to be...used to strengthen students' critical thinking, report writing, and media literacy skills" (Ohler 2006, p. 46). He also believes that digital storytelling has "a great deal" to offer education today (Ohler 2006, pg. 44).
Who is Using Digital Storytelling?
• Families- On most sites relevant to digital storytelling, education and community is often the focus. The focus on families is few and far between but there are some references to digital stories as genealogical resources. Families are creating stories in attempt to honor their ancestors and pass on the history of their families to future generations
• Communities- Besides schools, organizations seem to be the main venue for digital stories. Organizations often connect the personal, educational, and community perspectives when there is no other connection between these facets.
Teaching Digital Storytelling
• Students and teachers have given great feedback regarding digital stories. Digital stories foster student creativity, prevent plagiarism while teaching deep research skills, and get students reacting positively to the project and their experiences (S. Best, personal communication, April 5, 2008). All good reasons to use digital stories in the high school classroom.
Who’s Using Digital Storytelling (Success Stories)
• There are high schools who have used or are using digital stories in the classroom. High school juniors and seniors from southeastern Illinois communities created a seven minute film, It's Not an Accident, in their Multimedia and Film Design class. This film is used by the Illinois Department of Transportation to teach new drivers about train crashes. Students worked as teams, collaborated with the community, state law enforcement officials, emergency workers, and railroad executives, as well as worked with scripts, storyboards, and video equipment (New, 2005). While digital stories in the classroom need not be this long nor this elaborate, it is an example of the far-reaching possibilities digital stories can have. Below are examples to view of the various uses of digital stories.
• Niles Township High School District 219 Skokie, Illinois Their web page Prologue states: "Digital storytelling can be used to introduce or reinforce the power of writing. Through the writing process and its refinement, students often discover the power of personal expression and greater creativity with digital tools at their aid." Links are given to resources, student digital stories, teacher digital stories, and senior citizen digital stories.
Who’s Using Digital Storytelling (Success Stories)
• Vachel Lindsay (overview) Springfield, Illinois, Lanphier High School Language Arts 9-12 teacher Deborah Huffman and her class produced this digital story using iMovie: Vachel Lindsay (media)
• Hero Quest Springfield, Illinois, Southeast High School by a Language Arts 9-12 Teacher "This iMovie is teacher created, and is used as an introductory activity. It would also be a good example of a culminating project, asking students to work in teams to create their own Hero Quest movie." The page includes links for Objectives and Learning Standards, a Lesson Plan and a Rubric for Free Write Activity.
• Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism by Rich Mayorga at Sunnyside High School, Sunnyside Unified School District, Tucson, Arizona "The students are expected to analyze primary sources to identify the central concepts and ideas from the progressive era and the presidential administration of Theodore
Roosevelt." The digital story includes primary sources and a five-minute drill.
Who’s Using Digital Storytelling (Success Stories)
• A Multi-Genre Approach to Six Traits Writing: Expository Writing and Literary Analysis by Lois Rodgers at Patagonia Union High School, Patagonia Union High School District, Patagonia, Arizona "Students read, explore and compare the two novels, Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Golding's Lord of the Flies. Mrs. Rodgers focuses on the general concept of Darkness and her students are led into both personal and general expressions of Darkness." The digital story includes cooperative learning, six trait writing, and independent literature analysis.
• Student Stories are examples of creative expression by students from Scott County Schools Georgetown, Kentucky. Titles from high school students include How is hero defined?, Ethnic Gardens, and Help!!!.
• Lower Cape May Regional High School: Interview Transcript At Lower Cape May Regional High School in Lower Township, New Jersey, digital stories are used primarily in the history, English, and sciences classes, but other classes have also created digital stories. Teachers and students use digital stories as projects in place of research papers or to teach lessons. Some students need to be taught how to produce a digital story, so some teachers make creating a digital story an option rather than a class-wide assignment or project (S. Best, personal communication, April 5, 2008).
The Curve to Change
Digital Storytelling S-Curve
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
Years
Perc
ent o
f Ado
ptio
n
. .. . .
.. . .
..
]
DevelopmentReview and Analyze Other Schools Resources and Stories
Extensive Training
Commercialization
How Can We Get Digital Storytelling In our District?
• Decentralization- Let a portion of teachers test out first
• Change Agents- Teachers, Students, and Administrators
• Below are suggestions for teachers, principals, and all other officials in the school sector
Persuasion
• View where it is working (success stories)
• Compare and Contrast (Conduct an experiment)
• Allow those educators that are willing to test and become advocates
Innovators and Early Adopters
• Researchers
• Non Traditional Teachers
• Non Traditional Students
Who are the Laggards?
• Parents
• Traditional Teachers
• Traditional Students
• School Administrators
Who are the Champions?
TeachersStudents
FamiliesCommunities
Why is Digital Storytelling So Important?
• Helps develop visual and multimedia literacy
• Provides students with a competitive and compelling voice
• Helps students write more effectively
• Encourages self-directed and self-motivated learning experiences
• Teaches technology, information, and visual literacy
• Engages students in their learning• Learning takes place in the higher
level of Bloom’s Taxonomy• Encourages cross curricular
learning
Tell me a fact and I’ll learnTell me a truth and I’ll believeTell me a story and I’ll remember it forever -Unknown
ReferencesAdams, L. (2005). The digitization of learning [Electronic version]. T.H.E. Journal, 5, 50. Retrieved June 30, 2009, from Educational Index Retro/Educational Fulltext database. Apple Education. (2008). Digital tools for digital students. Retrieved July 3, 2009, from http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/ Barrett, H. (2005). Storytelling in higher education: A theory of reflection on practice to support deep learning. Technology and Teacher Education Annual 2005. Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Bull, G. & Kajder, S. (2004). Digital Storytelling in the language arts classroom. Learning & Leading with Technology 32:4, 46-49. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://cs2.cust.educ.ubc.ca/csed/400/csed_readings/display%2024.pdf Diaz, K. & Fields, A. M. (2007) "Digital storytelling, libraries, and community". In N. Courtney (Ed.), Library 2.0 and beyond: Innovative technologies and tomorrow's user (pp. 129-139). Westport, Connecticut. Huffaker, D. (2004). Spinning yarns around the digital fire: Storytelling and dialogue among youth on the internet [Electronic version]. Information Technology in Childhood Education, 63-75. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from Educational Index Retro/Educational Fulltext database. New, J. (2005). Film School. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://www.edutopia.org/print/1417 Ohler, J. (December 2005/January 2006). The world of digital storytelling [Electronic version]. Educational Leadership, 63, 44-47. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from EBSCOhost. Robin, B. R. (n.d.). The educational uses of digital storytelling. Retrieved July 30, 2009, from http://discovery.coe.uh.edu/7358-f07/class1/Educ-uses-ds.pdf
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