It's about telling a story...

Digital Storytelling.

The Help has been pulling big numbers at the box-office over the past few weeks. It has a compelling story--one originally told in a book. We see this every few months. Some book-to-movie transformation hits the theatre down the road and we line up to see it. Some of us may have read the book and are interested to see how closely the film follows the plot. Others may not know it ever was a book. But there is a reason they bring in so much $$$---

Watching. Listening. Reacting. It's more impressive to experience that way. (and I don't mean impressive in the "oh, that's impressive!" kind-of way.) Those images will remain with you for some time...

The World of Digital Storytelling
Jason Ohler
Educational Leadership
Vol. 63, Issue 4 (Dec 2005-Jan 2006), p. 44-47
Retrieved from EBSCOhost
http://ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=19270016&site=ehost-live

What I enjoyed most about this article is its focus on telling the story and allowing that to provide the foundation. Using digital storytelling in a classroom, the author points out the necessity to first have a good story that can support the digital resources. Photographs, video clips, and voice narration are not meant to tell the story. They are there to illustrate it--make it better. Ohler states, "Through creating narratives, students develop the power of their own voices." The author points out that this project allows students to hone vital skills they will need in the future--writing skills, critical thinking, media literacy.

Digital Storytelling: Extending the Potential for Struggling Writers
by Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge
The Reading Teacher
Vol. 6, No. 4 (Dec., 2009 - Jan., 2010), pp. 284-295
Retrieved from Jstor
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30249378

I found this article very interesting. Prior to beginning study at UH, I worked with second grade students falling below grade level in math and reading. Identifying children as "struggling writers" at such a young age is problematic, in my opinion. Writing is a challenge at every level. Listening to a child TELL you a story, you understand that they have the details. For most, the difficulty lies in translating the story to paper. But that is not what this article is about! These "digital natives" are engaged by technology. The author includes an example of a storyboard that could be used to create a digital story as well as identifies different types of students and how digital storytelling as opposed to traditional writing would be beneficial to them. While a project like this for a teacher with 25 students may be a frightful undertaking, with adequate preparation and assistance, this could really be an interesting and rewarding project for students in lower elementary classrooms.

Is there a better way to present history?

We love books. Books are GREAT for studying history. But I am also very excited about studying it differently--using photographs and audio clips and video....

That's the beauty of Digital History! Here is what I stumbled upon:

#1 http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/blackspeech/index.html

This particular grouping of sources is called "Say it Plain. Say it Loud." It is a collection of important speeches made by African-Americans over the last century. Booker T. Washington to President Barack Obama. It includes sound clips that you can embed and photographs....and full transcripts of some of the most important speeches of the century! The visual/audio presentation really does make you want to keep looking!

#2 http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/

The second digital history I chose is one on the civil war. The variety of documents here is really impressive. Take a look around :) This archive has something for everyone. It is fairly easy to navigate and leads you directly to some really neat things!

#3 http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089,00.html

This last one I really encourage you to look at. This is very close to my home. The photographs in this collection are haunting. They not only show the prosperity Detroit once had, but also the horrible state of disrepair it is in today. The auto industry was the beating heart of this once thriving city. That's where this photograph comes from.

Just like the Chrysler commercial that aired during the Super Bowl last year, everyone has an opinion of Detroit. And for history buffs, Detroit has it all--Native Americans, Industry-we're talking cars, logging, furniture, Wilderness and settlers, Civil Rights activism and more recently, a lot of crime and decay.... It isn't difficult to market Detroit. Everyone seems interested. Perhaps the benefit of studying Detroit is to prevent it from happening where YOU are from.

Articles!! (I'll make this short and sweet!)

#1 http://thwt.org/index.php/presentations-multimedia/discovery-streaming

What I liked? He says that using video to present less enthralling material may keep your audience awake.... AGREED! :)

#2 http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/40.2/mcmichael.html

And I'm not sure if this fits the assignment, but it's really rather interesting. Games such as Civilization III used to help students understand retain some of the historical narrative? I suppose so.... thoughts?

Sorry this was so wordy. I'll try to shorten it up next time!