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What is familiar about this process is the daunting nature of facing the blank page. I always find it amusing how difficult it becomes to compose in the face of the expectation of greatness: each new genre like the Russian nesting dolls revealing itself with each new obstacle or inspiration. In addition, the editing process is just as collaborative. I find it impossible not to turn to my neighbor to have him or her watch what I have done to my storyboard, the way my images are working with my text, etc. Finally, the base text of this piece endured the very traditional writing process of editing and revision: it is a love poem that was edited through writing conference by any number of people. As for teaching practice, I can't see how teaching the process of digital storytelling is different from teaching any other genre. One introduces the genre through examples, students examine which elements contribute to the strength of each piece, one scaffolds the elements of the genre, and then students attempt their own example of that genre. This is no different from teaching a lab report or an acrostic poem. Just with fancier machines. I think what is most transforming to me is the way I am being asked to think multi-modally. I cannot wrap my brain around the way the audio and the images work together. I found the images I had collected initially had a completely different tone than my poem, but I could not realize that until I put them together. I have done a lot of work analyzing these elements separately, but I had not realized the trick of bringing text, audio, and visuals together to bring about a coherent piece that evokes the sort of emotion that I intend. While I am adept at doing that with each element individually, I am having trouble doing that with all three in one universal piece. Describe your current teaching situation, as well as the rubric(s) you might implement for digital storytelling projects. In my school, we have PCs, little technical support, and limited access to the computer lab. I recently was awarded a grant for digital cameras, and now I have five cameras to use with my classes. I think I would still try to do this project with my classes, provided I could get assistance from my media specialist or a student teacher – someone, anyone, at least one other adult. I believe that even if I can't create a Utopia where every kid has perfect access, I still can figure it out to make it work! Many lessons are learned even from unsuccessful projects, and I believe that the process of drafting, considering audience, working in this genre, multi-modally, etc. are enough rich learning opportunities, even if we don't have perfectly rendered iMovies. I would engage with the students in an activity to create a rubric together, first by viewing sample projects, examining genre, looking at rubrics for other texts, and then creating a common rubric together. When I worked with a small group recently, we created a checklist for the students to assist them in addressing all of the aspects of the genre. I think this is quite difficult to assess: What does one look for objectively in this project? Effective transitions? Well-written narration? Interesting pictures? How does one weight each element? I feel that these questions must be answered as a community of learners in order to be truly successful as an assessment tool. What are your thoughts about audience and voice? With my iMovie, I had a clear sense of audience and voice in mind when I wrote this piece. Janet had mentioned that I should create something to play at my wedding, and I had been revising this lovely love poem I had written for my fiancé. The two seemed to go together. Interestingly, I found that it was difficult to maintain the tone of my poem once I added the elements of visual and sound to it: at times they didn't match, and I found myself taking out a digital camera to take specific pictures to match in the "voice" of my poem. This was a new experience for me: I usually feel like I can handle the medium of print, I feel as comfortable as a writer can be facing that blank page, but here I had to deal with the blank canvas, the added elements. It was like creating a mobile: every time I added something, the whole thing became out of balance and I had to try again. Describe your project and your workshop experience. As I mentioned above, I chose this subject matter because it was suggested that I make something to play at my wedding. The poem came out of our Homecoming Writing Marathon and was edited throughout our Digital Writing Marathon, when several of us used Writely and Skype to edit it. I thought the genre of poetry would be interesting for the digital story because I am a poet, poems are short, and I had lots of imagery that lent itself to "illustration." This workshop was really helpful. I feel like I understand the medium much better now that I have experienced this workshop. Having worked with MovieMaker and PhotoStory and iMovie before, I had an idea of how this project would go. I did learn a lot about the software and about how far I could push the genre. I also loved helping my peers, either with editing or with different software stuff. I felt very accomplished when I was finished: a rarity for me after a week of professional development. Thank you for all your help and patience. I really enjoyed this experience.
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