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Several things feel familiar about digital storytelling. Writing from the heart about a topic that interests me is one of my comfort areas. No matter where I'm writing, if I can get the words down, I'm happier. So this is communication, which is satisfying. As far as my teaching practice, I like to use student and teacher models for my students; I can picture myself going to the website and showing my students a few good examples. I also like working with students one-on-one, and that seems like an important component of getting these concepts across. I appreciate being able to allow my students a certain amount of flexibility and creativity while having some specific information and structure – it seems like it would be a popular activity with students because of the way it is set up. Learning new stuff is always awkward and frustrating. I like that I am in the student's place and feeling what they go through. Moments like this help me empathize with the learning journey and feel more in touch with the struggles and accomplishments along the way. Digital storytelling feels transforming in that it combines so many learning modalities and offers me a way to give a more complete picture of my subject. I'm not just lingering in video or audio or text; I'm mixing and stirring. I'm making connections for my "reader": putting together the right sounds with the images so that the text will make the most sense…and I find I'm making a few new connections about my own topic along the way. Knowing that I can't really know it all is both frustrating and empowering. There's always more room to grow and learn, and although along the way it seems confusing at times…I'm okay with that. Describe your current teaching situation, as well as the rubric(s) you might implement for digital storytelling projects. My teaching situation affords my students access to computers. Though they work fairly reliably, they are all PCs, and I have access only to MovieMaker, not iMovie. So, while I have a decent working understanding of iMovie, I'm curious and a bit concerned about how similar and different MovieMaker is to iMovie and how comfortable I'll be using MovieMaker with my students if I haven't used it to make a digital story. I may try using MovieMaker on another summer project to see if I can translate what I've learned from iMovie to actual teaching situations in MovieMaker. Overall, though, I'm sure I'll be able to find ways for my students to create digital stories in several units throughout the year. To assess a digital story, I would give some credit for planning and use of time; usually process gets about as much weight as the product in my class. I would value the final product for including audio, visuals, credits, and text. There would also be a section on the quality of those things, but it would be a smaller number (this being a new skill). Extra credit may be things like transitions and original created elements (art, video, etc.). There would be some aspect of reflection and self-assessment. What are your thoughts about audience and voice? Voice makes the story unique. It's essential – it's integral to the process and product. Each person includes the elements in their digital story that he or she chooses, and they add up to a creative voice. One of the strengths of this medium is allowing for so much voice, so much individuality. Students generally eat up this kind of assignment. Understanding your audience determines your level of honesty and your latitude of creativity. Sometimes (for some people) voice is squelched to some extent with the knowledge that the audience is so large. Putting projects on the web, for example, is too public for some topics and some people. Describe your project and your workshop experience. My digital story topic was a tough choice for me. I'm usually the funny guy, the one who dances and sings and makes people laugh. I feel comfortable in that role. The first morning, when I went over the topics I was considering to write about, my group pushed me to write about my dad. I haven't been able to write much of anything about him, despite it being almost a year since he died. That's unusual for me, so I pushed myself, too, to write about the hard topic, and deal a bit with a weighty issue on my mind. I think it turned out about as well as it could have given this short amount of time. I wanted to lift up my dad's life in some way. I'm proud of the journey he took and the things he accomplished in his life, and I wanted to share that energy and pride. Being so close to my subject made it intensely emotional, but I'm looking forward to sharing the product with my family. In some ways, I wanted more time to write a longer piece and get more photos and play with transitions more, etc. However, the time constraints did make me think about what was most important and focus on those things. The learning process was frustrating, but fun. I always enjoy projects that push me and make me use my most-flexible self. I felt open to people's ideas and assistance. I'm glad I took the time to put together a digital story before having my students do it.
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