Video on you tube

Final Video

This video was challenging because all I had to work with was 1.5 hours of low-quality recorded sound, one photograph of a slide of Leonard's plane projected on a screen, and several contemporary photos of Leonard. The sound was very quiet and Leonard is slow to tell his story because he includes many sub stories and lots of detail along the way. This is part of his charm but is also what makes the challenge. I spent many hours using Audacity to carve short sounds bytes out of his long narrative with somewhat dubious results. In many cases I had to edit out his natural pauses or searching for the right word to condense the sound. I had few pictures to work with and he would take too long to tell us, for example, that the bomb was dropped on  Pearl Harbor. To make up for my lack of pictures and embed it in a larger narrative I tried to use so newsreels. Ideally the story is bracketed by the two bombings--Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. Perhaps in the hands of an expert this would come through better.

In condensing the narrative I also had to eliminate some of the exciting stories like several close calls where Leonard had to perform emergency landings-- like the time when he had to circle then landing field while he waited for his commander returned from the bar to help. He got impatient and took an axe to the plane to hand crank the landing gear down. There was also the time when he lost an engine while transporting a combat unit. He landed them all safely, white-knuckled and drenched in sweat. He earned their respect and a zippo lighter from that unit's commander. He treasured that lighter though he did not smoke. He also was stationed m any places before the Hump and had to write numerous letters requesting a move. So many stories to tell! Some day more videos need to be made--by someone who is better at it!

Even though I had a really hard time with the videos this semester I can look back and say that I'm glad I learned about DST and how to make videos. Like most things I learn about these days though, I am perennially frustrated by the mismatch between my vision and my  lack of time to fully master the technology and the process.

Chapter 15: Important Stuff!!!

Copyright is increasingly important as more and more content becomes available on the web. Many artists, writers, musicians, and other content creators have had to come up with a plan for balancing the power of the web to publicize and disseminate works with protecting income-generating intellectual property. Even as those who create original content come to terms with this, our students are growing up creating content themselves by mashing up the works of others. I find that many younger folks have an expectation for anything and everything to be available on line and think nothing of "stealing" someone's work and labeling it as their own. Is this a new problem? Absolutely not. I remember reading many a president report, noticing a particularly well-written paragraph, and marching to the library to locate the same paragraph in the encyclopedia. What is new of course,  is the access to ever more and varied content to borrow. With many rap artists and others sampling music as the base of their new works of music we have a culture that says its ok, even cool to use the work of others. Now we have education websites inviting us to "steal these tools!" This is what makes copyright even grayer and more confusing than ever before and why this is one of Ohler's most important chapters.

I find the following most useful from chapter 15:

• Fair use--a great big help for educators. What would a history teacher do without Fair use? Under the fair use guidelines many photos and films are cleared for use in a classroom. We cited fair use when we asked for permissions to digitize the slides in our Marchand Archive for teacher use.
• Three rules of respect--citation, permission, compensation. This is mighty simple and mighty useful. Quite recently I know of someone who used someone else's work without permission and removed the citation which credited the producer of the work. To make matters worse, this person was compensated for doing this. The producer of the work was not. What do I say about this other than to be Captain Obvious myself and point out how disrespectful this was? It was also personally hurtful.I think these three little rules should be taught at a very young age.
• What Ohler pointed out about the dilemma of having students post their work online is one we will have to solve.

 If you ever have to teach your students about copyright, the Library of Congress has a self-paced online module that we use with teachers and find very useful.

 And I will leave you with this little gem about a careless stealer of other peoples' poetry which I have been thinking about a lot this week.
 

Draft Two of final 286 video assignment

Link to Draft 2

Once again, "blogger" will not cooperate by finding my you tube video. The link above will take you to it on you tube. I hope someday I will learn about why it works sometimes and not others. 

Anyway, only watch the first four minutes or so. Since all of my audio of Leonard telling his own story is poor, I am trying to use newsreel footage to tell some of it. My question now is--do I replcae the captions with--ICK--my own voice narrating--ICK--?

ICK.

If anyone actually watches this, that is the inquiry question to ponder.

Chapter 14

Media Grammar for Teachers, an important topic that could have been covered much more succinctly... nevertheless, perhaps the most important point was right at the beginning of the chapter--the way for students to be media literate is to be media creators. Ohler makes the case for students as media persuaders. I wish I would have read chapter 14 first. I see now that I have many "bumps" in my videos. Ohler then goes in to his "Captain Obvious" (C.O.) mode and becomes rather repetitvie as he lays out the following rules:

1. Watch it twice--this aligns with what is outlined in the Common Core about reading closely (read, read again, read again.) This makes a lot of sense Captain Obvious! Watching or reading more than once allows you to notice the structure of the piece.
2. Pictures should be focused, well-lit and well-composed. Avoid visual clutter!
3. Change images at the right time to support your story! No image before the narrative or folks may get confused.
4. Use camera angles to manipulate the story and therefor the viewer.
5. Audio matters. Audio must be audible (C.O.) and well-mixed
6. Have students listen to themselves to improve pacing and inflection
7. Use music to  manipulate emotions and let the music drive the story
8. Don't be transition happy--be transition effective.
9. Pay close attention to story structure and pacing (C.O.)!!!

Storyboard with Sound

 I uploaded my PowerPoint by the deadline but then Annie was kind enough to point out that I missed the memo that we needed it to be video--meaning add sound! So, now you have to endure my voice. Sorry everyone that you have to listen but thanks Annie for cluing me in. I deleted the lowly PowerPoint. But I have to say that I think the idea of using a PowerPoint to storyboard is brilliant!!!

Chapter 13

• The idea Ohler reiterates often in this chapter that you can do a lot with very little has been helping me along. When I first found out we had to create videos I was VERY intimidated by the equipment and software I thought I would need. When I borrowed the little canon from Mark my anxiety went down a bit. I thought "Oh, that's it? I can do this." Chapter 13 echoes this idea--do what you can with what you have and focus on the story. 
• Don't buy on the leading edge--good advice. I suppose this validates being a semi-luddite. I am always behind on the latest technology. I like to trudge along with what I know rather than work out problems with the newest thing. I realize that this is not an positive attribute to confess to having in an educational technology program but there it is! I think this relates to the first point--work with what you have and focus on the story telling. 
• "Audio is king" This is my next area to struggle with. I have been avoiding recording my voice (until last week) and having problems with music. I know I need a better microphone if I really want to do higher quality work. And ultimately if I want to make movies of good teaching, (which I do) I would need to address the issues with recording groups with a boom mic or a flat mic.
• After Ohler's enthusiastic discussion of garage band I was very disappointed to learn that garage band is only for mac. I have it on my iPad but I don't think that is quite the same thing. I did however download audacity and I plan to get to know how to use it this week. 
• Overall, I found the nuts and bolts of this chapter to be very helpful.

Chapters 11 & 12

What I like from Chapters 11 & 12:

"The last thing you need to be is a digital whiz"

What is not to like about that? I am seriously not a digital whiz so this really appeals to me. It is more important to focus on the story anyway--isn’t that what Ohler says in the earlier chapters?

The table about the media production practice is very helpful for planning. Story planning, pre-production, Production. Post-production, Performance, distribution.

Peer pitching—like the idea of the pitch. It seems like everyone should practice “pitching” their ideas. Especially when trying to tell a story we can benefit from other peoples thoughts about what we are doing. I think that sharing ideas and critiquing is a 21st century “soft skill” that everyone should have. I really benefitted from the poster session on Saturday—I had ideas about other peoples’ stories and they had ideas about mine. Considering other folks’ ideas can only make my product better.  

Writing the narrative: Writing helps clarify thought. In writing the story we can get a better story. I know I change my mind a lot when I am forced to write about something and usually for the better.

“Once your digital story is planned, you need to develop a list of all the media it requires…” I really do need to get more disciplined about preparing. In listing all the media I need I will waste less time making my videos.

The recommendation to watch your favorite TV shows and notice the transitions is great. Since we started reading this book I have been looking at my TV shows in a new way and it helps me think about story.

Finally, I think the green screen technology sounds very interesting and I want to know more about it.

Screen Cast

Screen Cast. Beware...more history...

Library of Congress Mashup

Library of Congress Mashup
I posted my link (previous post) on time but had technical problems which is why the double post. Please use this one for comments.

Click here for my video. I am having upload errors again.

Digital Story Telling in the Classroom: the review continues...

Chapter 9

History is messy which is why this whole time I have struggled with applying DST to my content area. It is just not usually a tidy little story. However, Aristotle’s metaphor of tying and untying the knot got me thinking. I could apply this to history in presenting a statement about history, then complicating it with all kinds of conflicting evidence (tying the knot) then untying the knot in the form of a clearly stated argument that makes the evidence make sense. Hmmmmm....

I still like the Campbell Adventure, in fact that is what made me start and end my movie with a glass of orange juice last week. I am really finding that thinking about story through the lens of transformation helps me think more creatively.  I am looking for the transformation in every story I think about or listen to or watch.

I like the idea of the treasure map and the flexibility it provides. I can see how it forces a little more critical thinking when determining how high the peaks and how low the valleys.

I think Egan’s “binary opposites” could really work for history and I will probably use the story form model next time I start a video assignment. I think the questions are helpful in that you don’t have to start from scratch with “hmmmm....what should I do?”

The idea of “watch things twice to develop media literacy” reminds me of how the Common Core State Standards have everyone talking about close reading of text. What is close reading? Read, read again, read again. So close watching to develop media literacy fits with that approach. It took me several times watching Anika’s video to fully appreciate some of the detail she wove in like what she did with the color changes and the car.

Chapter 10

In the section “The Story Edge of the Western Tradition”  like the mention of James Joyce Finnians Wake--because that is where my crazy name comes from “Nuvoletta in her lightdress spunn of sisteen shimmers, was leaning over the bannistars and listening all she childishly could” Tales of Shem and Shaun). If you think my name is crazy, you should try reading just one page and making sense of it. It is very impressionistic stuff. Ohler mentions that Joyce’s contributions to the world of story is indisputable yet I don’t know what those contributions are. I would like to know more.

In the discussion of nontraditional stories I find the phrase “telling with texture” useful in the it makes useful what might otherwise be frustrating.If the story drifts off in a James Joyce kind of way then perhaps it is just adding texture and dimension to the story.

“Story structure is culturally dependent, not universal.” This is helpful to recall when I get stuck and realize how very Western I am in what I find satisfying about a story. I like the very traditional narrative and I get frustrated when there is no resolution.

Maybe you can view the video here?

ORANGES!

I finally figured out that the blog might talk more nice to Google chrome. 

And yes,  I was right...

This video was filmed with the Canon I borrowed from Dr. Mark. This camera takes better pictures and video than my Nikon Coolpix. This week I was very excited to work with angles and different types of shots but I was hindered by a lack of exciting landscape. So I "made do" with what I had in my backyard.

Orange movie

Story Storming, Taxonomies and Transformation Oh My!

As an aside, today the co-presenter at my workshop presented her takeoff the Common Core and Social Studies. She was recently at a meeting of a certain well-known geography organization where they were describing their current transformation in how they produce and provide content to their audience. She compared the notes she took to what students should be able to do as described in the common core standards. One of the skills was being able to tell a story using a various sources and types of media. It reminded me of what we have been reading about and gave me a new perspective about how DST may be preparing students for the working world.  

Chapter 7: Story Planning Considerations— 

 

I liked 

• The idea of a story storming session. I find that I do my best work when I can brainstorm collaboratively so why not apply this to the creation of stories. Ohler describes using a simple table three columns—problem, solution, transformation. With the group focused on coming up with ideas for these three components of a story they are not wasting time and effort or getting side tracked with details. A very detailed story might be a dud if it is missing the problem, solution, and transformation.

• What to do when story blocked!!! Since I AM completely story blocked this week I am have to resort to telling a story about not being able to create a story.

• Managing the detail of a story seems like it could get very challenging. I know from personal experience that one we become enamored of a certain idea it is hard to let go and get rid of it. I like the idea of creating a research box to “contain” a story. This is one step beyond brainstorming which honors ideas—allowing the choosing of what should be included. I can see doing this with post it notes—one per idea—after the post-its are generated the representing the core of the story can be moved inside the box. This way, I can hang on to my favorite ideas but include only the relevant ideas. Perhaps then my favorites can be moved into a new story storming session where they might actually end up getting used.

• The idea to “start your story anywhere” is intriguing to me. I want to try to play with that idea in one of our upcoming assignments. It has potential to add some interest to what might mean to otherwise mediocre topic.

I wonder

• why does an obtuse statement like “just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it’s not true?” need to be in this chapter? WHAT? I feel like Ohler dodged having to talk about documentary and that makes me want $5 of what I paid for the kindle version of the book back.

Chapter 8—Transformation Formations

I like

• How Ohler uses Bloom’s Cognitive and Affective taxonomies to categorize levels of transformation. I think this will be useful when I get stuck story storming. I do think the suggestion to use the taxonomies to guide the questions you ask students during the planning process is helpful.

I wonder

• If the categories the Ohler offers could result in stale stories. The William Tell story is wearing thin,

For my commentary this week I will use the “I like, I wonder” format which will allow me to express what I like while also questioning the author, an important common core skill. 

Chapter 4:

Points that I Like

• New media is equivalent to old media in that they both foster literacy
• Learning to read and write in the new media should be given equal attention because it is comparable to traditional reading and writing in the new tEcosystem. Interesting example of how  books were at one time “new media” and considered to be “heretical”.
• Students need to be “new media literate” but teachers do too. If we ignore this charge we are missing an opportunity because students are already immersed in this world. It is up to teachers to take initiative and guide them.
• Most helpful--The traits of assessment: These include focus on story; assess the artifacts of learning and the process. Are students creating active DSTs? Also look at teamwork and use of resources. Make the work public in some way because students produce better work when they know others are going to see their work. Finally, self-assessment

I wonder…

• The author claims that DST Is not embraced because teachers do not know how to asses it.  I wonder if this is really true or if teachers just have trouble seeing how story telling fits into their particular subject area?

Chapter 5

Points that I Like

• How to integrate the story core and story mapping. I appreciate the way this process develops an idea into a story. I even used it in my video this week. Couldn't help myself!
• Extra useful—the explanation of story mapping vs. story boarding. Story maps help focus the attention on the story not the technology whereas story boards are a technical aid. This is completely new to me—I had only heard of story boarding. I appreciated the complex possibilities of this simple tool.  
• Story maps as a communication tool for student and teacher. 

I wonder…

• Still puzzling over the comparison of DST to inquiry learning. I am a proponent of inquiry learning but it is hard to see how DST would apply to a history setting.  The idea of “story is something try to discourage—history is messy and does not usually fit into a nice story map. I worry that asking students to do this would promote misconceptions and result in historical inaccuracy. 

Chapter 6

Point that I Liked

•  His examples were concrete and helped illustrate what he means by story mapping

I wonder…

• How do you apply his concepts to disciplines like history or science that are by nature empirical?  He says we forget lecture but we remember stories. I really will remember his  William Tell story but probably not for the reasons he would want. 

Behold this week's "teach us something" video!

I became very confused though, because while putting this together I was also reading about how everything has to be a story. Consequently a story crept in to my video--along with carefully placed inaccuracies designed to beef up my story core. I also had technical difficulties  I can not seem to manage the sound--how to eliminate the sound that comes in with my video? How to layer sounds? Finally, I can not for the life of me figure out how to upload my video from youtube. This must be because I am 46.

My First Attempt at Digital Story Telling

clearly there is room for growth…

This video was made with Windows Live Movie Maker, a Nikon cool pix camera, and slides from PowerPoint.

A Running Commentary …

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways 

by Jason Ohler

In Chapter one Mr. Ohler spends a great deal of time “revealing things” about Digital Storytelling. I found this a bit tiresome and like he was trying to sell me a car or like I was watching a late night infomercial so I was very happy to progress to chapter two where I found some useful tidbits. First though I have to confess that I have always had a particular aversion to “stories” perhaps being subjected one time too many to a “storyteller” in costume visiting a history classroom. In fact, once at a national history education conference, right after sitting through a George Washington impersonator for an hour, a certain very famous author of popular history books whose name I won’t mention, came on stage right after this impersonator and in his prepared remarks he said “whatever you do, don’t dress up in costume and tell stories!”

But I digress…back to Chapter two. I found Ohler’s categories for discussion about digital story telling (DST) to be useful for my own thinking and for how I would ask others to think if I were to assign DST in a class. The continuum of essay vs. poem helps me appreciate “story” and separate it from the idea of a “clear essay”. This gives me permission to indulge in the story and know that a poem is considered challenging. This, combined with the idea of defining the parameter story vs. report, would be important to keep the DST project relevant in a history classroom and help keep an important balance of personal vs. academic.

 I also appreciated the point about choosing a metaphor or genre to help define the parameters of the task and align it with curricular goals.  I think matching the task with a genre or metaphor such as “it’s a love story” has potential to keep the DST project on track. I plan to think like this for my next project.

The key idea for me in chapter three was the point Ohler made that the best way for students to be literate in the new media is to have them create media. This transfers a concept that we use in history—students can only learn to write good arguments if they have access to and can read models of good arguments to why DST has a place in the classroom. And so with this point and despite Chapter 1, Ohler earns his spot on my digital professional library bookshelf.