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.
where are you? i love your video, i want to see you enjoying your $4 beers. i love the history of your club and how you captured the progression. you actually told a story, from then to now. really cool
ReplyDeleteYes. Chapter one was pretty hard to get through. I agree. As for your views on chapter 3, I really agree with you. It reminds me of how historically, we used apprenticeships to train by doing but now our focus has been much more on development of isolated skills without context. I think this is why I am drawn to inquiry and also to the idea of using digital media in the classroom. The only way to really teach technology is to have our kids be using it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sometimes story tellers in costume are boring but I've gotta say when I went on the DC trip with Pete last spring, we sat down in a little old restaurant/meeting hall and had a family style meal and then Abe Lincoln came out and talked to us about his life and how he ran the country way back then. I was duly impressed. I think the costume definitely added to the speech. I have to admit that I really never listened to history before (sorry) but I learned alot on that trip.
ReplyDeleteI liked the idea of knowing about the idea to know and keep separate the difference between the personal and the academic in DST, and the importance of models.
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