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.