WCEAC – October 2010

I have been lucky to attend the Western Canadian Educational Administrator’s Conference for a decade now. Each Fall, when the conference is held in Edmonton, hundreds of administrators, teachers, senior executives, politicians and facilitators have a chance to mingle, network, share and have the opportunity to meet together for a few days.

This year, I counted approximately 30 people from Parkland School Division attending! I imagined them all sharing their thoughts and comments on their workshops in a common area so I sent out a GoogleDocs page for people to input information.

What worked: some did view the document and were impressed of the information that was put into the document, and some added to the document.

What didn’t work: not knowing ahead of time who was all coming to conference, I couldn’t send out a welcome to the GDocs page that they could use if they brought their laptops or smartphones.

What I would like to do at future conferences: find out who from PSD is attending and propose a sharing of notes. It’s always great to view and read someone else’s thoughts during/after a session.

Overall, the sessions at WCEAC were varied, the food was good, the vendors were polite, however, I may suggest:

• To  set up a criteria for presenters for the type of presentations we would like. I, myself, understand that when a presenter has authored a book, they want to get the word out, however do not continue to refer to it during the session several times. Maybe ADD this book to the session (I’ll pay for it through the registration process?) and I can take away more information rather than the publicity.

• As well, let’s have the handouts and powerpoints for the sessions already online so I can click on them to either: follow along, refer to, ask questions, write down some reflections, etc.

Overall, I valued the time spent with colleagues, mentors and new friends.

 

Digital Storytelling Workshop with Bernajean Porter

Intro:

Gather round the campfires as the ancient art of storytelling is being revived into an emerging communication mode called digital storytelling! Stories are as old as humans and more important than ever for our minds, spirits and human progress. Telling stories together about things that really matter has an extraordinary effect on people even more so when their digital storytelling is distributed quite literally to a world community through the World Wide Web. What an experience to guide a new generation into becoming 21st Century StoryKeepers™ knowing their personal narratives will endure for others long after the fires die down! By telling thoughtful stories, we clarify our own thinking, experiences and understandings in order to share it with others. Digital Storytelling has become a vehicle for mastering multiple 21st century skills considered essential for the modern workplace. Participants will be introduced to the joy, processes, elements of good storytelling, and technical tools, along with viewing memorable examples from kids of all ages creating digital storytelling of bringing together voice, graphics, animation, and sound in artful ways.

Notes:
* Do you have micro-blogging in your toolkit?
ie. todaysmeet.com/storykeeper
* The Sesame Street letters dance and sing, yours just sit there – cartoon
* Mash-Ups of Skills
- storyteller – content
- artistic – creative
- technologist – craftsmanship
*Chapter One
- storytelling has unique qualities
- photo essays – images should never lead the story only influence and unfolding the story. www.storybird.com is a tool for this.
ie. Eliza movie “Betty Jane 1921-2003” pan and zoom only, still pics
- visual essay
ie. “David” – video reflection, song choice, storyline
- every story starts w/narrative or storyline
- TAKE SIX: elements of good storytelling
http://www.digitales.us/files/Take%20Six.pdf
- Preparing Script
* 30-40% of project time, written to be spoken,m more than words, an experience, telling from the heart not head, bells and whistles can not lift up a poorly developed story
ie. “Our summer vacation” – Kaitlyn – no emotion, slides don’t fit well with audio, factual, annoying background music
“Connor – piano recital” – funny, stills and audio, personal pics showing his emotion, mystery, chose story first then images were chosen
- Lessons Learned
* what do we now know or understand? What is the moral or essential message of the story?
* spine that everything hangs on
* anchors the script writing
* encourages the practice of analyzing events and relationships – putting our experiences into perspective.
ie. science based story “shop teacher – Bats”
INFO: movie making and story telling: check out this site:http://www.whitestonemotionpictures.com/films2-2/heartless/
ie. Water drop – closing, no moral to the story, cycle, this is a digital story only not storytelling. Take this story and have students look at the 6 elements of good storytelling and CHANGE it to an effective digital.
- Story Tension
* there is a question lingering in the mind of the viewers
* the story unfolds the answer
* a little bit of allurement, mystery
* good opening and closings in multimedia too!
* interesting titles
ie. Asha’s story
- Economizing
* 250-500 words
* keep essence – stay tight to intention
* story spine = lesson learned
* showing NOT telling
* think how few words not how many
ie. Ed’s story – barn
ie. No Place to Call Home – showing not telling
- Different Modes
* image stories
* enhanced podcasts
* voicethreads
* flimmaking
* machinima
- Influence Power – images are processed 60,000+ faster than text
- Fluency of Medium – how its used and number of squares
- Storyboarding
* voice ext (8-10 sec)
* images (3-4 sec)
* titles
* transitions/special effects
* music/sounds
- Family Stories
- Craftsmanship - sound is 50% of presentation, unusual to have same music throughout story
- Voiceovers
* reading (low)
* recitiing (medium)
* performing (high)
* Ask: what’s the mood needed for this project?
-7 Elements
1) Writing a narrative script
2) Planning a project
3) Organizing project folders
4) Making the voiceover
5) Gathering and preparing media resources
6) Putting it ALL together
7) Applause, applause
- Three Before Me – ask three other people for assistance before coming to teacher
- Distributed Leadership – with students, have experts within the class (ie. scanner, reader, editor, powerpoint, audacity) If you don’t have an expert ask a student to learn about it (you can show them or they can learn on their own. Younger kids can have “scout badges” as they learn a skill and help others.
- Learning Curves
* elements of good storytelling
* writing scripts – rigorous and creative
* storyboarding/designing info
* audio-editing skills
* image-editing skills
* video-editing skills
- Tools for Tasks
* mind mapping
* word processing
* audio editing – Audacity
* image editing – MovieMaker, Adobe Premiere, Corel Video Studio v3, 720×540 pixels minimum, pics with perspective that grabs people, layering with PhotoShop, MorphThing.com, Balbberize, BeFunky, SumoPaint.com,
* video editing – Zamzar, Oxelon
* Baker’s Dozen - effective communicate, enduring understanding, visual literacy, technical literacy, MI, cognitve apprenticehsip, HOTS, information literacy, exploiting affinitiy, project mgmt mentality, team/collaboration, NETS*S, AASL
* “The story making process enables us to simplify complex information into core essence of understanding”
* “Thread the beds of your facts together with a story plot so they don’t roll away.”
* Six Aptitudes by Daniel PINK
- design
- story
- symphony
- empathy
- play
- meaning
* Types of Communication: scoring guides on www.digitales.us
- narrative
- persuasive
- informative/expository
- environments
- personal expressions

ie. Living Memories – theme like Charlotte’s Web – friendship – tell a story ab9out you and your friend

ie. Docu Dramas – non-fiction, history to come alive (like the Water Molecule video), reality-based, factoids come from personal experiences

- Primary sources – interviews, radio/TV archive, letters or journals, photos or paintings, music of the time, newspaper clippings, artifacts.

ie. Diary of a Worm book

ie. Voicethread – letters written by students in an internment camp WWII

ie. Elephants – students pretending to be animals and talking about sound waves

ie. Granny Smith – gr 3: life cycle of an apple (What a great example to show teachers!!!)

ie. Mashup – poetry + docudrama + voicethread

ie. Museum trip – key question to answer, visit in the morning, afternoon time to put together a docudrama.

- 3D Worlds
* Quest Atlantis – online enviro
* purpose and audience, participatory elements, avatars are users IN the story
* Rampano NY middle school – Second Life demo
* The Graveyard book and 3D environment
* Bernajean Porter has a Storytelling Palace, works with Pepperdine University

http://coachingHEAT.wikispaces.com

http://todaysmeet.com/StoryKeeper/transcript

Overall the day session gave a good, solid overview of Digital Storytelling, however I really wanted to explore some of the technological products that were being shown in the many examples. I look forward to spending more time on this topic. If any of you have some great digital storytelling projects or products that you use effectively and want to share with others, please leave a comment!

 

Technology Standards for Teachers – pt. 2

This is the second part of  five articles discussing the NETS*T from ISTE. We will be working through how we as educators can model the use of technology while simultaneously nurturing the student use of technology. It can be a scary situation however, there are opportunities for teachers to receive F2F PD, online PD….it just where and what to look for in the PD that is offered. In this article we’ll look at the second standard and work through each section giving some ideas and specific resources that one can use in their classroom.

Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences andAssessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:

a.	design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
b.	develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
c.	customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
d.	provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.

(Excerpted from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx )

Let’s look at some of the online resources available to teachers and students:

Relevant learning experiences will be different for every grade level so I am pointing out sites that I am familiar with for teachers to view and choose for their specific situation. Tools for a) include:

• ePals has 200 countries and territories connecting with each other
• Global School Net engages K-12 students/teachers in project learning exchanges
• TakingITGlobal for Educators have a variety of social impact projects worldwide
• The Centre for Global Education has many videoconference opportunities
• VC with 2Learn hosts Point2Point collaborations, VC events, VC PD and cyberprojects

Some resources can be as simple as an online collaborative form for students to work on while not necessarily being in the same room or school but have the simultaneous discussions and/or reflections. Google Docs – spreadsheets and TitanPad offer this opportunity.

In order for students to pursue their individual curiosities and setting of goals, I have seen a few great e-portfolios using Google, Blogging with either WordPress or Edublogs. A wonderful resource person is Dr. Helen Barrett found at http://electronicportfolios.com/. Vision boards are an exciting way to have students visualize their goals, they can use Glogster EDU or even an online  Vision Board.

Customization and personalization of learning really starts with a teacher understanding Differentiated Instruction. There are many books available on DI, but the few that I resonate with are:

• Differentiation From Planning to Practice grades 6-12 by Rick Wormeli
• The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson
• Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn’t Fit All by Gayle H. Gregory
• How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson
• Differentiation in Practice, Grades K-5 Tomlinson and Eidson
• Integrating DI and UbD: Connecting Content and Kids Tomlinson and McTighe

Providing students with multiple and varied assessments have teachers using tools like Smart Senteo response systems, Polleverywhere,SurveyMonkey, Voxopop (audiotalk discussion), Vocaroo (give a quick audio byte), Animoto (make a video), BigHugeLabs (use photos to show learning) and even Storybird (collaborative storytelling) which all offer different ways for students to demonstrate their learning and for teachers to inform their teaching.

Enjoy trying a few of this tools and resources!

Image: http://www.big6.com/go/wp-content/2008/03/20050301085111_66664640.jpg