Chapter 4: Same as it ever was...

There are definitely challenges in assessing digital stories – they just may not be terribly new challenges. Writing is always a little difficult to assess because of the many different aspects that could be considered. Ohler does a great job of breaking down the features of storytelling that should be assessed from writing and research to digital craftsmanship and voice.

I have my personal favorites, of course. If a piece has a distinct voice, I’m far more likely to forgive failings in other areas. Hearing the authentic voice of a student come through in a piece of work is rewarding. 

Chapter 3: "The nice thing about standards..."

"...is that you have so many to choose from." ~ Andrew S. Tanenbaum

Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw upon their prior experience, their interaction with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies and their understanding of the textural features.

Of course, this is the way we understand texts. My seven year old children apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate and understand Bad Kitty Takes a Bath. The fact that a standard exists to identify this process is evidence of how educators have to parse their curriculum to demonstrate its educational value.

I know we all have to be able to look at what needs to be taught and what the best way is to teach it. I think it’s important to analyze and make sense of things. But sometimes, don’t you want to say “duh”?

Chapter 2: "Let me make this perfectly clear..."

(Who said it? Extra points if you use his nickname. All right, back to the task at hand.)

One of the great benefits of DST is the amount of creativity and originality students can express in their work. However, as Jason Ohler points out, originality is not always the most important aspect of some projects and in others, while the presentation may be original, the content may not be. Some students have gotten in the habit of just churning out what they think will fit the bill – sometimes in direct reaction to having not been rewarded for trying original approaches in the past. 

To help students understand, trust and enjoy the process of truly sharing their own take on things, instructors need to be clear about their expectations for how much originality they are expecting from students. Teachers should clearly demonstrate this, perhaps, as Ohler suggested, by requiring a certain amount of the material, such as photos or drawings, is created by the student.

I can see this kind of scaffolding could really help a student see what needs to be done and also feel more confident in sharing his or her own perspective in the project.

Chapter 1: Digital Storytelling, Creativity and Weird Science

Revelation #19

“Digital storytelling helps students develop creativity and innovation skills needed to solve important problems in imaginative ways.”

There’s a really crappy song by Scandal from 1984, sung by Patty Smyth, a chick with a mullet. It’s called “I am the Warrior,” and my friends and I used to make fun of it. We would adopt the same intense tone and sing “Am I going to miss the bus? I am The Worrier. Are my eyebrows plucked enough? I am The Worrier.” And so on.

Then I turned into The Worrier.  I worry about a lot of things, but I really worry about the environment, especially with regard to global warming. When I consider what we might be facing – with methane trappers destabilizing, polar caps disappearing and water levels rising – I feel pretty hopeless.

Recently, though, I heard about a proposal by a couple of scientists to build 200-meter tubes that will be tethered to the ocean floor and will compel the colder, nutrient-rich water to upwell and spur the growth of algae – which will trap CO2. The weirdness of the idea has captured me. Not just because a few of the best scientific minds think it might actually help, but also because of the creativity involved in this approach. Need cold water for algae? Go get it!

That’s why Revelation 19 resonated with me. I love the idea of students becoming “practical artists” and developing creativity as a marketable skill. Ohler claims that “digital storytelling helps students develop creativity and innovation skills needed to solve important problems in imaginative ways.” Perhaps there have always been important problems of the magnitude we’re currently facing, but in any case, we need the fresh, new ideas of this generation of thinkers. Digital storytelling can help foster the kind of creativity we’ll need to solve the more worrisome problems of today’s world.

And then I can go back to worrying about my eyebrows.

D'oh!

This is how today felt.