Project ELITE Meeting Digital Storytelling February 16, 2010

Agenda Review – Delicious (search), PLN (Google Readers demo), Journal, Google participation doc (demo) – Two traits: tolerance for own mistakes, resilience Avatar Generators – Otaku Get started in making a digital story about your library.

Poll Everywhere Poll oice_polls/LTQ2Mzc5MTk1 oice_polls/LTQ2Mzc5MTk1

Use the Digital Storytelling page at the Project ELITE wiki for your home base of information about this project com/Digital+Storytelling

What is digital storytelling Digital Storytelling takes the ancient art of oral storytelling and engages a palette of technical tools to weave personal tales using images, graphics, music and sound mixed together with the author's own story voice. Source: DigiTales

Why use it with students Curricular Provides practice in plot and character development Encourages inclusion of detail Enhances clarity Builds succinctness Provides a forum to develop storytelling abilities Encourages oral expression Aesthetic Unleashes creativity Fosters reflection Provides a platform for artistic expression Builds collaboration with classmates Provides a forum for expression of emotions

Digital Storytelling Forms VoiceThread is an extremely easy form to use to make digital stories. Photostory is another easy program to use to make digital stories. More advanced forms include edited video, edited audio, perhaps a separate music track, special effects, and titling.

About VoiceThread What is a VoiceThread? One minute VoiceThread

What is storyboarding? n. A panel or series of panels of rough sketches outlining the scene sequence and major changes of action or plot in a production to be shot on film or video. Source:

Looking at some VoiceThreads – Kindergarten storybook – Reconstruction from Molly Lynde – 4 th grade “I Am” poems High School – hread-examples.html

Creative Commons Licensing It is easiest to use images that are available under Creative Commons licensing if you are not using your own original pictures. Have students seek permission to use images that are not covered in Creative Commons licensing or in the public domain Our next asynchronous activity will cover this topic.

Class Project #1 Work with at least one teacher to create student VoiceThreads Create one unique VoiceThread per student and select an average-sized class. Each student’s VoiceThread should have three or more slides. Post the URLs of the VoiceThreads of each student in your wiki directory page. Notify the other Project ELITErs that you have completed your project in our ning DST discussion.

Steps to Teaching DST for the Librarian 1.Identify a collaborating teacher. 2.Have students write their short stories. Stories from the heart are often the best, but informational stories will also work. 3.Next, have students storyboard their stories to segment the text and to identify appropriate pictures. You can use PowerPoint slides and the notes fields as one easy way to organize the story. Alternately, you can use a simple graphic organizer. 4.Create an account in VoiceThread. Have students create their own accounts or create identities within your account. Do not use student last names. You can use student pictures or have them create fun avatars.

Steps to Teaching DST for the Librarian 5.Have each student upload his or her photos into a unique VoiceThread. (Make sure that you have a signed student acceptable use policy on file any time you use a student’s image, voice, or work on the Internet.) 6.Next, have each student record narration that corresponds to each slide using the comment feature. Students can save, re-record, delete, and append to their comments. 7.Then, have each student share his or her link publicly or with selected persons. (Always share the link with me at Most VoiceThreads can be shared publicly for all to enjoy. In the case of stories that contain sensitive information, you may want to ask the student if he or she would prefer to share it with specific persons.

Steps to Teaching DST for the Librarian 8. Finally, select preferred playback options. TIPS: Practice first by making one or more of your own VoiceThreads. Consider practicing on one class by created a single VoiceThread on which everyone comments. For ELITE Project #1, get started soon. Don’t procrastinate. Everything about this project relates to the curriculum, so it should NOT be considered an EXTRA project. In fact, no technology-infused project should be considered as an “extra”. When some students finish theirs, show them off to the rest of the class, to their teacher, to other teachers, to parents, and to your administration. Show off your good talents as a school technology leader to build future collaboration, to garner administrative support, and to make a case for needed technologies in the library. Most of all, celebrate the creativity and talent of your students!

Evaluation Read Bernajean Porter’s DigiTales webpage on evaluation for various points about formally and informally evaluating digital stories.

Recommended Real Practice Create your own VoiceThread to promote your library or for another reason As a practice leading up to Class Project #1, select another class of students and have them create a single VoiceThread – perhaps centered around field trip pictures, event pictures, or book covers – with individual students commenting on that one VoiceThread.

Our Vision You are a model for the future of Project ELITE. We will recognize your accomplishments publicly at our Back to School event. Some will be asked to provide breakout sessions, be encouraged to present at conferences, and be asked to co-author journal articles. There will be mentorship opportunities to help other librarians to follow in the program.

Next meeting Thurs, Feb 25 at 7:30 pm in a Chatzy chat room. Watch for further information and an agenda prior to the meeting.