Is digital story telling an effective way to teach academic writing? How did I change my instruction to incorporate digital story into an essay assignment? Particular focus on addition of detail--what happens when actual pictures become part of the essay?

After I introduced the assignment, students chose partners to work with because of the Pearson requirement for computer use.We also had to time our stories to about 3 minutes, 300-400 words. I started with my usual assignment Characterizing A Neighborhood with its TASK, AUDIENCE, PURPOSE, SKILLS WE'RE WORKING ON and part of original process "Topic Statement." LINK Because pictures are part of the digital story, I added another step to the process: Neighborhood Essay Outline LINK focusing on key thesis words and supporting evidence and assets the student has or still needs. The assets become part of the supporting evidence. Since the essay was to become the narrative for the digital story, we needed them complete before Pearson arrived for our workshop. I followed my usual practice of peer response as part of the writing process; however, I changed the process from written response to 2 pairs of partners forming a group to discuss their drafts and focusing on the following response questions: What should be added, rearranged (especially order of words in thesis that controls the narrative), removed, replaced? They discussed VOICE and perhaps most important, the SO WHAT? (PURPOSE on the assignment sheet) After they revised their essays, the next step was to write their essay as the narrative on their storyboards adding visual and audio and special effects for their digital story plan. They were ready to make their digital story in the Pearson workshop. See Louis and Rodolfo's digital story "Highland Elementary School." LINK

I learned that the digital story can be an effective enhancement to already sound writing instruction: • images become part of the textual evidence. • students use descriptive language more strategically and focus more commentary on meaning, the "SO WHAT?" • placing images into the digital story facilitates logical organization. • images can reveal relationships , a cognitive bridge between evidence and its meaning--how it supports the thesis that might otherwise be unclear to the student writer. • pairing students in digital storytelling leads to a supportive writing environment and creative partnerships.

# - Leslie Moitoza - 6/23/06; 12:06:30 PM to the 03_High school Dept.- Discuss

Jennifer Dannenberg, 9/10th grade English Teacher at Skyline High School, Oakland, California.

Technology at Home

At my high school, a diverse intercity school in Oakland Hills with an enrollment of 1900+, access to technology is mixed, but I would estimate that only 50-60% of the students have reliable technology at home that includes a computer, printer and internet access. Only a few students in my classes had digital cameras for use in our digital stories.

Technology at School

At my school teachers this year were required to create and maintain a website and electronic grade book. Teachers received professional development to get up to speed, but since some teachers don’t even use email, these requirements were somewhat unrealistic. This kind of “forced feeding” of technology is not only a violation of teachers’ contracts, but it has also given some teachers a negative attitude toward technology.

The library at Skyline has 25 computers, all networked and fairly new. These are available to students in the morning for a half hour before school, at lunch for 40 minutes, and after school for about an hour. The computers fill up immediately before school and during lunch; after school most students go right home, because they want to catch the first bus with all their friends.

Equipment, in general, is a problem. In my classroom, I’m down to two computers that work completely, meaning they have a UCB to use the jump drive; they have a networked printer; they have internet access.

We have two computer labs that can be scheduled by classroom teachers. One is scheduled by World Languages, who have priority and “bumping” rights. The other lab just became available at the end of the last school year.

Our tech support is a district person. Instead of just calling them up and asking them to stop by when equipment fails, I have to email a tech request (harder to do when the computer is down!) to get on the work queue, and it can be weeks before help arrives and my computer is up and running again. With this support design, curriculum can get completely dismantled; many teachers don't even want to take a chance.

The Story of Skyline Digital Storytelling

For the digital storytelling, Pearson Foundation’s traveling computer lab represented a technology “island” in every way: hardware, software, and technical support. All the equipment was up and running. On most days we had at least 2 Pearson people, plus me, to work with groups. Students’ evaluations reported that they felt help was available when needed. It was possible, with more “bodies” in the room, to run this unit like a workshop, with very little whole group instruction and mostly support people sitting down with small groups, addressing their needs at the moment. This was a satisfying way to work.

My two sophomore English classes spent 3 weeks preparing for our week-long workshop with Pearson. We wrote scripts about place in groups of four, emphasizing the use of vivid details and conveying the significance of the place. Most groups wrote about Oakland or Skyline. Students made storyboards and collected assets during this time. Once we began our week with Pearson, we had five fifty-minute periods – a total of 250 minutes – to complete our movies. The kids loved doing them! It brought them together at the beginning of the year, establishing community and an environment of doing things outside the box. The only negative feedback from students was that making the actual movies, which involved learning the complex Adobe Premier program, was rushed.

Many groups ended up either sharing a camera with other groups, or using internet and scanned images. Some students attempted to work at home to locate video assets for their “films,” sending them via email or storing them on a jump drive. Sometimes sending images over the internet was not successful.

Home Solutions:

• Create a list of resources for kids, like PeoplePc, which will sell you a new computer for $25/month, which includes internet access.

School Solutions:

• Schedule computer lab one day a week; e.g., Fridays in the lab. That would be a day we write: e.g., work on writing assignments, research, digital portfolios, power point, blogs.

• Establish relationship with computer and/or graphic design academies. Create units in common. Ask academy classes to mentor or do post-production work.

• Grant-writing! Collaborate on grant applications? Create consortiums? Fifteen laptops would allow partnering in a class of 30.

• Inspiration, not negative sanctions, should be the way to get teachers on board with technology. It can reach a critical mass, which will bring everyone into the tech community.

# - Jennifer Dannenberg - 6/23/06; 12:06:25 PM to the 03_High school Dept.- Discuss

From my experience this year in class and with the BAWP technology institute, I have often asked myself this question. It was clearly evident when students lost their digital work on their flash drive, the malfunctioning school server, or simply misplaced items. Students also faced problems when our Internet went down, lack of available technical support, infrastructure or simply time management in class. Several times it seemed as if the technological side of the project took precedence over the actual writing. Students were spending more time making the perfect transition, title font, editing video clips, searching for assets, adjusting sound, and adding special effects than engaging in deeper conversations regarding their scripts, revising or editing their writing. Perhaps their enthusiasm over the writing process was spurred by their knowledge of the end product integrating technology and writing. However, this still left a bad taste in my mouth when I realized that we spent over two weeks of instructional time working on the technology side of creating the video digital story with some group members unclear on the importance of utilizing each minute of class time to enhance their film.

In the following link, you can view a miniscule version of my Humanities final 2^nd semester project titled, “Conversations in History.” Students learned about various aspects of the Civil Rights Movement, read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, A Raisin in the Sun, and researched specific leaders during this period and created a fictional historical script with characters from A Raisin in the Sun and major historical figures from the Civil Rights Movement. The final product for this project is the creation of a video digital story, similar to a historical documentary based on their written script. Please click on the link below to view one of the final products from this project.

http://wwwstatic.bayareawritingproject.org/gems/lee/Internetedition.wmv

# - clifford lee - 6/22/06; 2:28:31 PM to the 03_High school Dept.- Discuss