Chapter 4 Reflection, Assessing Digital Stories

In chapter four of Ohler’s book, he touched on one of the trickiest concepts in digital storytelling, related to the assessment piece of it. I found this statement, “Without a practical, meaningful way to assess new media, teachers are understandably reluctant to include it in the curriculum,” (Ohler, 2008, p. 63), to be one of the most important related to why more teachers and schools aren’t actually using DST on a more regular basis. He is absolutely correct in saying that if teachers don’t feel that they have the ability to easily assess and understand what the students are creating, they will simply shy away from it altogether. We see this right now just with the use of any technology, even if it isn’t something as new as the digital storytelling pieces.

For my group’s professional development plan, we specifically decided to focus on providing some basic technology skills for educators that seem to have a fear of anything related to technology. Most everyone can think of a teacher like this, possibly one who has been teaching for 30 years and didn’t want to embrace the changes with computers in the schools. Or perhaps it is someone who just didn’t have a chance to learn about what resources are available because the schools didn’t offer it, and now they just don’t know what to do to catch up. For these teachers who lack even the basic technology skills, something like DST must be so overwhelming and daunting to even think about. However, I feel that Ohler did a good job of giving some basic ideas about how to look at digital story pieces and begin to correlate the assessments with what we already are doing in writing today. Once those techno-phobic teachers can see how the skills are truly all interrelated, perhaps they will at least venture into the beginning stages of just thinking about using DST in their classrooms. While it will take a lot of the innovative teachers to help move them past that thinking stage into the doing stage, I think if we can all at least try, the students will be the ones to ultimately benefit in the end.

Chapter 3 Reflection, Digital Storytelling as an Educational Tool: Standards, Planning, and Literacy

I found chapter three in Ohler’s book to be one that would probably be most useful for teachers running up against challenges in trying to start using more digital storytelling in their classrooms. Unfortunately, because it is a newer skill and as Ohler explained on page 41, there has been little research conducted on the importance of DST, resistance is something that many teachers will absolutely face. Like I mentioned in the last chapter, trying to convince an administrator that DST is worthy of your time, would also not be possible if we didn’t have the standards and other planning tools already worked out to present as our evidence for the overall value. I appreciated the fact that Ohler addressed specific technology standards in this chapter, and felt that the way they were linked to traditional language arts standards was very helpful. As teachers, we know how important all of the language arts skills are, and by mixing those with the native technology language our students already speak, we actually might have a better chance of reaching more kids in more ways.

I definitely agreed with what Ohler wrote about the DAOW, the digital, art, oral, and writing acronym. My first thought was how important the writing piece was in that group, since that is something my third graders struggle with tremendously. Then my next thought was how the oral piece would be so helpful for some of my struggling writers, who have an easier time explaining their thoughts out loud rather than in written form. Having that ability to speak their written words could help give those kids so much more confidence. From there, I jumped to the art piece and how my students would be so thrilled to be able to add more artistic pieces into their work, since we have had to cut back on that tremendously due to testing demands. And then finally, I thought about how cool it would be to be able to actually use the digital technology to entice all of my kids with something new and exciting (besides the boring drill and kill work we seem to be doing on a daily basis). Honestly, all of those four literacy skills are equally important and truly necessary if we want to incorporate DST into our classrooms, and I do have a renewed sense of excitement at how beneficial this could be for my students.

Chapter 2 Reflection, Defining and Discussing Digital Storytelling: Helping Teachers See, Think, and Talk About Digital Storytelling

There were many interesting concepts that I found in chapter two of Ohler’s book. While a lot of the descriptions of types of storytelling, purposes, or the impact that various pieces could have didn’t make complete sense to me, I can see that I will be going back to this chapter as a reference when I begin doing my own digital storytelling. So much of this chapter consists of information that is necessary for anyone hoping to infuse this concept in an actual classroom. 

Regarding my own classroom though, I definitely agreed with Ohler’s discussions of time needed to complete projects and overall production time. He hit the nail on the head when he made the comment that “teachers are already slammed for time, and anything that is going to make that situation worse is unwelcome,” (Ohler, 2008, p. 32). Even though teachers might want to spend more time on digital storytelling projects in their classrooms, with the emphasis on testing, and so much focus on API/AYP, sometimes it just isn’t feasible to think of it actually fitting into our daily schedules. Ohler also made a good point though when he mentioned that when a school or district didn’t value digital skill building, then most teachers wouldn’t be drawn to it either. That, unfortunately, is very true, and something that won’t change anytime soon, as long as the testing emphasis is still so strong. However, luckily there are those few teachers who do make a point to find the time to fit these elements into their already-jam-packed days. Hopefully, when those teachers can show the benefits of what the students are learning with these concepts, other teachers, schools, and/or districts will follow their lead.

Chapter 1 Reflection, "Confessions of a Digital Storytelling Teacher: Twenty Revelations About Digital Storytelling in Education"

Before starting to read Jason Ohler’s “Digital Storytelling in the Classroom,” I honestly wasn’t sure what the book was truly going to be about. While I knew it would cover digital storytelling in some way, I figured the technical aspect of it all would play the biggest role. However, after reading chapter one in Ohler’s book, I have a renewed sense of anticipation of all the skills that I might learn and be able to use in my own classroom. The fact that Ohler places such a huge importance on students understanding how to create a story, and to help them use technology to enhance the story instead of the other way around, is a refreshing change from what is typically taught in a technology classroom. His explanation of his seventh revelation helped clarify this fact, and I can totally see how those storytelling skills could be useful in all classrooms. Even in classes that don’t have access to digital storytelling technologies, if teachers are making sure students learn the basics of how to create a good story, those skills will serve them well when they finally do have access to appropriate technology pieces.

The other revelation that stood out to me was his eighth revolution about how learning communities are actually storytelling communities as well. It really is true that in all aspects of our lives, we use storytelling to interact with those around us. Whether the stories are short ones about our morning adventures, or longer ones about a summer vacation, stories truly encapsulate our daily lives. Relating this back to the education world, I can remember being a kid wanting to try to get my teachers to go off on tangents in class, telling stories that didn’t really have anything to do with what we were doing. It was almost a goal of the class to try to keep the teacher off track, and to get them to tell us some good story. Yes, part of that reason might have been to delay some academic work, but another part was to try to get to hear a story! Hearing others tell their own stories helps take us out of our own minds for just a little bit, and is usually a refreshing break from the daily grind. And I’ll admit that I have been guilty of telling stories that are not necessarily related to the topic at hand in my own classroom. So much learning can take place during a simple story, whether it is directly related to the standard at hand or not.  I absolutely agree with this concept and am excited to see how the rest of the book will play out now.