Ok, here goes my 8 sentence story about an important event in my life. I used the famous Pixar story spine to write my story. (I am totally going to try this with my 3rd graders next year, but it was harder than I thought to make all the sentence starters work...)
Once upon a time I was sitting in an office, staring at a
computer screen
Every day it was the same thing over and over and over
But one day, I decided to make a change
Because of that, I talked to mom about possible careers
Because of that, I decided to go back to school to become a teacher;
I did a lot of student teaching and subbing
Until finally I got my first job and just finished my second
year
And, ever since then I will never sit in an office again!
I chose to focus on two questions this week in responding to
chapter two. I feel my responses tie in
together so I am combining the response.
What are your main insights and ideas from the given
L&K chapter?
How does this reading challenge/expand/contradict your definition
of (digital) storytelling?
I
was frustrated when I got to the end of this chapter because I feel like a lot
of what they wrote in chapter 2 could have been simplified into a few pages. Parts of what they wrote were too complicated
and hard to follow; I am a big believer in simplicity and less is more. However, I found the section on encoded texts
very interesting and thought provoking.
On page 45, Lankshear and Knobel write a discussion question about
encoded texts and it got me thinking.
Encoded texts are digital stories.
They are texts that can ‘travel’ and be interacted with and never ‘frozen.’ They could take the shape of any story or
photograph someone shares with another person.
According
to Lankshear and Knobel, literacies are “socially recognized ways in which
people generate, communicate, and negotiate meanings, as members of Discourse,
through the medium of encoded texts” (p. 50).
When I first read part of this definition at the beginning of chapter 2,
I was confused, but by the end, I understand what it means. To me, this definition of literacies expands
upon and confirms my definition of digital storytelling. Early last week I had to ask people and
Google what a digital story was exactly.
Now I realize there is no exact, perfect answer. A digital story is any form of the definition
of literacies above, it’s communicating and interacting through a variety of
means and people are free to negotiate and interpret the meaning how they see
fit. Literacy does not have to be just
learning to read and write as I previously thought.
Before
chapter 2, I didn’t think of Facebook or blog posting as digital stories, I
thought digital storytelling had to be more formal, like Ted Talks or a news
story. I now realize that the whole feed
on Facebook or blog role can be considered a digital story, they tell about an individual
overtime. What Jim Gee describes as
Discourse, to me, can also be considered interpretation and how different
people make meaning. So I look at
Facebook as informal and casual, while someone else might look at Facebook as a
digital story of a person’s life, more serious.
I could be way off here, but like I said, I found some of this chapter
to be hard to follow so please correct me if I am wrong!
(Side
note: I also felt like Lankshear and Knobel gave learning how to use Facebook
too much credit in terms of becoming literate with the website. What they were saying in that section was a
stretch for me; however, I was part of the first group to join Facebook my freshman
year of college in 2003/4 so perhaps because I have been using Facebook ‘the
longest’ it comes easier to me.)
This is a very interesting digital story from Education Week summarizing the summer job trends of our youth in America.
Click on the link above to view the interactive graph
Three traits were
chosen from Jason Ohler’s rubric to use in order to critique this story (each
worth 10 points):
1.Project
Planning
2.Economy
3.Presentation
and Performance
1. Project Planning- Is
there evidence of a plan?
Yes, I believe there
was evidence of a plan because this infographic was not created overnight. You can tell that the creator took the time
to gather data from the past 50 or so years and present it in an interactive
graph.
Score: 10
2. Economy- was the information presented
through the story sifted and prioritized?
I do not believe there
is a lot of unnecessary information in this infographic. It is fairly straight forward and easy to
follow. It is prioritized because you
can filter by age and gender or view all data for the age group. There are different trends that can be
analyzed or studied further if so desired.
Score: 10
3. Presentation and Performance- How effective
was the actual presentation?
I think this is a very
effective presentation of this data. It
is more than just graphs. You can filter
the graphs and see only the information you choose; for example, you could
select females in the information industry to better view the trend line. You can also filter the second graph and hover
over the third to get more information.
The only thing I think is missing is any information on how many of
these jobs are internships, if any.
Summer is a big time for kids to intern to get experience so that information
would be helpful.
Score: 9
Overall: 29
Other comments:
There are a lot of interesting
things to note while looking at these graphs.
First, I was surprised to see that the information jobs trend line hasn’t
grown much over the last 15 years (I guess you have to keep in mind that these
are just summer jobs). I also found it interesting
that Denver is one of the highest cities over the past 10 years for employment/population
rations for major cities. It’s also a
little frightening that the percentage has gone down in recent years, interpret
how you see fit...
The Importance of Technology Education at the Elementary Level
Finally, someone else is saying what I have been saying for
two years! OK, I know I am not the only one who feels this strongly about the issue, lots of people feel the same way, but I am happy to have found this video. This is the first article or
video that so closely aligns with what I have been trying to accomplish in my
own building. Only 2,000 people have
watched this video on YouTube but hopefully after I start sharing it (to all 10
followers I have) people will start
listening.
Three traits were
chosen from Jason Ohler’s rubric to use in order to critique this story (each
worth 10 points):
1.Story
Flow
2.Research
3.Media
Application
1. Story Flow- Was it a
quality story that made listeners lean forward and wonder what was going to
happen next?
While this was a short
talk, I do think it flowed nicely. She
made her points and statements and then offered a solution to her points and
ended with a strong conclusion. I was
not on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next, but I did
like that she didn’t just state the problems with a lack of technology in the
classrooms, she offered up what she thinks we should do about it, be an
advocate and speak up.
Score: 9
2. Research- Was the story well researched?
There was not a lot of
research in this talk; she was more speaking from personal experience. I think that is fine to do since she seems to
know what she is talking about, but more concrete evidence or facts would have
been nice to see to support her claims.
Personally, I was ok without the research part because as I said before,
this is something I have been advocating for throughout my young career. Everything
she said about internet safety, online state testing, typing, and kids only knowing how to play games on a
computer is spot on and are issues administration needs to look more closely at
as we move farther into the 21st century!
Score: 8
3. Media Application- Was
the use of media appropriate, supportive of the story, balanced and well
considered?
Her media presentation
was simple and connected well to her talking points. She had a good balance of text and pictures
and was not reading from her slides. One
thing that might have made it more engaging was, as I said before, graphs or
charts of research on her topic proving her points. For example, maybe a graph of the schools in
her district that do and don’t have technology classes or state wide data.
Score: 9
Overall: 26/30
Other Comments: This is the first digital story I have been
able to fine on my focal theme and I am so glad I found it. Her talking points are literally everything I
have been saying to my principal and anyone that will listen at school. I feel so strongly about elementary kids
learning more about how to safely and properly use technology that I won’t stop
until we do something at my school to address the issue. I wish more people would watch this short
story and help spread the word!
What I would do if I could relive my childhood again...
I loved my childhood so I am not sure there is a lot I would
change, I was very fortunate growing up so I don’t want to complain. But, teaching third grade, I realize how
great kids have it and how much simpler life was back then, so it would be
great to go back!
There are a few things I wish I could have done differently
or done more of. For starters, I wish I
took the time to talk to my grandparents more and listened to their stories
from the past...I am a huge history buff now and it would have been so cool
to hear it straight from the horse’s
mouth!
I also wish I hadn’t fought with my older sister so much, I
was a big tattle tale and clearly not much fun to be around :) Finally, my two
friends and I started a car wash business and one day I took $2 from the “bank”
to buy snacks at a vending machine...I still feel badly about it!
Overall, I was a bit overwhelmed. It was stated in the screencast that it’s OK
to be frustrated and feel this way, so I am trusting this is normal and how others
are feeling too. I am going to answer
the questions point by point so I don’t miss anything!
How well do you feel
you completed the requirements of the week’s assignments?
I believe I completed all the requirements of this week well
and as expected to do, although there was definitely some trial and error. I appreciate how well laid out the syllabus
is with details of everything so it is easy to follow. By following the syllabus, I was able to get
all assignments submitted on time.
What gave you trouble?
What did you enjoy most? What did you learn?
A few things gave me trouble this week. First of all, I found the DS106 site
confusing at first and a lot of information thrown at me all at once. I also find Twitter confusing (embarrassed to
admit) because I couldn’t figure out where to find the daily create assignments
and I had trouble deciphering between hash tags and handles (again embarrassing
but I figured it out!) I finally was
able to set up a class list on Tweet Deck and found the blog roll on DS106 very
helpful. I like how it constantly
updates with blog posts.
With that being said, I enjoyed getting to understand
Twitter better and Feedly, as well as DS106;
although I am sure there are a million more things to learn. I also enjoyed the critiques because it was
forced me to watch videos and read articles I might not have watched or read otherwise, and I came across a hilarious video (check out the real housewives of the PTO).
What would you do
differently? What questions to you have?
I don’t know that there are things I would do differently as
this first week was very much just figuring everything out. I think I have asked the questions I had on
the course questions page as well as email.
For now, I think I am doing ok...
What are some of the
larger issues surrounding your work?
While trying to find DS106 assignments and digital stories
to critique, I was having trouble finding things on my focal theme: technology
for elementary learning. This is part of
the reason I played it safe and stuck with Ted talks to critique because I
couldn’t find much on my theme. Now I am
aware of the assignments each week, I can keep my eye out for stories on my
topic.
In case you missed any of my assignments, you can find them all here on my blog!
