Chapter 13

The Educator's Christmas List:

This was a very interesting chapter for a few reasons. First, I like the way he addressed the reader in a very straight forward manner. The information was in list format, which I think was appropriate in this instance. There was enough information to allow the reader to get started in the right direction and pursue the information further depending on their individual situation and needs. Second, I think it was great that he included such a wide range of options. He included everything in terms of sound equipment, from the built-in microphone on a laptop to a boom microphone for professional-grade sound.

I think it is important to give teachers some sort of idea for the future. While they may only have a very limited budget and no administrative support when they start, Ohler is showing them they can still start this kind of a program. He is also showing them that once it starts going, there are amazing places you can take the program to create some very professional material, which in turn creates an even bigger buzz for additional support. Ohler said it perfectly in his "motto"

"One eye focused on today's classroom, the other looking down the road."

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 167). Kindle Edition.

The educational community needs more resources like the one Ohler provides; to not only recommend the software needed for different projects, but to offer advice on how to apply it to the classroom, including the "pros and cons." Thank you Ohler!

Video #2 Lisa Goes to Rome

Video #1- The Countertop!

Chapter 12

To say the least, Chapter 12 was a challenge. When I first read the chapter, it just looked like a long list of things to do. I did not really see the value of following a check list when I felt the end product was already in my head. I felt like Ohler was talking about me when he said,

"Don't be surprised when students don't want to spend a lot of time with this step. Often they're in a hurry to get on the computer and translate their ideas into media. But the reality is that creating the list will save them a good deal of time while helping them develop good planning habits"
Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 150). Kindle Edition.

I thought to myself, "How did he know?" Even after contemplating this, I was struggling with the value in the process. I decided to go to the Face-to-Face session and see if I would be inspired...

Ta Da! I was inspired! I had this great idea to do a video all about my journey to Rome and how I decided to go with my best friend. I wanted to start putting it together right away. This was not Professor Rodriguez's plan.

He made us write out everything. This whole process was seeming pointless until he asked us to draw our story map. I looked in the packet and traced the outline for the VPS model. It then came time to fill it in. I had to think, a lot more than I thought I would; I realized I hadn't developed the tension, the questions or the process of resolution. Drawing the story map forced me to actually break down my idea into concepts and not leave it as just a blur of pictures.

When I went to create the story board, I organized my pictures to support and illustrate all the great ideas I had fleshed out in my story map. This process was a lot easier having a guide! Even adding the text seemed very natural when I knew what the text was supposed to be doing in each slide. Each sentence has a purpose to illustrate an idea that was in my story map.

Bottom line: this process is important!

This being said, I do think the process can be adapted to each individual situation. For younger children or large scale projects with complex plots, the process Ohler describes is perfect. When we began to create the story board, I was frustrated by the idea of having to draw on paper the images I already had on my computer. I decided to slightly modify the assignment, combining media gathering and story boarding, by creating a story board within iMovie. I then took a screen shot and added my text. My media is now uploaded, in the right order, and ready to go!

 

In the end, while I may have bent the rules slightly, I developed enough respect for those rules to not break them.

Chapter 11

In this chapter Ohler discusses the practical applications of the story creation process and how it might be adapted to a number of different class needs and emphases. He advises,

"it's a fancy name for a creative problem-solving process we use frequently for many of life's challenges...This process could be called the "how to do just about anything process""

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 135). Kindle Edition.

I think this is a great way of explaining the concept of media production. While sometimes a bit too thorough for particular problems like baking a cake, segmenting a seemingly complex issue into its components is a great way to illuminate the process and make the problem more approachable. I have created an example with insurance claims using Ohler's method.

The Bodily Injury Insurance Claim

• Phase I: Planning

• obtain training, licenses and access to resources used in claims research 
• set reasonable expectations with the claimant.
• determine extent of injury and expected treatment to properly set monetary reserves for the file.
• obtain initial recorded statements from all parties involved.
• inspect all vehicles to understand severity of impact and potential mechanism for injury
• research claimants for potential issues like fraud indicators or prior claims

• Phase II: Pre-Production

• receive all the information available on the claim
• evaluate all aspects of the claim including claimant profile, duration of treatment, severity of injury, trauma factor, permanency and many others
• calculate medical bill totals from all providers and determine what has been paid and what has not (health insurance, other carrier, out of pocket).
• Evaluate the potential value of the claim (typically a range, ex- 12K-15K)

• Phase III: Production

• negotiate with attorney or claimant directly
• negotiate with doctors and medical providers to reduce their bills
• negotiate with government and financial entities regarding monetary liens/collections
• negotiate with the other carrier to determine liability or other aspects of the claim
• Finally come to an agreement with EVERYONE!!

• Phase IV: Post-Production

•  send out releases to be signed before payment can be made
• receive releases back
• release check to claimant/ medical providers

• Phase V: Performance

• close the claim and hitting the required number of closures for the week
• repeat!

Chapter 10

This chapter went beyond the structure of the story and discussed what comes before the story. What is the origination of the story and the ideas that inspired it? What culture does it come from? Why was this story created?

While my initial thoughts dragged me to the interesting discussion involving authenticity and nontraditional story rolls, another sentence jumped out at me that I feel truly differentiated types of stories. Ohler aptly pointed out while discussing music videos and their content,

"Given that rock videos are music set to videos, rather than videos set to music, we should expect images to serve the music rather than vice versa."

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 128). Kindle Edition.

This idea that, the art form that a work is created for rules the work, is really powerful. All forms of  stories can be considered art regardless whether they are in a movie, digital story, book or blog. What these stories all have that is different is the focus of the art. Each person who creates one of these types of stories has a specific passion for a certain art. If the work is a music video the creator's passion is music. If the creator's passion is film, a move is the focus. If the creator loves photography a photo video might be the focus.

This being said, I think Ohler's idea of having a certain discipline rule the work should be kept in mind when observing, grading and presenting digital stories. Why are we creating this story? Whatever a creator's passion is, will come through as the strongest aspect of the work. Instead of stating that "the music is too powerful", we should ask, "does this student have a passion for music? is there art in the way the story and visuals improve the experience of the music? Is this music with a video?...or a video with music? This may be an important aspect to discuss in an assignment to direct students in the correct direction a teacher might be intending.

Chapter 9

In this chapter, Ohler revisits the idea of the story map and explores alternatives to the traditional Visual Portrait of a Story model (VPS) he had presented earlier. One of his additional examples of a story map format was by Joseph Campbell. I really identified with the Campbell model and like the idea of ending up where you started, and how that idea is visually represented in the model.

As an insurance adjuster I have had the opportunity to participate in advanced negotiation training during which the instructor broke down the aspects of a negotiation similar to the way we are breaking down a story. To understand the "whole" you need to understand the "parts". One of our required readings was "Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People" by G. Richard Shell.

Shell describes the process of a negotiation in four distinct steps. He recognizes preparation, information exchange, opening and concessions, and closing and gaining commitment. When entering a negotiation with, for example, an attorney, both parties go on a journey through the stages of the negotiation gaining an understanding of each other's position. At the end of this journey both reach a conclusion, come to an agreement and have deepened their working relationship and understanding of each other as negotiators further preparing the participant for the inevitable next negotiation.  Sample of Shell's Book on Google Books. 

As Ohler mentions,

"Campbell believed that heroes ended up where they began, though they were changed by their experience. At the end of their journeys they live in two worlds-the one they left and the new one from which they emerged, both of which are present at the top of the circle."

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (pp. 114-115). Kindle Edition.

This is very similar to the negotiation I have just described in many ways. At the end of the "journey" the negotiator and the attorney have left the world of "anticipating what the settlement amount will be" and entered the world of "resolution and settlement". Both worlds would still exist together in my cubicle but are separate nevertheless. I think this shows how Campbell's idea can apply to any situation in which someone learns something or goes through an interaction with another person. We do not usually realize how many items a day we negotiate and how common it is in our daily lives.

In referencing my previous post with the "hamster picking example" this might be an appropriate place for a negotiation over the price of the hamster for the boy to come to a "realization/transformation" of the true, reasonable market value of your average fur-ball friend.

Chapter 8

This chapter helps us pull apart the aspects of "transformation" and deconstruct it down to its base elements. While debriefing "transformation" it because apparent to me that Bloom's (1964) taxonomy of cognitive processes, Affective "Transformation" and Kohlberg's "Stages of moral development" all offer numeric levels associated with different changes in a character. My concern is with this type of presentation that students would be prompted to construct a transformation with the highest "score". Ohler highlights this concern when he mentioned,

"Are some changes better than others? Perhaps. But most important, story characters need to change in ways that make sense within the context of the story."

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 111). Kindle Edition.

I think students need to understand that  a more personal and meaningful transformation for a character makes that character memorable. That being said, we do not want students awkwardly transforming their character's internal moral compass and redefining the meaning of life while choosing the perfect hamster at the pet store. There needs to be a conversation about adding elements to stories but still remembering that the story is not a jigsaw puzzle, and needs to be considered as a whole through out the process of creation.

Chapter 7

iMet is its own transformation.....

As a potential presenter of a course on digital story telling, this chapter was critical. Ohler frames the way an educator can approach a student or situation that is challenging in a very constructive way. He breaks down the potential issues and offers exercises and interpretations of the problem to not only solve the issue but understand it. Ohler discussed what can make a powerful story and it really "resonated" with me. It made me think of the many transitions I have gone through and the many I am currently going through including my transformation in this program. Ohler said,

"If you want to create a story that is memorable and useful for listeners, then connect your experiences to theirs through universal appeal. It's often quite simple to do, because your story is often everyone's story. Powerful experiences become powerful stories if authors reflect on how the experiences have transformed them. The question for storytellers is not just "What happened?" but also "How has what happened changed me?"

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 105). Kindle Edition.

I identified with this upon reflection of the iMet program. Graduate school is a unique experience because each student has an opportunity to choose to apply to a particular program that interests them, and to choose to focus two to four years on one subject. I think everyone in this program, along with any other student in a graduate program, has a similar experience of self discovery, self reflections and a constant challenge of what each individual knows, accepts and believe to be true.

Chapter 6

Sample Activity

This chapter shows useful specifically illustration of how to map a story and would provide valuable examples to students who are trying to do so on their own projects. I think the way he slowly added more to his story about William Tell was a great way to not only know the proper components of a story but really experience what its like to have the specific components be missing. Ohler explained the process.

"I deliberately left out the tension-transformation-resolution that would have made it more engaging in order to show what a story needs. So far, it's a good example of a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end and works from a functional perspective, but is not powerful, memorable, or useful".

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 90). Kindle Edition.

A I was reading this chapter, it occurred to me that the original story Ohler presented could be handed out as an exercise allowing the students to add their own components in order to improve the story. The instructor also could start with a simpler version of the story than the one Ohler gave, containing the basic components we would recognize aspects of a story, but with no "pull" to engage the reader. Each student could then add to the story that was given out and improve it by adding section in a similar way to Ohler. The students could then share their stories to help inspire each other for when they create their own stories for their main digital stories project.

Chapter 5

Identifying When Technology Is Not Needed!

This chapter walked the reader through the "story map" and how it can be applied, presented and utilized in a  number of different situations. In reference to my previous post, I think explaining VSP to my coworkers would help them structure a claims presentation and keep them on track to offer the information in an clear and organized way. Initially the problem that is being faced is they do not know how much a claim is worth. The adjuster or person listening to the presentation is led through all the facts and details of the case and transforms as they gain more knowledge. At the conclusion of the interview, the Adjuster would offer their thoughts on what they thought the claim would be worth and walk the client or their attorney through the negotiation process. Ultimately a settlement is reached offering both a conclusion to the story and an answer to the initial question of "how much is this claim worth?".

I was struck by the fact that Ohler specifically suggests that the instructor limit the availability of technology in this initial pivotal step. 

"I don't like having students use computers at this point because they just get in the way. I want to emphasize this. You want students to go from idea to story core to story map with as little technological distraction as possible".

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 85). Kindle Edition.

Many people think that those who are "into technology" want to use technology for absolutely everything they can. This example shows that that is not the case. People who truly understand technology encourage people to use it, but to use it in the most effective way. If the use of technology in a particular situation, such as the creative process of story mapping, will not improve the process, then it is not appropriate. Ohler suggests,

"It provides a way for teachers to interact with student work in an easy, low-tech way at the beginning of the process, when their input can actually impact what students produce."

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (p. 86). Kindle Edition.

 Technology has improved our lives in many ways, from the everyday activities to improving our ability to learn and understand in our academic lives. As much as we have benefited to the advancements of technology , it is most powerful when used effectively to improve learning as opposed to simply replacing an existing practice with a "high tech" version that accomplishes the same thing with the same efficiency.