Digital Storytelling: Enabling an autistic child to communicate

Lynne Gibb reported this story in the discussion
on digital storytelling in the EdNA eLearning
Network forum. Understandably, Lynne is happy to share
her story about the power of digital storytelling:

"I used DST last School Holiday Program with children
ranging from Grades 1 - 6. It was a knockout success!
The greatest success story was an autistic boy (11 years)
who had been at the program for 4 years and hardly ever
said a word. He spent hours looking through pctures of
himself from all his previous programs and put them
together into a sequence of his own choosing then proceeded
to astound everyone as he started to talk about all the
things he had done in the pictures, starting in a quiet
tiny voice and eventually getting right into it and
putting on funny voices, raising his voice and shouting
even laughing would you believe!

It was amazing. he even put pictures of other children
in there and said they were his friends - and the amazing
thing was, they came and looked over his shoulder as he
worked and he let them. He even started communicating
with them, laughing and giggling. It was astounding.
When his story was shown to his mother she couldn't
believe her eyes. It was the biggest breakthrough he
had ever had! There is definite power in storytelling
and Photostory 3 is an easy and quickly rewarding program
for children of all ages. Even the grade ones managed it
quite successfully."

You can experience the power of digital storytelling
by viewing and participating in the EdNA group discussion.

Also check out Carole McCulloch's reflective digital story
on YouTube about the Bonegilla migrant camp from the 50's;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hrpNorgKao

Carole tells her story about its development in the network
discussion about the use of YouTube for sharing digital stories.
(see the following post).

YouTube: social networking by sharing videos and reviews

Kerry Trabinger recently started a discussion around the
use of YouTube for sharing digital stories and videos.

The discussion began with an excerpt from the YouTube
website:

'YouTube is a place for people to engage in new ways with
video by sharing, commenting on, and viewing videos.

YouTube originally started as a personal video sharing
service, and has grown into an entertainment destination
with people watching more than 70 million videos on the
site daily.

With YouTube, people can:

* Upload, tag and share videos worldwide
* Browse millions of original videos uploaded by
community members
* Find, join and create video groups to connect
with people who have similar interests
* Customize the experience by subscribing to member
videos, saving favorites, and creating playlists
* Integrate YouTube videos on websites using video
embeds or APIs
* Make videos public or private—users can elect to
broadcast their videos publicly or share them
privately with friends and family upon upload

YouTube is building a community that is highly motivated to
watch and share videos. The service is free for everyone'.

(Note: over 40% of YouTube videos are watched via MySpace)

You can view and join in the network discussion here:
http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=9438

MySpace for Education??

There has been a lot of noise on the airwaves lately about MySpace
and its downside. There have been heated debates about whether
teachers should create MySpace sites and invite students as
"friends". A search on Google for "MySpace and Education" will
take you into the thick of it!

However, can educators afford to ignore MySpace?

Chris, from the Dearborn Public School, explains the issue:

Students are moving beyond our current website and webpages.
They are into social networking. While most schools are just
getting websites, students are into myspace and collaborating
online in ways we just can’t imagine. Whether good or bad,
social networking on the internet is how students communicate.

Here are some facts provided in
The Myspace Marketing System ebook (sells for $27 US):

• MySpace receives 2.5 times the traffic of Google
• 230,000 new users join everyday
• MySpace is the number 1 site for viewing videos online
• Myspace is the number 1 referrer of traffic to Google
• MySpace accounts for 80% of all visits to online social networks
• there are 105Million members signed up to MySpace

(This explains why Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $580Million
in July 2005!)

Contrary to popular belief, 52% of MySpace users are over 35.

Chris, from Dearborn Public School, has the dream to create an
Online Community for his school (parents, teachers and children)
that mirrors MySpace with its combination of
social networking, blogging, RSS, video and podcasting.

He explains this vision here:
http://apps.dearbornschools.org/dpsblog/?p=18

I gather from his blog postings that he has struck some difficulties
but the vision will become reality somewhere soon.

The Brisbane City Council, for example, currently provides
resources (websites, interactive databases and online learning)
to enable the formation of online communities under its
program:
Brisbane Communities Online

The challenge still exists though:
How are educators going to respond to MySpace?


Technorati Tags: MySpace, MySpace and education, Online Communities, educational communities online

Electronic Portfolios and Digital Storytelling

Dr. Helen Barrett has established herself as an
international expert in the area of Electronic
Portfolios.

She describes an ePortfolio as follows:
An ePortfolio is a purposeful collection of work that
demonstrates effort, progress and achievement over time,
stored in an electronic container (CD, DVD, WWW). In this
context and in terms of the technology, a digital story
is a digital video clip, told in the author's own voice,
illustrated mostly with still images, with an optional
music track added for emotional effect. Rhetorically,
a digital story is a personal narrative that may show
the author’s identity: strengths, weaknesses, achievements,
disappointments, learning experiences, passions, and
hopes for the future; in other words: reflection.

Helen's site contains comprehensive resourcess on
ePortfolios including tutorials, examples, equipment
needs, research papers, presentations and links.

Her site can be accessed here:
http://electronicportfolios.org/

In a recent article, Helen discusses the link between
digital storytelling and ePortfolios. She explains
the purpose of the article as follows:

I address two issues in developing digital stories
in ePortfolios: Why? and How? or the Multiples Purposes
for adding digital stories to ePortfolios and the
emerging Web 2.0 tools that can be used to develop
digital stories. Where I have examples of digital
stories, I have provided web links.

The body of the article also contains web links to
resources and tools for both ePortfolios and Digital
Storytelling.

This article is hot off the press and well worth
reading. You can access it by clicking on the
title below:

Digital Stories in ePortfolios: Multiple Purposes
and Tools

This is one of her numerous publications, many of which
have hotlinks embedded.

The ePortfolio site is located at:
http://electronicportfolios.org/


Technorati Tags: ePortfolios, education digital storytelling, Electronic Portfolios, digital storytelling

Wikipedia: Public domain image resources

Wikipedia provides a list of sources of public domain images
that can be accessed for use in digitalstorytelling.

Wikipedia advises users to check the licence statusof images
provided in each of the different sources.

Check out this resource here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources

Technorati Tags: digital storytelling, education digital storytelling, videocast, public domain images

Tech Head Stories: Digital Storytelling

Storyteller and educator Hilary McLellan has compiled
an extensive list of stories, sites, projects, and
publications related to digital storytelling.

You can visit her site here:
http://www.tech-head.com/dstory.htm

The site provides a number of categories of resources
which include the following:

* Key Digital Storytelling Web Sites
* Digital Storytelling Educational Programs
* Books, Articles & Research about Digital Storytelling
* Digital Storytelling Tools and Resources
* Digital Stories and Archives
* Dramatic Storytelling in Electronic Games
* Interactive Story Environments
* Teenagers' Journal/Stories
* Story Resources Online
* Tools for Digital Storytelling
* Digital Photojournals
* Educational Projects
* Community Projects
plus....

Check out these resources here:
http://www.tech-head.com/dstory.htm

Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom: Using PLACE to develop literacy

This article is by Tom Banaszewski • Educator/Multimedia Author,
Maria Hastings School, Lexington, MA.

It describes the Place Project designed to build children's self-expression
and writing skills.

Tom explains it best when he writes:

Nothing is foolproof, but I have yet to find anything as motivating and
influential on students' self-expression as helping them tell stories
about an important place. The added dimension of video provided
a meeting place for these students and their creativity.

The article goes on to explain step-by-step how to use "Place" in digital
storytelling. It also highlights the community-building benefit of
storytelling about place.

Tom also provides guidelines on iMovie:
iMovie Tips: Managing the iMovie-Infused Classroom

The article, published in MultiMedia & Internet@Schools Magazine, can
be accessed here:
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/banaszewski.htm

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling - Comprehensive Site

This site has been developed by Bernard Robin, PhD, Instructional
Education Program, College of Education, University of Houston.

If you really want to get into digital storytelling and explore
the process and how to get started, this could be the site for you!

The resource section alone is very comprehensive and should keep
you busy for a year or so!

The site has a number of main pages (hotlinked below):

• Introduction
• Educational Goals and Objectives
• Getting Started
• Examples
• Tools
• Evaluation
• Resources

If you do nothing else, put this site in your reference list!
http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/default.htm

Digital and Traditional Storytelling - Jason Ohler

Jason Ohler's site provides public access information as well
as information for a workshop on digital storytelling.

The site is geared towards the classroom teacher.

There are two main parts to the discussion of digital
storytelling:

Part I - Storytelling, literacy and learning

This part of the digital storytelling focuses on using storytelling
to advance literacy and learning.

It discusses different types of stories, provides examples and
suggests some guidelines for literacy development.

Here's James perspective on the theme -
Digital, Art, Oral and Written literacies- the DAOW of literacy -
are crucial for personal, academic and workplace success in
the Digital Age and blend very well in a digital storytelling
environment.

Click here for this part:
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm

PART II - Technology, techniques, resources

This is the part of the digital storytelling site that focuses
on hardware, software, resources and techniques.

Here the focus is on how to create digital stories:
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/storytech.cfm

Student Podcasts: Podcasting for teaching ESOL students

Rosa Ochoa describes herself as an ESOL teacher of adults
at TAFE, Sydney Institute. She is interested in encouraging
students to use podcasting as a means of using English in a
real way to communicate with other learners, teachers or
people who may share their personal interests.

Rosa has drawn a lot of praise for her efforts in this area.
She has created a podomatic blog called "Let's Talk".

Rosa describes Let's Talk as:
...a space for a group of ESOL students, mostly new
arrivals (AMEP), to braodcast short audio files recorded
by them to practise their English.

Rosa's site is well worth a visit. She explains that she uses
podomatic for the students' podcasts but often imports onto
podomatic, mp3 files done with Audacity/iriver.

In a recent post to the Cool Resources for E-Learning
Forum, Rosa explains further:

For my other podcasts I use an iriver mp3 player (with a
good microphone). I edit the files with Audacity or with
Adobe Audition 1.5 (which allows me to mix music a bit
better than Audacity).

The biggest problem I face is the fact that we can't use
podomatic at TAFE to record.

Why not visit Rosa's "Let's Talk" site and post a
comment.
Your comments will help the Google ranking of her site
(which already has an impressive 3/10 ranking).

Here's the link:
http://rosao.podomatic.com/

BTW the podomatic site offers the following free:

• 500 MB of storage and 15 GB monthly downloads
• Podcast and Videocast support
• Listener call in line
• Podcast Templates - See podomatic examples
• Record video and audio online
• Viral marketing tools
• Podcast listener and download statistics

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcasting in education, videocast, ESOL students

Internal Tags: Cool Connections Conference - Podcasts of sessions

Elluminate Recording: An Introduction to Podcasting

Kerry Trabinger recently pointed out the following
recorded Elluminate session produced in August
2006 by Michael Abulencia (RMIT):

Talking to the World in 15 Minutes: An Introduction
to Podcasting.

This very popoular recording goes for slightly over
an hour but comes highly recommended.

When you click on the link you will be taken to
Elluminate where you will be asked to download
the software (academic version).

Click on this and wait a few minutes while the
Elluminate display is set-up with its whiteboard and
controls.

This recording is well worth the short wait.

You can download this recording here.

Pedagogy for Podcasting (with sample)

Rob Reynolds offers a number of guidelines for
educational podcasting based on his own
experience podcasting and learning in language
classes.

He recommends:

• appropriate length
• informal tone and high energy
• importance of context and review
• options for different learning style preferences
• flexible delivery options

Rob explains these concepts HERE

He also provides a sample podcast
that he describes as follows:

Today's podcast is a sample review lesson
created for first-year Spanish students
(but you don't need to know Spanish to listen!).
My intent with this podcast is to provide a
good example of podcasting as it can be used
in education, along with some pedagogical
guidelines for creating such content.

You can check out the sample HERE.

New Practices 2006 : Broadcasting e-Learning

This New Practices in Flexible Learning Project was raised
recently by Glenda McPherson in the Cool Resource for
E-Learning Forum.

The Broadcasting e-Learning project is explained as follows:

The project aims to establish models that will assist
organisations embed online casting into delivery of
education and training programs within the vocational
education (VTE) and adult and community education (ACE).

Online casting is the distribution of multimedia files, such
as audio or video recordings, over the internet for playback
on mobile devices such as mobile phones, MP3 players
and PDAs.

The Consortium and respresentatives involved are:

* Terry Taylor (AMES - Adult Multicultural Education Services)
(Project Manager)
* Brad Beach and Vanessa Marsh (Gippsland TAFE)
(online casting within TAFEs)
* Delia Bradshaw (ACE, Victoria)
(online casting in community organisations)
* Michael Coghlan (Educational Researcher SA)
(online casting in industry and business RTOs)

Technorati Tags: online casting, connectivism, networked learning, education technology

TAFE SA Adelaide North - Podcasting Project

Allison Miller, E-Learning Co-ordinator TAFE SA
Adelaide North explains the project as follows:

We are aiming to have MP3 recorders available,
either in each Program Area or borrowed from
the Library, where an educator can simply attach
the recorder to themselves and record a lecture,
a guest speaker, an interview, give instructions
for assessments etc.

Once the recording has been done then the
recorder would then be giving to an Admin
Support Officer to upload into the pod-server
(still being investigated), which will then 'cast'
to subscribed students. We feel this approach
will enable a wider group of educators
to utilise podcasting, especially for flexible or
distance students.

We have a few names of TAFE SA people using
podcasting who we will also utilise their expertise,
and we are very interested to hear from
anyone who is using podcasting as an
e-Learning tool - about what works well,
hiccups, student feedback etc or of any
contact details of people we should be
talking to about podcasting.
(emphasis added)

You can visit the work in progress via the
project blog.

The Next Generation Goes to College

The Chroncile of Higher Education had an interesting
article about the new cohort of learners hitting our
schools and universities.

Here's the catch line:

Tech-savvy 'Millennials' have lots of gadgets,
like to multitask, and expect to control
what, when,and how they learn. Should
colleges cater to them?

The article challenges the preparedness of education
institutions to cater for the "millennials" and debates the
issues surrounding new learning styles.

You can grab the article here

Podagogy: Where podcasting meets teaching & learning

Podagogy is a new word to add to your vocabulary.

This blog explores the potential of podcasting, RSS, and other
technologies for delivering instructional content and academic
support.

The blog creator explains the derivation of the term
"podagogy":
By combining “podcasting” and pedagogy I’ve come up
with podagogy. My initial intent for creating a
“frankenword” like podagogy is to provide a term
describing the act or practice of using podcasting to deliver
instructional or academic support content in Higher
Education and Online Education.
See the Wikipedia entry for podagogy.

Besides the ongoing discussion of the development of
podcasting in education, this site offers the following
useful links:

Podcasting in Education
7 Things You Should Know About Podcasting
Educational podcasting directory
(Podcastingnews.com)
Education Podcasting Network
(epnweb.org)
Podcasts for educators, schools and colleges
U.K. directory)
Resources for educational podcasting
(Bernie Dodge, webquest guy)
Podcasting Library at the e-Learning Centre
(excellent U.K. resource)
Podcasting in Education
(Apple)

You can visit the site here:
http://blog.podagogy.com/?page_id=49


Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcasting in education, podagogy, podcasting library

Internal Tags: Podcasting at the BBC