Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is the art of using computer-based tools such as text, graphics, audio narration, video, and music to tell a story. The following video provides a brief introduction to digital storytelling:

Storytelling is not new to the education realm and has been used in entertainment, cultural preservation, and in instilling moral values. In fact, most of us can remember at some point

listening to a teacher or a parent read a story while showing us the pages....and we may have done the same activity with our own children.

Digital storytelling combines the use of the narrative with modern technology to deliver a story, and its use has extended far beyond that of a teacher or parent reading a book to a child or group of children.

Now, children can create their own digital stories, helping them to make sense of the world around around them as they portray the story in their own words - and pictures.

Children are not the only ones who can learn and use the art of digital storytelling.

from a recent meeting

I am the director of the MA in Community College Administration program at Lenoir-Rhyne University, and located on the Asheville campus.  Despite my being physically located in Asheville, the MA CCA was the first fully online program offered by Lenoir-Rhyne.  Program students  tend to work full-rime in a community or technical college while trying to balance work, home, family, and community - thus the need for this being a fully online program. Although we do video-conference  as a group twice each year for programmatic meetings and to bring in community college speakers from across the nation, all coursework is completed asynchronously, so these courses must be interactive and engaging with social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence.

This degree leads to administrative positions as mid-level managers, and sometimes students do not wait until graduation to move into these positions. while a certain amount of very basic technology experience - and a great deal of willingness to experiment - is necessary to complete this program, we do try to give students technology skills that will prove useful for them as administrators, giving them that competitive edge. Program assignments are designed to help students "give back" to their institutions (and add to their resumes). Digital storytelling is a skill they can use on their job, but they need some experience with making their own "stories" in their online courses to prepare them for applying this skill to an administrative position.

An online program can easily allow students to become disconnected from one another and the stories each of us have to tell. Digital storytelling can help students become more connected with one another....and with their institutions.

Digital storytelling assignments can be used to enhance written communication skills, oral communication skills, technology skills, collaboration skills, and critical thinking skills - all skills required for successful administrators...so.....how might we craft such an assignment to help these adults foster these skills? Let's explore the application of digital storytelling in several courses...and its use on the job.

EDU 630: The Adult Learner

For an initial discussion forum or icebreaker in this course students could create a digital story of their own pathway through learning that brings them from their earliest memory of learning to the current day. They would then view each others videos and comment. This assignment could help them begin to build their learning network with their classmates, while helping them begin to think about how the impact of their past learning on their current learning, setting the stage to enter an exploration of adult learning theories.


Workplace application: Students could eventually build on this assignment by creating something such as this video, College Can be Scary,  created by Tina Maestas, Director of the Resource Center of the Community College of Denver. Using family photos  and newspaper clippings, Tina gives us a glimpse into her own education and her past, along with her struggles and successes. She then skillfully shows how her very past enables her to work with and understand the issues of those coming to the Resource Center for assistance.

 EDU 604: Community Colleges and American Education

This course provides an overview of the various units within the community college with the purpose of introducing students to all aspects of the institution in which they work.  Because we sometimes acquire tunnel vision and only "see" our work sites from the perspectives of our job, this course is vital is helping students stretch beyond their cubicle and see how the college operates as a whole. Digital storytelling lends itself beautifully to another icebreaker (and later to an assignment - but I get ahead of myself).

To be effective administrators, students need to understand all aspects of the community college, and what better way than to learn from one another than to hear their classmates tell the stories of their jobs! An icebreaker in this course could be to create A Day in My Life as a . . . . a digital story sharing with the class just what each student does on his or her job every day. Such an assignment would immediately help to create social presence and allow them to begin networking...while they hone those communication, technology, and critical thinking skills. Combining graphics, text, photos, music, and voice-overs would really help them tell the story of a typical day.  College staff may not - and probably do not - already know what a faculty member does every day...and faculty tend to have little idea as to what staff does during the day...and staff in the business office by have no idea as to what staff in workforce development do every day. This assignment could handle that educational piece quickly!

Workplace applications: Students could build on this assignment in a later project in the course by crafting a digital story of the Day in the Life of a Student at ABC Community College for their institution's to use on a website, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.  The One Day at Duke  video featured below is a TV spot incorporating more than a thousand photos, videos and messages that were submitted online by Duke University community members worldwide on a single day -- April 19, 2013. This  commercial comprises 136 video clips, photos and Twitter messages from 42 people in five countries. More than 150 Duke students, faculty, alumni and partners appear on screen.  Obviously students would have neither the time nor the resources to create a project of this magnitude, but they could do something on a much smaller scale, perhaps depicting a day n the life of several different students (traditional first year full-time student, part time student who is working full time, a returning student, a first generation college student, an international student, etc.).....the possibilities are endless!

While One Day at Duke uses a lot of video footage, the same could be accomplished - far less grand but still useful - with photographs, text, and voice-overs.

or...

Students could tell the story of their institution - the history of their community or technical college. NC community colleges, for example, have recently celebrated their 50th birthday - what better way to celebrate than to tell their story? Such a project would be a great way to archive photos and leaders' voices...and could be used  as a marketing piece or posted in the institution's youtube channel. In Illinois where the first community college began in 1901, community colleges are over 100 years..imagine the history!

still another possibility...

Digital storytelling could be used to tell (show) the story of someone applying to the college - detailing how it is done... and all of the accompanying feelings and anxieties associated with taking this first step.......or follow a student applying for financial aid.... These videos would be very helpful in making new community college students feel more at ease with the whole process of entering college while introducing them ahead of time to those college staff with whom they will be working.   Research suggests that staff become front-line educators  as they work with students and are, therefore, extremely influential in student persistence (Schmitt & Duggan, 2011; Schmitt, Duggan, Williams, & McMillan, 2014) . Students often develop a relationship with staff before they meet faculty, and these digital stories will help community college students feel more comfortable with the college before they arrive...a way to "break the ice. . ."

and another . . .

Some program students are faculty moving into Department Chair or Dean positions.  Faculty can use digital storytelling a variety of ways, both within the classroom and without.   Want to know what a nuclear medicine technologist does? Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) of Cleveland, OH created this video, with some digital storytelling components.


Imagine how much stronger this video might have been had it used even more stories...and stories of graduates working in the field. Although is more video than digital story, using images and voice-overs from program participants and graduates would still be a strong tool.

EDU 631: Design and Development for Student Support and Development Programs

This course is a program elective that delves into student development theory as it relates to the design and development of community college student support programs. In addition to having students share their own educational journey, they could, in small groups, review the research on a specific community college population and then craft a digital story of that population.....or they could  take it one step further and return to their individual institutions to talk to students in those populations and have them tell their stories.

A sideways move to Digital Storytelling and Marketing

With less and less money to go around, institutions of higher education need to find creative ways to market and "sell" their institutions - the values, culture, and personality of the institution, even the services the institution offers. According to Hill+Knowlton Strategies,  digital storytelling is one way to do this, to help companies - and institutions, set and deliver their brand:

If an institution prides itself on being student-entered, then a digital story in which students relate examples of a college's student-centeredness would be an ideal way to show this trait...and digital stories as those noted above would also do this.

Community College administrators are in a prime place to begin using this form of media to showcase their students, their staff, and their institutions...all without the aid of a video camera...but with incorporating digital images, music, text, and music.

Ah, the stories we could tell . . . with only text, digital images, music, and voice......

 References

Cuyahoga Community College. (2013, September 10).  Nuclear medicine 
               program at Tri-C [video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/
              eQkBSIYTKeQ

Duke University. (2013, August 31). One day at Duke  [video file]. Retrieved from 

              http://youtu.be/AZHkvw6UaZs

Hill+Knowlton Strategies. (2013, October 18). Demystifying digital storytelling:
             Why is storytelling   so important in digital marketing? [video file].
             Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ibDu7olQ6E

Maestas, T. (2014, August 6). College can be scary [video file]. Retrieved from 

             http://youtu.be/nsGqzPIpccY

Schmitt, M. A., & Duggan, M. H. (2011). Exploring the impact of classified staff interactions on student retention: A case study approach. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 35(3), 179-190.

Schmitt, M. A., Duggan, M. H., Williams, M., & McMillan, J. (2014). Front-line educators: Impact of classified staff interactions on the student experience. Community College Journal of Research & Practice. 38(12), 1-20.

Twitter chats, part 2

ok.... I  found a slower twitter chat: #asiaED  and set up tweetdeck accordingly...

One question a day - that sounds pretty good...
oh boy, here it is...Q1: Why is student engagement so important?

I can answer this one...and there seems to be plenty of time to do so....

and.... yes!   I post!

hmmmm...

and I wait....

An hour passes...and a few ads appear, but that's it....

There must be something in between... I will keep searching. . . .

In search of a twitter chat regarding technology in higher education  .....  a chat that is not at the speed of light  but somewhat faster than a snail. . . . . . .

I will google and continue to look through twitter to see what I can find...even check with some of colleagues elsewhere to see what they might recommend....

stay tuned . . . .

Twitter chats, part 1

I have officially entered the twitter world....kicking and screaming, but I am there. I tweet...occasionally.... but I have mastered the art of lurking.

Several years ago my husband and I ran an online coffee business, so I was very familiar with using twitter for marketing.  In fact, I am the queen of promotions and setting up twitter campaigns....marketing-wise.

Last year I established a twitter account for my program, primarily for recruiting and marketing. Since then I have gradually been adding folks I follow as well as followers. 

I found a hastag that appears to perfectly suit my needs as a higher education  faculty member teaching at a distance (#hiedtech) and checked out a few postings I found there, but they do not seem to have a regularly scheduled chat.

sigh .....   I really hoped to find something less K-12 and more HIED. I  am sure I am not the only HIED faculty member in search of a twitter group...but  . . . .

Last night I tried following a twitter chat at #edtechchat.  I even set up tweetdeck (http://tweetdeck.com) ahead of time to make sure I was ready for whatever was to happen next.

Oh my!

The chat started gracefully and slowly at 8 pm, and  I even introduced myself.

Then the race began....



Once the first question appeared,  bedlam ensued...at least this is how it appeared to me...and  1000+ tweets and 60 minutes later, it was over...

Q1: What do U envision 4 a Makerspace in ur library?

A what? I tried to follow tweets for context clues....and then...ANOTHER Q1 appears! ? Is seems that was a blended chat that night with two groups tweeting as one...

The new Q1 I at least understood: We are talking about giving our students a voice with tch.  what does that mean to you? What does it mean to our students?

Still not understanding Makerspace, I opted to google it (http://makerspace.com/). Makerspaces are "community centers with tools, combining  manufacturing equipment, community, and education to enable community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works that wouldn’t be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone."  sounds really interesting, but I'm not sure at this point how that would work for me...but something to file away for the future.

By the time I return to the chat, they're discussing some other topic having nothing to do with Makerspace OR with voice.... then I see an A2...  sheesh...I missed the Q and have to scroll up to find it..    And it went downhill from there.....

I followed, loosely, to see the process...Only one additional person self-identified as being in higher education, and the responses all concerned K-12 application of technology....Assignments and uses sounds interesting, but nothing that seemed applicable... nor did I feel that I could add anything as the users were K-12.

I will keep looking for a HIED-related chat...one that is slower...and see what I find....

  

Is it time to develop technology standards for adult learners?

The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) are a set of standards published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) focused on K-12.  The purpose behind these standards is to level the use of technology in K-12 classrooms, enabling students to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital society.

That's fine for K-12...but what about college students, particularly adults returning to college after several years out of school?   Do they need technology skills to "live productively in an increasingly digital society"? If so, what are those skills?   Do these technology success skills differ for returning adults in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs?

A case in point:

One of my courses required that I consider an instructor  have had in the past or a colleague who I had observed, either face-to-face or online....then rate that instructor according to the ISTE Standards for Teachers.

I am 61, and this has been a difficult assignment for me as it has been 14 years or more since I last took a course, and I have not really done much observation of colleagues.

I finally decided to choose a hybrid class taught by a colleague at another institution, using a combination of satellite broadcast/video-streaming and videoconferencing...

...bring me to ponder the use of technology....and its importance in teaching adult learners...and  the technology adult learners need to be successful in their lives - both home and work.

I LOVE technology. I love experimenting with the software and thinking up ways to integrate it into class. I also enjoy teaching F2F and try to find ways to provide some of the same activities I do F2F for my students at a distance.




In reviewing the ISTE Standards for Teahers I immediately thought about a good friend of mine who has always received excellent student evaluations and comments from former students....and they constantly refer other students to him for courses as well.

This good friend, while able and willing to use Learning Management Systems, video-conferencing, and email, does not really integrate technology into his assignments or into his classroom...despite teaching at a distance.

Does this lack of technology make him a poor or ineffective teacher? Are his students graduating lacking some sort of technology skills needed for success?

Is it possible his use of technology is appropriate for course content and his student population (primarily doctoral students between the ages of 40 and 70 with full-time jobs)?

Does one really have to take full advantage of technology to be an effective teacher?

My friend crafts thoughtful assignments with clear rubrics.

He videoconferences with students as a group 4 times throughout the semester, giving them a choice of 2-3 dates to "attend" each class session.   For those who cannot attend those sessions, he holds individual sessions.

He videoconferences with students individually throughout the semester as questions arise and/or to make sure students are on track.

He provides a one-page reflective writing assignment for each course module.

He posts a non-narrated ppt of the chapter reading in addition to supplemental readings.

He assigns students to groups for oral presentations that are performed "live" through video-conferencing.

He does not post forums, nor does he ask students to create videos or audio posts. Students are, however, required to come to campus for two weeks each summer for an immersion. This Summer Institute provides bonding opportunities and course work requiring students to work collaboratively...perhaps this is enough to keep them bonded throughout the year..... without videos and audios?

Yet, when I rate his course based on the ISTE Standards for Teaching, his courses fall woefully short of meeting these standards... How,, then, do the adult students learn in his classes? Why do they enjoy his classes? Why is it that when I run into his former students at conferences, they "sing his praises". . . despite his not integrating much technology into his courses.

Perhaps the age of the student and student roles outside of class can answer this...

These students are ALL adult learners, all have full-time mid-level management jobs requiring they work at least 40 hours a week. Many already have families although some add to their families while working toward their degrees.

They use cell phones and computers in their work, and often use spreadsheets, documents, and presentation software daily. Those with children may have more exposure to technology just to "keep up" with their children.

The standards proposed by ISTE are still useful for adult learners, but I  question the amount of technology exposure they need to meet those standards.

For example....

According to the first standard for teaching (Standards,2008), effective teachers use  their content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technology knowledge to "facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments." My colleague does this, using basic technology,  without having his adult learners make videos, record audios, create storyboards, post to discussion forums, and such.

The second standard requires faculty to design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments. I know he uses LMS-posted quizzes and a tests...and project-based learning, probably more valuable than the quizzes and tests.

In the third standard faculty models digital age work and learning...and this is my what colleague does well. He models the same skills that his students need in their workplaces, helping them to hone those skills, be it decision-making skills, critical thinking skills, research skills, or digital skills.

The fourth standard addresses the importance of promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility. My colleague helps his students explore global societal issues and responsibilities while exhibiting legal and ethical behavior. He uses discussion and reflective writing to do so..... allowing students to ponder the topic then "get it to paper."

The final standard for teachers is to engage in professional growth and leadership.  He encourages his students to present at conferences, co-presenting with them as needed. they present in class using videoconferencing technology.

 Do adult learners in graduate programs need to know how to  perform the same tasks that those in K-12 do? Will K-12 students who enter college and the work world be better prepared to enter these worlds due to their technology preparation?

What are the technology skills necessary to succeed in UG programs? grad programs? doctoral programs?  the work world?

I am not sure that we know the answer at this point. Perhaps it is time to find out. . . . and adjust graduate learning accordingly....




References

International society for Technology in Education. (2008). ISTE Standards: Teachers. http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdf

In the beginning . . . .

Catch the irony? shelves and shelves . . . . file after file. . . . and I now teach fully online. I have spent years developing files, collecting books....even educational games....and now it's time to truly shift my thinking from that of being a fully F2F instructor to that of being a fully online one.

The journey begins

I have been teaching  since 1975.  My starting salary was high for that  time - $7,500. Friends envied me for that "high" salary. My first year of teaching in the public school gave me 3 classes of 10th grade English students and 1 class of senior English students...and I was  only 3 years older than some of my seniors...and all of them were taller than me.

Terrified of standing before classes of 35+ students, particularly those who were really not all that interested in the subject, I started seeking new ways of teaching, of delivering and/or enhancing the content.  After all this was English...and most people did not look forward to spending 50 minutes in an English class.  So it was up to me to make it fun, to make it a learning experience.

I tried innovative assignments: Students rewrote Julius Caesar into modern English and acted it out in class. We crafted our own version of Canterbury Tales, (entitled Tales from the Bahamas)  where, as a class we wrote our Prologue - in Chaucer's rhyming scheme, of course - and each student chose their character, illustrated that character, and wrote a story told by that character....which we then published as our own book.....anything to have the students working collaboratively and not making me the center of attention.  When we studied mythology we made our our newspaper where the students became a god or goddess and submitted articles from that character's point of view.

Eventually, I grew up :-) and could handle a little more directive teaching, but discovered the students had actually learned quite a bit when I wasn't directing, but merely facilitating their learning.

Hmmmm.......

Flash forward 10 years...or so...

I eventually moved to the community college where I taught as an adjunct, served as a counselor/advisor, and coordinated several grants. We were trying to serve the prison population, one that was not allowed to mix with the general prison population...much less with on-site faculty, and an opportunity to create a correspondence course arose.

Yep, I officially moved into  distance education as an adjunct.

I never saw these students...and they never saw me.   Everything was handwritten (they were not allowed access to a typewriter, and the prison lacked computer access)...so we worked outside of the time constraints of the traditional semester as the warden reviewed their work (looking for hidden messages, perhaps?) before sending on a big fat manila envelope to me for review.   I would review, give feedback, and return work for their revision .... a long slow process, but I learned a lot about communicating in writing.......

And another 10 years go by

When Blackboard first hit the scene, it was free! Once again, I was given the chance to develop a course - this time to be taught as a hybrid through Blackboard. Content and assignments would reside in BB, and students would see me in my office for individual writing conferences.

Just a few years later

Pow!   I left that work site, now hired by a university to run a program with 600 students, 400 of whom are across the nation....and we are using a satellite delivery system for course content.

Now students can see me and hear me while I can see myself on a television screen...a really BIG television screen...(boy oh boy) and students become disembodied voices.  Add in a 7-second delay between the time I spoke and they heard me...and the the time for them to process...and the 7-second delay before I could hear them respond..... but we were at the top of distance education! And this program was beamed to every community college in the state and several around the nation as well. Students sat at table sharing a microphone where they pushed a button to talk. Group assignments were difficult. Not impossible though.  Sometimes I might have 3or 4 students at one site, and they could form their own group.  Individual students would IM each other to form a group, then all could present their discussion...as. disembodied voices

I moved to teaching in a doctoral program where we discovered videostreaming...a necessity as our programs grew, and we admitted more and more students who were not near a satellite site and were going to attend via their own computers.  They could hear me, and hear their classmates...but videostreamers were limited to a chat function to ask questions or respond to questions....that 7-second delay was still present, then the pause to type, then delay for uploads..... Not the best mode, but it allowed folks to take courses who would not have been able to do so otherwise.

Rising costs of the satellite delivery, decreasing space due to an increasing number of courses being offered, and increased enrollment required we become creative, so we moved to "time slot sharing" where two classes "met" in the same "band" but on alternating weeks.....and the hybrid came to campus.....   then we started taking some courses totally online...

Finally, Adobe Connect entered our world, leveling the classroom experience. Every student "attended" class using his or her own computer.  Everyone saw everyone else. We had breakout rooms where students could meet, and I could visit and listen and be that observer I had so missed being!  Students could present online, honing those oral skills.  We had virtual office hours, and students could work in group projects outside of class, meeting through Connect.  This meant I could use our Learning Management System as a repository for articles, for discussion forums, for content, saving Adobe Connect to use as one of the major ways of developing social presence and some teaching/content presence.  I used Adobe Connect for perhaps 6 class sessions per course, allowing students to work independently between meetings...still somewhat a traditional model in that we met synchronously as a class with asynchronous work between meetings.

This meant it was time for me to hone my online skills in instructional design to make sure that the LMS component was both useful and engaging..leading me to search for new technology tools, new ideas for assignments.....bringing me to...

Today

My current courses are fully online, incorporating some group video-conferencing, but primarily individual video-conferencing  3-4 times a semester due to my students' schedules. During evenings they often teach, have work-related activities, family commitments, or community commitments, and finding a time for a synchronous meeting requires a great deal of scheduling and shuffling....thus my search to learn even more about making my courses engaging and informative....

The Now

I can google - and do -  to learn about new tools.  I read blogs.  I read books...but the idea of  earning degree in online teaching and instructional design - what could be better?  I get to experiment with new ideas and new tools, hear from others working with them at the same time.... and improve my courses.  This sounds perfect to me!

NEXT ENTRY: The quest begins . . .



References

 "Bb_newLogo_pos." Logo. Catholic university of America. August 6, 2012. August 27, 2014. <http://instructionalservices.cua.edu/instdesoff.cfm>.

Cantenna.  "5.5 GHz cantenna as a feedhorn." Photo. Wikipedia. com.  May 31, 2014. August 27, 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantenna>.

Edudemic.com. August 27, 2014. <http://www.edudemic.com/online-learning-28/>.

Photo. Home Design  Information. August 27, 3014. <http://home-design-information.com/chalkboard-background-background-labs.html>

Photo. HooverFence.com. 2013. August 27, 2014. <http://www.hooverfence.com/mailboxes/mail-slots.htm>.

InteSolv. "Adobe_connect_8_logo_webready." Logo.  InteSolv.com. August 27, 2014. <http://www.intesolv.com/>.