Tuesday 16 December 2014

Does inquiry based learning work?

A little personal anecdotal aside here.  I'm drowning in an assignment where while I know and understand all the individual parts I feel incapable of putting it all together in a coherent whole, so instead I'll write a little story about inquiry based learning.  It is one of the topics in my course, where it is written about as if it were something new and interesting whereas it's been around a long long time in the IB / PYP world and therefor has been part of our lives for the last 8 years.

Scene - the dermatologist's office.  After a friend of mine had some basal cancer cells removed last month I went into "living in the tropics / sunshine all these years" alert and had myself checked out, and yesterday, being school holidays, hauled the kids in for their examination.

The receptionist handed me some intake forms to fill in, and the kids automatically reached for them to fill them in themselves.  With hilarious results.  Besides the obvious of name and date of birth, they wanted to know why all the other details were necessary.  Marital status? "If I write single," said my son, "are they going to stalk me because they think I'm available?  Can't I write "taken" instead? Is that why they want my home address?"  "What does caucasian mean? Why do they need to know my race?"  And then a further discussion into what information would be relevant for identification, for insurance purposes, for medical use (in this cause - dermatologically speaking - caucasian would be relevant) or just because no one has ever questioned what goes onto the forms and what is necessary.  Certainly Singapore is very big on forms and lots and lots of details. And race is always included, and so too is religion.  It makes my kids squirm when people insist on putting them in a belief box and people tend to persist until they're satisfied - it took me a while to understand that the term here that shuts them up is "free thinker". OK if you insist.

So perhaps that's what is at the heart of inquiry based learning. Always questioning. What you're doing, what's being done to you, what you're being asked for, what you're being asked to do.  It is exhausting to parent at times, and must be even more so to teach.  But hopefully the lack of blind obedience and following the crowd will have some benefit in the long run.

To turn it all around then, the inquiry would be what should be on an intake form for a dermatologist and how you'd design one that was relevant but not personally invasive.  Or perhaps the inquiry is how much privacy we out to give away each time we fill something in and to what purpose.   There are big questions lurking behind innocent little forms to be completed.  I'm glad my kids are starting to get a glimpse of that.

Sunday 14 December 2014

360 degree whiteboards

Reflecting back on the past week, I actually had an abundance of opportunities for professional development beyond the "daily grind" of my studies.  It's not really a daily grind, by my polymath brain does need a bit of light, or not so light or at least completely diverse and out of the box relief from the straight and narrow - (which isn't really that straight and narrow I'm fortunate to say) of librarianship and teacher-librarianship.

Anyway, on Wednesday I stumbled on some PD on 360 degrees Math, thanks to my librarian edge boss who had chosen this as one of the topics to follow.

I'll be upfront - of course I had a hidden agenda in attending.  I have a child who is struggling in math. Or let me put it otherwise, he alternates between coping really well and enjoying, nay loving the subject and his teacher, and failing every test or assessment placed in front of him. Between independently doing the homework assigned and falling way behind.  Basically I suspect he just does not "get" numbers. Something my more creative and design and interesting friends with well established creative careers tell me is totally acceptable and fine. Were it not for the coming 6 years of schooling he has to do math in.  So any tricks or wizardry or clues as how to make this process a little more palatable to the both of us is much appreciated.


The concept of 360 degree math was apparently launched by Sean Kavanaugh as a way to engage students. By having the students stand and solve problems at white-boards that surround the classroom, teachers see "evidence of the students' thought processes as they unfold".  In the old model of students hunched over their workbooks, "mistakes are usually caught long after they're made and instructors may have trouble pinpointing where a student first went off the rails."

The five steps of the structure includes:
  • "The Exchange: As each student enters the classroom, they're personally greeted by the teacher—a sign of respect and welcome.
  • The Rewind: Students solve three relatively simple problems at the whiteboard to build their confidence.
  • The Micro-Lecture: The teacher gives a short lecture that's kept between eight to 10 minutes in order to go over new concepts. 
  • The Practice: Students return to the whiteboard, where they spend the bulk of the class, to solve more challenging problems, facilitated by group discussions and collaboration.
  • The Proof: Work is done individually on the boards and reviewed by the teacher to help her plan the next lesson and understand where each student is in his or her mastery of skills.  " (Antoniades, 2013, para. 10)
First we were the guinea pigs - trying to solve a range of problems pinned up on the board. Then we heard a little about the background to the idea of 360 degree math, and it's variations - like writing problems or solutions on windows and then putting down the window blinds and gradually opening them to reveal the answers.   We considered the positive elements - having children stand and walk around rather than sit glued to their desks all day, the possibility of erasing mistakes and false logic easily and without leaving a trace or marks in a school notebook, the idea of making thought visible and mapped and seeing the process and strategy evolve.  The luxury of an expanse of whiteboard rather than a few lines in a book.   A few of the cons were the fact there wasn't a permanent record unless the solutions and workings were copied down.  The chance that some students would copy answers rather than collaborate or work on the problem themselves.

As a mixed bunch of educators ranging from Maths and Science, to English and second language and of course the library we were immediately enthused with ideas as to how this could be translated to our environments.  

For the library, we are already using one table with a writeable surface, and have noticed that students use it a lot for collaborative learning, funnily enough, particularly in math, and the small portable whiteboard in the office behind the main desk gets a regular workout when we brainstorm as a library team.  If the library is to continue in its function as a collaborative learning space, designed as much for consumption as creation of information, of course we should be encouraging writing on the walls and windows. 

And I went home, cleared my son's desk and took it out of his room, measured the walls where his desk had been and ordered a large whiteboard. I also cleared all the surfaces in his room, took out all the boxes of lego and blocks and bricks that he hadn't been using for a while and put them into the storeroom.  It's amazing the difference that less clutter makes. He wasn't using the desk anyway - it was far to full of clutter, and he can never sit still at the table to do his homework anyway, so the loss of a chair doesn't matter.  I put a tiny little table against one wall which he can use for his assignment if necessary.  It's now Christmas break, so we'll be using this method for revision of the  content areas that he failed his most recent tests on, and then use it for "real" once term starts again.  I'm feeling strangely hopeful.  We'll see how it goes.

References:


360 Degree Math - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2014, from http://www.360degreemath.com/

Antoniades, A. (2013, October 1). Get Up, Stand Up! 360 Degree Math Revolutionizes Classrooms. Retrieved December 14, 2014, from http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/10/01/math-is-fun-360-degree-math

Teach (2013) 360 Math Whiteboards and Khan Academy Excerpt. (n.d.). [You Tube]. Retrieved December 14, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FQlXN9YZAI

Thursday 11 December 2014

Gamification in the library

I attended a great talk organised by ISLN yesterday evening.  Scott Nicholson from Syracuse University came to talk about gaming in the library context.

Firstly he disabused us of the notion of gamers as teen or older blokes transfixed to screens in a smelly hormonal environment and introduced the vast array of games that exist in the physical and digital world ranging from Pac-man to monopoly to cosplay to interactive fiction and everything in-between.

The idea is that games are an entry point for engagement and a way of formalising play.

In the case of libraries a number of things need to be taken into account

  • Time available (including set up, play and clean up)
  • number of players
  • space availability
  • how it fits in the library mission
  • format - formal program / informal / games to check out etc.

One of the aspects highlighted was the use of games in teaching students information literacy or familiarity with the library. Unfortunately, despite a considerable amount of effort in this area, particularly in library scavenger hunts (which he was somewhat dismissive of) he did not have much positive to report.   A few of the projects mentioned included BiblioBouts (successful but no longer supported), Find Chesia (alternate reality game to encourage summer reading) Blood on the stacks (mystery game).

He then mentioned some important concerns around motivation and the use of awards, rewards and badges and pointed us to some books and research:


Another problem he pointed out with gamification was the issue of privacy, and he game the example of LemonTree.

Games can be incorporated in the curriculum, not only by having students play games (Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? and Civilization V was mentioned) but also a by allowing students to create their own games whereby they have to think very carefully about the most important aspects of a topic, writing a backstory, using physical materials or programming.

Finally the RECIPE for success and meaningful gamification is:
reflection, exposition, choice, information, play and engagement (this is explained in the video on his website).


A few of the resources he mentioned:


Because Play Matters - his website with a blog and information on all aspects of play and gaming and his book "Everyone plays in the library - creating great game experiences for all ages".
And his video series: Board Games with Scott





Carla Casilli - writes and researches about the use (and abuse) of badges as a reward system or pathway illuminator in education and elsewhere.

Crossed Paths -  a free multi-player improvisational storytelling game he developed.  For 5+ players with no maximum.

Twine - a way of exploring interactive fiction with a range of outcomes and learn some coding at the same time.

Playnation - a game cafe in Singapore with 200 designer board and card games and 100 console games

Settlers Cafe - a game cafe with over 600 game titles - and a special ladies night!

Just Press Play - a very innovate way to get students at Rochester Institute of Technology to interact and socialise and play with each other and engage in their environment.  This would be one of the things that schools could consider for incoming students and teachers.

National museum of play Rochester NY - play museum with library embedded!  Books in each section that visitors to the library could take and check out when leaving.

GVLibraries - how cool is this: "As a part of the Game Library's services, you can schedule time with Brian Mayer (bmayer@gvboces.org) to come work with you and your class to provide successful learning and growth experiences with the various game resources within our library. Examples include: in class project and unit support through the use of game resources, game design programs demonstrating practical applications of curricular skills and concepts, life skills and curricular support, and extra-curricular or activities." 

The rest of us will have to make do with his book: Libraries got Game


Find the Future - an overnight adventure game and an ongoing online game, inspired by 100 works from the collections of The New York Public Library designed by Jane McGonigal.

Here is Jane McGonigal at her TED talk


And here is the talk by Scott Nicholson at TEDx.


Tuesday 2 December 2014

Meanwhile back at my other blog...

For my current course ETL401 Introduction to Teacher Librarianship I'm required to keep a blog on Wordpress in their "thinkspace".   After a couple of months of Wordpress I must say I'm still not terribly good at it, nor convinced of its superiority (at least not for someone who isn't doing this professionally) but anyway, if you don't find anything here, I'll be there.  They're named the same so as to avoid any confusion. I've just not worked out how to double post there and here, without having administrator rights "there" so as a compromise I'll just link the lastest posts from either blog to the other.

Friday 21 November 2014

Digital Storytelling tools worth looking at (1)

There is a plethora of tools in the virgin outback of digital storytelling.  This does not make one's life any easier, plus there is the chorus of cellos in the background warning you that most of these tools that you invest time and effort into learning and using may not be around forever, or even for very long.  So what's one to do?  Certainly it shouldn't stop one from playing around and experimenting - particularly with the more common tools that are handy to know anyway (think iMovie / window's movie maker etc.) I'd love to hear comments of what you've used and what has worked for you or your students

Here are a few of the tools I've experimented with personally, or have seen well used during my INF533 Literature in Digital Environments course at CSU (if you're looking for a great course to upskill yourself, I can thoroughly recommend it - you can take it as a single course "just for fun" and it is fun).

Creativist is an example of "scrollitelling".  It's a really low-barrier tool where you can combine pictures and video with a story.  The free version limits the size of your files (150 MB).  DW Academie gives a rather nice guide here which is worth reading through before you try.

https://www.creatavist.com/featured

Inklewriter by Inklestudios is a platform for interactive choice based stories.  It is really easy to get started on and in its simplest version one can just add text.  Photos can be added relatively easily but there is no video option, which is a pity.  I can see great possibilities for use with students who are exploring options for example of subject choice or university or study choices - they could explore options and alternatives in a "safe" and personal environment imagining "what if..."

http://www.inklestudios.com/firstdraft/

Popcorn Webmaker by Mozilla is another easy "plug and play" tool. It uses some of the basic conventions of video editing with various layers (sound, video, picture) and allows one to embed elements in a story.  One of the interesting variations on this is that the interactive element allows the audience to remix the original and make their own stories.

https://urbanstorytellers.makes.org/thimble/MzY3OTE5MTA0/urban-storytelling-a-how-to-guide-start-here

More ideas and lists:

Finally Storygami - something that is unfortunately still in Beta and where one can hire the team to realise your storytelling dreams, but where I see great potential for use in educational settings.








Digital Storytelling - The role of the library - presentation for School Librarian Connection Conference Hong Kong November 2014


Digital Literature on Flipboard


Here is a Flipboard of recent articles and news around the area of digital literature and digital storytelling.


Classical retellings

Here are some great examples of where digital storytelling can allow literature to be updated, recontexualised and adapted to modern times and short attention spans.  Most of these formats are also easily adopted by students to create their own versions of the classics.


Green Gables Fables (Anne of Green Gables)


https://www.youtube.com/user/greengablesfables


Lizzie Bennet Diaries (Pride and Prejudice)

 

http://www.pemberleydigital.com/the-lizzie-bennet-diaries/


Frankenstein - Inkle Studios

http://www.inklestudios.com/frankenstein/


Frankenstein MD - Vlog

http://www.pemberleydigital.com/frankenstein-md/


Greek Myths - Twitterature 

https://storify.com/CrownPublishing/100-greek-myths-retold-in-100-tweets


Greek Myths - retold by vegetables


http://www.openculture.com/2014/08/the-story-of-oedipus-retold-with-vegetables-in-starring-roles.html

Digital literature - Interactive documentaries

I'm going to do a couple of posts highlighting good examples of digital literature, divided into different genres / types.

Here are a few interactive documentaries I think are particularly good.

The Guardian  - First World War


http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary



New York Times - Story of the high rise


http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/high-rise/
A short history of the high rise

Welcome to Pine Point NFB Canada


http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint


Firestorm - The Guardian



http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/may/26/firestorm-bushfire-dunalley-holmes-family


The Wilderness Downtown

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

Clouds over Cuba


http://cloudsovercuba.com/


Snowfall

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek

Thursday 20 November 2014

What is twitterature?

Exploring storytelling using twitter is one of the many new "genres" in digital storytelling.  Here is Andrew Fitzgerald explaining what it is:




Viking / Penguin have taken the lead in this new format and there is a dedicated website to some of the best examples.


The myth of "reluctance"?

I went to a professional development session the other day on motivating secondary students to read. It was a pretty good session with lots of interaction and ideas.  But it did give me pause for thought. About the premise. Yes I agree that reading is important - fundamental in fact to any kind of academic life at any level above primary school. I love an applaud meditations such as those of Alain de Botton on what literature is for (see below).  I think it interesting and noteworthy that numeric goals are being given to just how many books a student should read (20-25) in order to benefit from all these wonderful things.  And yet ...
All through the discussions I kept hearing the term "reluctant readers" - they were to be shaken up and motivated and enticed and if we just found the right "entry drug" book, the right set of incentives, the right way to monitor it all, if we showed them how important it was, how much we valued it, then hey presto! They'd go from reading 2 books to 20 books and voila!

The first thing that got me thinking was a name.  Not an idea.  The name "Lars" - a success story in this battle against reluctance.  I have a nephew called Lars.  He's Dutch. I know a couple of people called Lars who are Danish and Swedish.  And then I wondered.  Could it be that Lars was not reading 25 books in English in his English class because he was perhaps reading them in his mother tongue?  Had anyone asked him about his reading in other languages?  Did anyone care?  Because caring is important.  I know, I have two children reading in their chosen tongues, Dutch and Chinese respectively.  And it's a balancing act.  One in which you're teetering on a beam of approval - that of your English teacher on the one hand and your family and / or language tutor/teacher on the other.  And that language teacher / tutor may not even be part of your school community, so if you're too shy or to nervous or just plain don't understand that reading is reading and that all reading counts in whatever language you're reading in - well you're not going to get credit for that reading.  NOT ONCE in the entire PD session did anyone at any point mention mother tongue reading (except me to my learning partner - but she knows me, and she's one of us bilingual and multicultural types).  I looked around the room at the pretty homogenous bunch of language teachers around me and it wasn't surprising. I wonder how many of them were bilingual? Of course that is not what they'd be selected on, but, their class demographic is built up of at least 50% bi- or multi-lingual students. Why are we not talking about this? I suspect because we are not even thinking about this.

Research shows, if you're interested in it and if you want to acknowledge it, that languages at a CALP (Cognitive academic language proficiency level) scaffold and complement each other.  And if we've been doing our job correctly as parents and educators, by the time kids are in secondary school they should have a CALP level in at least one of their languages so it shouldn't matter too much which language is being read most.   But are we even thinking about this? Is it even on our teaching horizon?  
But then again, how many of our students are not at a CALP level when they enter secondary school? Even if they're mono-lingual.  With the best intentions and the best resources and all the rest, some students just don't get there. And no amount of monitoring or encouragement will get them there. It requires more.  Kids don't wake up one morning and along with acne and hormones decide to be reluctant readers. It's something that probably creeps up on them.  Mel Levine in his book "The Myth of Laziness" attempts to look behind why students do not succeed in an academic environment.  He finds labels of learning problems and then he tries to look behind those labels and to break down very specific issues that then can be worked on.  So too I think when we are confronted with a reluctant reader we need to look underneath that big label and work out where the reluctance stems from.  Is there an underling difficulty with reading? It is said that if a child is not a competent reader by Grade 3, s/he will struggle for the rest of school.  So what about our children in the expatriate environment who are snatched from their native language environment with the assumption that "they're young, they'll pick up xxx language easily" and who don't establish the competencies early on, and then may or may not get help, or may get language help when the problem is learning or learning help when the problem is language.  Who are more or less forced to drop and ignore their mother tongue at great cost in order to fit into a new environment.

Students don't just lose a language. They may shed bits of their identity along the way.  One student I spoke to was a success story by all accounts.  Rapidly rising from an EAL (English Additional language) to the mainstream English class in a year.  The picture of diligence.  But who felt in the process she'd lost her self and her voice.  And that wasn't the worst of it, the worst is that no one around her would acknowledge that her success had come at a cost and that the cost disturbed her.  As an educator one may rather be concerned when a student does not notice or express this frustration and anxiety at the apparent ease of substitution of self.

Back to reading.  I've become somewhat enamoured of late of the potential of digital storytelling as a way to allow students to reclaim their identities and voices.   How about we take the immensely successful Lizzie Bennett diaries? Celebrated as having taken the themes of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and translated them to modern time North America.  Why should we not in our schools have those themes expressed from a Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, African view point? And why just vlogging? It can be vlogging, or twitterature, or multi-media film and text and picture.   We like our "World Literature" we do.  But too often our world literature is a voice that suits a western audience.  We like our stories of China to involve the cultural revolution, of Vietnam the escape to the non-communist west, of Afghanistan something to do with boats and difficulties at the Australian border.  But what about the stories of our students who are a little like us, part of that global cosmopolitan elite, but then not quite. Where the mirror by which they reflect themselves distorts ever so slightly that it is not always perceptible. That is what we should want to hear and what as educators we have a role in eliciting.  And perhaps when that takes place our literature and our world views will be enriched.

I recently suffered through "To rise again at a decent hour" - the self-absorbed rantings of a middle aged white baseball loving north american male tinged with crazed religious passages was more than I could bear. And yet supposedly it was literature having been on the man booker long list. And had I been a student, I would be first in the "reluctant reader" line.  So a lack of identification and interest may foster reluctance.

How about time?  As an idealistic mother I so totally bought into that half hour of reading in bed before lights out.  Easy when you're doing the reading and setting the bedtime and there is no homework or after school activities that eat into the late afternoon and then munch past dinner time and gulp up the hours past the absolute latest time that you know a child should be asleep. There are always deliverables. 


There are some good things going on.   I'm really gratified to see that some teachers are setting time aside in class for reading. I hope that's working.  I hope students can read on demand.  I really like the concept of class libraries, the easy availability of books at the point of demand. I also hope we have dedicated enough budget to have that in all our language classrooms as well and to think about how we are meeting the needs of our multi-linguals.  For now just even thinking about them. Just mentioning them in a seminar or workshop would be a huge step forward.


Digital Storytelling – an 8-week interactive program for Middle School students

Note: This is the example of the type of program that could be held for this age group - it is an academic submission and as such has not been tested in reality.

____________________________________________________________________
Assessment Item 1: Report and program for specified age group
INF 505 – Library Services for Children and Youth


Digital Storytelling – an 8-week interactive program for Middle School students at UWCSEA-East
Report prepared for the Librarian of UWCSEA-East by Nadine Bailey, September 2014

___________________________________________________________________


“For those associations and borrowed emotions, coming as they do from outside, carry young people over the dangerously spongy spiritual ground of the years during which one must signify something to oneself, while one is still too incomplete really to signify anything at all” (Musil, 2001, p. 10 writing on the value of literature for adolescents)


Part 1: Background and context


United World College of South East Asia East (UWCSEA-East) is an International School located in Singapore. It has a student population of 2,240 who come from 68 different countries and speak 50 different languages (UWCSEA, n.d.).  Around 40% of the students are bilingual and 12% speak more than two languages. As an international school drawing on an expatriate population, it has a high student turnover and the community can largely be described as cosmopolitan elite. The campus has two libraries, one for the Kindergarten and Primary students, and the other for Secondary students.

Section
 Number
Kindergarten
 353
Primary School
 654
Middle School
 587
High School
 324
IB
 321
Total
 2,239
Figure 1: Student breakdown by section

The school recently won the “21st Century school of the year award” (21stCL, 2013) and has a one-laptop-per-child program from Grade 6. Secondary school parents are ambivalent about the prevalence of computers in their children’s lives and often complain that their teenagers spend too much “non-productive” time on social media and online-game playing.

While the school offers a wide range of activities to the students, including outdoor adventure, sports, drama, music and socially driven clubs, there are no activities catering for creative writing or story-telling. There is a “techspert” club which deals with the technical rather than the creative aspects of technology and at present, besides the parents’ book club, the library does not run any programs outside of curriculum teaching, readers’ advisory, and reference or research assistance. Some teachers, learning support staff and librarians feel there is a need for a creative writing activity outside of the classroom to cater for younger adolescents who are introvert or struggle to express themselves due to shyness, learning differences or developing English skills and who would otherwise get “lost” in such a large, noisy, busy and extroverted campus.

The affordances of Web 2.0, social media and digital technology may have pedagogical and social benefits to secondary students, particularly those who are shy or socially awkward, and act as a bridge to physical relationships and interactions (Gorrindo, Fishel, & Beresin, 2012; Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009). Educational research has indicated that exposure to technological tools in the creation of digital stories and book talks benefit students through increased motivation, engagement, ownership, control, confidence and deeper understanding. In turn, both the reading and writing aspects of textual literacy are improved (Barnard, 2011; Beach, 2012; Gunter & Kenny, 2008, 2012; Kenny & Gunter, 2004; Kenny, 2011; Ragen, 2012; Yoon, 2013).  It was therefore decided to combine the creative writing and technology aspects in a “Digital Storytelling” eight-week interactive program.

This program will be targeted to Middle School students, (grades 6 to 8) for a number of reasons. Firstly, as students move into Middle School (around age 12), they loose the structure and security of one class teacher and a fixed group of classmates while at the same time academic demands become higher. In addition, besides losing part of their peer group from the previous year due to international relocations, the school adds extra classes and pupils, resulting in about a third of the cohort being new to both Singapore and the school. This is the age group where, in Eriksonian terms, students are struggling with the commencement of puberty, and the related psychological stresses of developing and discovering an identity, negotiating social interaction and affiliating with friends, causes and ideals (Greenhow et al., 2009). Finally, this development takes place within a digital and online context which may be overwhelming to young teens as they explore the boundaries of online social behaviour and interaction (Gorrindo et al., 2012) and may not have positive role models in their home or peer environments.

“One reason that an afterschool program can have such a large impact relates back to the developmental needs of teenagers” (Jones & Waddle, 2002, p. 43).  These needs can be summarised as:
·      Positive social interaction with adults and peers
·      Structure and clear limits
·      Physical activity
·      Creative expression
·      Competence and achievement
·      Meaningful participation
·      Opportunities for self-definition (Jones & Waddle, 2002 cited in Meyers, Fisher, & Marcoux, 2007)

The secondary library that will host this program is a two-level open-plan space with moveable bookshelves.  Teenage students are comfortable in the welcoming library space which incorporates design thinking in creating zones for comfort, relaxation, reading and social interaction. The ground floor is mainly open plan with two study rooms with carousels and one large classroom (the Think Tank), while most of the collection is located on the first floor that additionally has two study rooms set up for audio-visual work.


Part 2: Design and develop a program



In this section, the following elements of program design will be covered: goals and objectives; cost and logistical considerations; marketing and promotion; and program delivery. Evaluation will be covered in the next section.


Goals and objectives


The primary goal is to design a program in which students can use technology in a positive and creative way to express themselves through storytelling in a safe environment that meets their developmental needs.
The program objectives, their relevance and how they will meet these needs are summarized below:

Objective
Relevance
Related Developmental need
1. Introduce students to concepts, examples and tools of digital storytelling
Students are familiar with literature and with digital tools, however not with digital storytelling.  This will broaden their competencies while scaffolding on what they already know.
Competence and achievement
Structure and clear limits
2. Support students in the creation of their own narratives using the tools of digital storytelling

For successful creative output, students will need technical, literacy and social support in an encouraging non-judgmental environment
Creative expression
Positive social interaction with Adults and Peers
Competence and Achievement
Opportunities for Self-definition
3. Provide a forum for sharing, promotion, collaboration and interaction
Student’s digital storytelling outputs receive validation through providing an appreciative audience while allowing them to contribute the same to their fellow participants.
Positive social interaction with Adults and peers
Meaningful participation

Figure 2: Objectives, relevance and developmental needs


Cost, staffing and other logistical considerations


Since the program will be run from the school library using school equipment, premises and staff, there are no associated program costs. Instruction time given to the program will count towards staff’s “educator activity contribution requirement”. Students will use their own laptops, pre-loaded with all the necessary software and digital tools for which the school has an education license.

·      Image – iPhoto and Photoshop
·      Moving image – iMovie
·      Text – Google documents or Pages
·      Music / sound / voice over – iTunes / Garage band / Voicethread

Thirteen Nikon D7000 cameras with tripods are available for loan during school hours to students and teachers. Besides the “Think Tank” meeting room where most of the sessions will be held, the library has two audio-visual rooms equipped with a television, projector and green or blue screen which will be reserved for program students during weeks 5 and 6, during the program time at lunch time. The program will run as an official school activity for eight weeks on a Monday afternoon from 15h15 to 17h00 so as not to clash with the sports and other activity programs. Sign up will be through the school activity sign up program. The activity is free and limited to 12 students selected from a pool of applicants in consultation with tutor mentors, learning support staff and the school counsellor.


Program delivery


Writing is a complex highly abstract process involving productive rather than receptive skills. These include cognitive, psychological and semiotic expertise within the social, cultural and historical context of the writer. Students often have an imbalance between their spoken and written abilities and get bored by the recursive steps of planning, prewriting, drafting, revising and editing (Thompson, 2012). Ways to encourage reluctant writers include ensuring that the topic is: relevant; of interest; taught naturally; understandable; engages emotions; expresses an inner world and is delivered in a playful manner (Vygotsky, 1978, cited in Nilsson, 2010). Fortunately, digital and technological tools have been shown to create new motivation and purpose in reluctant writers (Beach, 2012; Burke & Kafai, 2012; Dreon, Kerper, & Landis, 2011; Green, 2011; Hall, Hall, Hodgson, Hume, & Humphries, 2012; Morgan, 2014)

In the creation of this program, the above factors were considered, while the weekly structure follows the four P’s of digital storytelling (Knight, 2012):

·      Plan (Objective 1 – concept and tool introduction) - weeks 1-3,
·      Produce (Objective 2 – support students in their creation) - weeks 4-6,
·      Publish and Promote (Objective 3 – provide a forum for sharing) - week 7

Instructors were carefully selected to ensure they had a good rapport with this age group, but were not involved with them as classroom teachers, so did not have any pre-conceptions about their writing, technological or creative skills.
An overview of the activities is given in Appendix 1.


Week 1: Experience it!


During the first session, a variety of digital literature will be made available to the group. An example of each type will be briefly introduced and then students will be free to chose and borrow the example that most appealed to them, or to find other examples in that genre.


Week 2: Telling Tales


This week the elements of storytelling will be introduced.  Using the conceptual framework of Branigan (1992, cited in Kenny, 2011), story telling as a universal construct includes the interaction between a teller and the audience with the elements of time and place (background), cause (conflict or challenge) and effect (fight or flight) which result in a transformation as the story is resolved.
The acronym “I AM TOP CAMP” is a useful way to remember the principles of digital story telling, i.e. Interactive; Authentic; Meaningful; Technological; Organized; Productive; Collaborative; Appealing; Motivating; and Personalized (Yoon, 2013).





Figure 3: Storytelling process


Week 3: Storyboard


Building on the experiences of week one and learning of week two, students will be encouraged to start thinking about creating a storyboard for their own story. Comics and graphic books will be used to scaffold this activity (Hall et al., 2012). The elements of good design will be introduced, namely Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, Proximity otherwise known as CARP (Reynolds, 2008).


Week 4: Digital tool box


Each of the modal choices in digital storytelling (still and moving image, text, voiceover, music and sound (Buchholz, 2014)) requires the use of different technological tools, which can either be used separately, or in combination with each other.


Weeks 5 & 6: Production


Students are given the opportunity to create their own story. They have complete control over the type of story, tools to use and whether to work in a group or pairs or individually. Additional staff members will be available on a roving basis to trouble-shoot and assist students with any technical or story-telling difficulties they encounter.  Audio-visual rooms and digital cameras will also be available during lunchtimes should students wish to work on their story outside of the activity time.


Week 7:  Performance


One of the problems with creative writing is the perceived lack of an audience (Thompson, 2012). Although collaboration, interaction and sharing has been a part of all the activities up to now, this week the activity makes the audience explicit. The group’s productions will be shown at a special screening in the small black box theatre. Students can invite friends, parents and teachers.


Week 8: Reflection and celebration


In the final week, students will be able to reflect on their experiences during the last 7 weeks and provide feedback to the group (Survey - Appendix 4). This will be part of the evaluation discussed in the next section. Students will be allowed to bring along a snack for a celebratory party and will be invited to help as student volunteers in the Production stage of the next program.


Detailed activity plan – Week 1



Materials required


Laptop (MacBook) and iPads with preloaded eBook apps, screen, projector, apple TV for screening. The following digital literature should be preloaded onto iPads, available online or available for borrowing from the library catalog:


Type
Name
Link
Interactive Documentary
A global guide to the first world war (Panetta, 2014)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary
Twitterature
100 Greek Myths retold in 100 tweets (Crown Publishing, 2012)
https://storify.com/CrownPublishing/100-greek-myths-retold-in-100-tweets
Digital Novel
Inanimate Alice (DreamingMethods, 2012)
http://www.inanimatealice.com/
Vlog
Lizzie Bennet Diaries (Su, Noble, Rorick, & Austen, 2014)
http://www.lizziebennet.com/
Animated dreamtime stories
Dust Echoes (ABC, 2007)
http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/
iPad app and eBook
Shakespeare in Bits – Romeo and Juliette (Mindconnex Learning Ltd, 2012)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare-in-bits-romeo/id370803660?mt=8

Figure 4: Digital Literature examples for screening




Step by step procedures of what is to be done 



Item
Equipment / Material
Timing
Greet students and ask for a brief introduction with name, class, where they are from and any experience or expectations they have from the program.
Stickers for students to write the names on
10 minutes
Perform a short icebreaker such as “two truths and one lie” with students in pairs.
n/a
10 minutes
Ask students to do initial survey using google forms.
Survey (Appendix 3)
5 minutes
Show snippets of the first three examples of digital story telling – A Global guide to the first world war, 100 Greek Myths and Inanimate Alice.
Laptop, projector and screen. Ensure various resources are open to minimise turnover time
3 resources, 5 minutes each = 15 minutes
Open discussion on what appeals to the students
Use the elements of successful digital story telling i.e. Interactive; Authentic; Meaningful; Technological; Organized; Productive; Collaborative; Appealing; Motivating; and Personalized (Yoon, 2013) to scaffold activity
20 minutes
Give students a break to have a snack, use the washroom, etc.

10 minutes
Show snippets of the next three examples of digital story telling – Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Dust Echoes and Shakespeare in Bits – Romeo and Juliette.
Laptop, projector and screen. Ensure various resources are open to minimise turnover time.
3 resources, 5 minutes each = 15 minutes
Ask students to choose the type of digital storytelling that most appeals to them; they can explore the resource in the remaining class time and borrow the resource to explore further at home.
Assist with loan and downloading of materials or searching of similar materials.
20 minutes
Finish in time for buses / pickup

Total 1 hour 45 minutes

Figure 5: Step by Step Procedure for week 1


Audience, staffing and other considerations


As discussed in Part 1, there will be 12 middle school students aged 12 - 15 years. All students should have a laptop and access to the library catalog and the Internet.  The secondary school librarian will demonstrate the material and show where similar material can be found in the catalog. An assistant librarian should be on hand to troubleshoot if students have problems loading the apps or eBooks, signing in or any other technical difficulties. Ensure room shades are all working so the room can be darkened sufficiently.


Marketing and promotion


The school markets all activities through the website and has a centralized signup program, however, as this is a new activity, additional promotion will be needed. A promotional calendar has been created including a short synopsis of each activity and its relevance (see Figure 2 below, and Appendix 1 for the promotional calendar).




Figure 6: Promotional Calendar

Printed posters will be put in the library, hallways, and elevator notice boards. In order to attract those students who would most benefit from the program a combination of “pull” and “push” promotion will be needed, so flyers will be given to Middle School language teachers, digital literacy coaches, learning support teachers and school counsellors who will be encouraged to discuss participation with students who may benefit from the program. A link to the calendar will also be placed on the library portal and in the school newsletter, the eBrief.


Part 3: Evaluation and reflection


How to evaluate the program


There are two main ways in which participants will evaluate the program.  In the first place a questionnaire will be completed (see Appendix 4). Secondly students will reflect on their own work and give feedback to other participants as part of the reflection in Week Eight.  Students are used to the PNI method of reflecting on the Positives, Negatives and possible Improvements. The most relevant evaluation however will be whether the activity is seen as interesting in subsequent semesters with demand and over-subscription from students during the Season 2 signup period. Although the student as “client” will be the main evaluator of the program, the teachers and digital, visual and text literacy coaches will also be asked to give feedback on the content, logistics and perceived usefulness of the program. 

Some digital storytelling programs have administered pre- and post- program literacy tests to students to evaluate the efficacy of the program (Barnard, 2011; Beach, 2012; Gunter & Kenny, 2008; Ragen, 2012; Yoon, 2013). But, since the primary goal of the program is to provide a social and creative outlet for students using digital tools, this will not be undertaken formally. However, the tutor mentors of the students participating in the program will be asked if they feel the program had any impact on the students socially or academically.


Reflection


One of the issues to be considered in this program will be the possible duality in the audience it attracts. On the one hand it may appeal to students with a passion for reading and writing, who already have a high level of sophistication and affiliation for writing. On the other, it may appeal to students who have difficulties in expressing themselves due to learning or language difficulties. They may be attracted by the expressive affordances of digital literature, the lure of technology or they may be encouraged to join in by their English teacher, learning or language support teacher or school counsellor. An important consideration would be how to cater to both these groups allowing each to build on their strengths without compromising the needs of either.  A further concern is that students will put a disproportionate amount of time into struggling with flashy technology and this will compromise the story-telling process. For this reason, digital tools are only introduced in the fourth week, after storytelling and the storyboard has been completed. During the mentoring, digital literacy coaches should remind students of academic honesty, consideration of DRM (digital rights management) and the correct accreditation or attribution of images and other material.

In setting up this program, older students were not considered, since once they move into High School and the International Baccalaureate program; study and exam pressures result in limited time for participation in activities. In the primary school, extensive writing workshops are already in place, led by the literacy coach. At a later stage, if the program is successful it could be expanded to include other groups of students.
Finally, it is important to reflect on the developmental needs of teenagers in the light of the objectives and characteristics of the program.


Objective
1. Introduce students to concepts, examples and tools of digital storytelling
2. Support students in the creation of their own narratives using the tools of digital storytelling
3. Provide a forum for sharing, promotion, collaboration and interaction

Figure 7: Objectives revisited



Developmental Need
Expression
Program Objectives
Program characteristics
Positive Social Interaction with Adults & Peers
Seek attention, socialization
2, 3
Small group of students with specialist teachers with a variety of skills and personalities
Structure & Clear Limits
Push boundaries, challenge authority
1, 2, 3
Program is limited to 8 sessions with a clear structure within which choice and autonomy is possible
Physical Activity
Running, jostling, roaming
n/a
Not applicable
Creative Expression
Vandalism, Vine, Instagram, Snapchat
2
Creative storytelling is the main thrust of the program
Competence & Achievement
Competitive behaviour, Minecraft, number of followers on social media
1,2,3
The program allows for mastery of technological and storytelling skills within a new format, end result is performed and published
Meaningful Participation
Opinionated, socialization, clique club or team membership
2, 3
Activities allow for interaction in the physical and virtual space
Opportunities for Self-Definition
Status symbols, dress and hair,
2
Students are encouraged to consider their culture, linguistic and social identities in producing their story

Figure 8: Summary of developmental needs, expression, program objectives and characteristics
(Adapted from: National Middle School Association (1996). Research Summary: Young Adolescent’s Developmental Needs, 2006, cited in Gallaway, 2008).




References


21stCL. (2013). School of The Year - 21st Century Learning International. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from http://21c-learning.com/awards/school-of-the-year/

ABC. (2007). Dust Echoes. Retrieved August 20, 2014, from http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm

Barnard, C., A. (2011). How Can Teachers Implement Multiple Modalities into the Classroom to Assist Struggling Male Readers? (Education Masters Paper 26). St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY.

Beach, R. (2012). Uses of Digital Tools and Literacies in the English Language Arts Classroom. Research in the Schools, 19(1), 45–59.

Buchholz, B. (2014). “Actually, that’s not really how I imagined it”: Children’s divergent dispositions, identities, and practices in digital production. In Working Papers in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education (Vol. 3, pp. 25–53). Bloomington, IN: School of Education, Indiana University. Retrieved from http://education.indiana.edu/graduate/programs/literacy-culture-language/specialty/wplcle/index.html

Burke, Q., & Kafai, Y. B. (2012). The writers’ workshop for youth programmers: digital storytelling with scratch in middle school classrooms (pp. 433–438). Presented at the Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science Education, ACM.

Crown Publishing. (2012, November). @LucyCoats: 100 Greek Myths Retold in 100 Tweets (with tweets). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from https://storify.com/CrownPublishing/100-greek-myths-retold-in-100-tweets

DreamingMethods. (2012). Inanimate Alice - About the Project [Digital Novel]. Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.inanimatealice.com/about.html

Dreon, O., Kerper, R. M., & Landis, J. (2011). Digital Storytelling: A Tool for Teaching and Learning in the YouTube Generation. Middle School Journal, 42(5), 4–9.

Gallaway, B. (2008). Pain in the Brain: Teen Library (mis)Behavior. Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/informationgoddess29/pain-in-the-brain-teen-library-misbehavior-presentation

Gorrindo, T., Fishel, A., & Beresin, E. (2012). Understanding Technology Use Throughout Development: What Erik Erikson Would Say About Toddler Tweets and Facebook Friends. Focus, X(3), 282–292. Retrieved from http://focus.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/FOCUS/24947/282.pdf

Green, M. R. (2011). Writing in the Digital Environment: Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of the Value of Digital Storytelling. In American Educational Research Association (pp. 8–12). Retrieved from http://worldroom.tamu.edu/Workshops/Storytelling13/Articles/Green.pdf

Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J. E. (2009). Learning, Teaching, and Scholarship in a Digital Age: Web 2.0 and Classroom Research: What Path Should We Take Now? Educational Researcher, 38(4), 246–259. doi:10.3102/0013189X09336671

Gunter, G. A., & Kenny, R. F. (2008). Digital booktalk: Digital media for reluctant readers. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 8(1), 84–99.

Gunter, G. A., & Kenny, R. F. (2012). UB the director: Utilizing digital book trailers to engage gifted and twice-exceptional students in reading. Gifted Education International, 28(2), 146–160. doi:10.1177/0261429412440378

Hall, M., Hall, L., Hodgson, J., Hume, C., & Humphries, L. (2012). Scaffolding the Story Creation Process. In 4th International Conference on Computer Supported Education. Porto, Portugal. Retrieved from http://www.lynnehall.co.uk/pubs/ScaffoldingTheStoryCreationProcess.pdf

Jones, P., & Waddle, L. L. (2002). New directions for library service to young adults. Chicago: American Library Association.

Kenny, R. F. (2011). Beyond the Gutenberg Parenthesis: Exploring New Paradigms in Media and Learning. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 3(1), 32–46. Retrieved from www.jmle.org

Kenny, R. F., & Gunter, G. A. (2004). Digital booktalk: Pairing books with potential readers. Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 27, 330–338.

Knight, S. (2012, June 20). Introduction to Digital Storytelling. Retrieved September 6, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/sknight/digital-storytelling-ed554?related=1

Meyers, E. M., Fisher, K. E., & Marcoux, E. (2007). Studying the everyday information behavior of tweens: Notes from the field. Library & Information Science Research, 29(3), 310–331. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2007.04.011

Mindconnex Learning Ltd. (2012, January 25). Shakespeare In Bits: Romeo & Juliet iPad Edition on the App Store [iTunes]. Retrieved September 6, 2014, from https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shakespeare-in-bits-romeo/id370803660?mt=8

Morgan, H. (2014). Using digital story projects to help students improve in reading and writing. Reading Improvement, 51(1), 20–26. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1540737338?accountid=10344

Musil, R. (2001). The confusions of young Törless. (S. Whiteside, Trans.). New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books.

Nilsson, M. (2010). Developing Voice in Digital Storytelling Through Creativity, Narrative and Multimodality. International Journal of Media, Technology and Lifelong Learning, 6(2), 148–160. Retrieved from http://seminar.net/index.php/volume-6-issue-2-2010/154-developing-voice-in-digital-storytelling-through-creativity-narrative-and-multimodality

Panetta, F. (2014). A global guide to the First World War [Interactive documentary]. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary

Ragen, M. (2012). Inspired technology, inspired readers: How book trailers foster a passion for reading. Access, 26(1), 8–13. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/934354989?accountid=10344

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Su, B., Noble, K., Rorick, K., & Austen, J. (2014). The secret diary of Lizzie Bennet. London ; Sydney: Simon & Schuster.

Thompson, I. (2012). Stimulating reluctant writers: a Vygotskian approach to teaching writing in secondary schools: Stimulating reluctant writers. English in Education, 46(1), 85–100. doi:10.1111/j.1754-8845.2011.01117.x

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Appendix 1: Program Overview


                                                                                                                                                                          


Element
Synopsis
Relevance
Instructor
Location
Week 1:
20 October 2014
Experience it!
A whirlwind tour of digital books, vlogs, interactive apps and tweeted poems.
Provide background to program and give understanding of what is possible.
Ms. Katie Day – secondary school librarian – expert in YA literature
Library Think Tank
Week 2:
27 October 2014

Telling tales

Elements of storytelling explained with particular reference to digital storytelling.
Storytelling, no matter what the medium is the basis of this program.
Ms. Kate Levy – high school English teacher
Library Think Tank
Week 3:
3 November 2014
Storyboard
Students shown how to create a storyboard using the example of cartoons and graphic novels and elements of good design are introduced.
Learn the elements of good design and how to incorporate these in your story.
Mr. Noah Katz – visual literacy coach
Library Think Tank
Week 4:
10 November 2014
Digital tool box
Digital tools for capturing and combining different modal choices (image, sound, text) are explained. Best practise is highlighted.
Bring students digital skills to a comparative level of mastery and show how to incorporate into their storytelling.
Mr. David Caleb – digital literacy coach, photographer and author of “The Photographer’s Toolkit”
Library Think Tank
Week 5:
17 November 2014
Production
Students will be given the time and resources to put their ideas and skills into practise. They can choose between individual, paired or group production.
Students will be aided in their creation of digital stories by competent experts they can achieve their creative goals within a clear structure.
All 7 school digital literacy coaches, librarian and Ms. Levy
Library – Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda rooms & Think Tank – green, blue or white screens available
Week 6:
24 November 2014
Production
Week 7:
1 December 2014

Performance!
Output is produced and promoted. Friends, family and teachers are invited to the Black Box Theatre watch the digital storytelling productions.
An explicit audience is an important aspect of storytelling. Students will have a sense of competency and achievement.
Ms. Katie Day, participants, digital literacy coaches
Black Box Theatre
Week 8:
8 December 2014


Reflection
Time is given for reflection and feedback of the last 7 weeks. The end results are celebrated and promoted further.
The end of the program is indicated by this activity both setting a limit to the formal program and allowing reflection and also validating participants by requesting their evaluation and suggestions for improvement.
All instructors
Library Think Tank


Appendix 2: Promotional Calendar





Appendix 3: Pre-program Survey



Digital Storytelling Program
Pre-program Surve
y
To give us an idea of your current understanding, preferences and skills please complete this survey. Thank you!

Definitely
Usually
Some-what
Not really
Not at all
I enjoy reading or watching





Fiction, stories, memoirs





Non-fiction or documentaries





Poetry





I can use the following technology





Digital Camera





Digital Video Camera





iPhoto





Photoshop





iTunes





Garage Band





iMovie





I use the following social media





Facebook





Instagram





Twitter





YouTube





Other – please state which ……





I express my creativity through





Writing





Art or photography





Music or dance





Drama and acting





Video or film





I am not creative





What do you expect from this program?








Appendix 4: Post Program Survey


Digital Storytelling Program
Post-program Survey
Now you have finished the program please reflect on your experiences and learning.

Definitely
Usually
Some-what
Not really
Not at all
I understand the concepts and tools of Digital Storytelling





Different types of digital stories





What is important in storytelling





How to create a storyboard





I can produce my own digital story





I can use the following technology





Digital Camera





Digital Video Camera





iPhoto





Photoshop





iTunes





Garage Band





iMovie





I would recommend this program





To friends / classmates





To teachers





What was the best / most positive part of this program?
What didn’t you enjoy about this program?
What improvements would you suggest?