TeachOIT: a Blog for People Who Teach with Technology

We had the opportunity to work with several classes last semester that were using Digital Storytelling for student projects. Here are some lessons we have learned that will hopefully help facilitate any Digital Storytelling project your students might undertake:

• Focus on the Writing.  The heart of digital stories is not in the technology tools used to assemble them but in the writing. Without a well-crafted script the final product will inevitably fall flat. Students should invest a substantial amount of their total time spent on any digital story drafting and revising a script (usually 200-300 words) that will be the foundation of their digital story.  Ideally, the script is shared with the instructor or other students as part of a graded assignment.
• Collect the materials you need and keep them organized. Once the script has been finalized, students can begin assembling the different components that will piece the story together. The narration can be recorded with an inexpensive USB microphone or a digital voice recorder. Images can be scanned from photographs or located from sources on the Web. Some students may wish to include sound effects, music, and possibly even video. Keeping all these files organized is critical, and student will likely need some sort of storage device (such as an external hard drive or thumb drive) to store their files if they will be using computers on campus to build their stories.
• Know your resources.  No matter which type of project a student is creating, she or he will need to consider their resources (e.g., software, equipment, and even a place to record.) For most first time digital stores we recommend using iMovie or MovieMaker. These free and user-friendly pieces of software are available in OIT’s Computer Classrooms. For recording narration or voice overs, students will want to use USB microphones. Access to microphones and a quiet place to record are important things to consider.
• Give yourself extra time. Whenever students are learning a new piece of software (or even new features in software they’re familiar with), it can take more time than they expect. Remind students to plan ahead and give themselves plenty of extra time to avoid unnecessary stress and aggravation as they get close to the deadline.    

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of attending a Center for Teaching workshop in which Linda Enghagen, Professor in the Hospitality and Tourism Management department, presented “In Pursuit of Intellectual Honesty via a Hybrid Course Model.” People use the term “hybrid course” to refer to a variety of things classes that meet partially online and partially face-to-face. Hybrid courses have become increasing popular in higher education for two reasons: they offer convenience and the potential to structure learning activities in a new way. Professor Enghagen discussed her experience teaching a 60-student general education class that meets partially online. It was her belief that hybrid courses have an intrinsic pedagogical potential to promote “intellectual honesty” in students. 

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Blogging certainly takes time, one of the most valuable commodities to those of us in Academia. More than one instructor I’ve chatted with this semester has told me they played with setting up a blog, but “who has the time to keep it going?” That’s a hard statement to argue with, but Henry Jenkins, professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT discusses the value of blogs, particularly for those of us in Higher Education, in his blog post Why Academics Should Blog… Jenkins sees tools like blogs as having a transformative power in how we conduct scholarly work, and makes some points that might be worth consideration for folks who haven’t set up a blog or are wondering if they should stick with the blogs they have recently built.

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Professor BJ Roche from the UMass Amherst Journalism Program shares her thoughts on the benefits of student-created podcasts as well as tips for other instructors considering having students podcast:

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Google provides a variety of web based tools such as email (GMail), online mapping (Google Maps), and video sharing (YouTube), but two lesser known tools are Google Groups and Google Docs which may be of particular interest to instructors looking for more ways to collaborate with students and colleagues via the web. (more…)

For those of you that may have missed our SPARK Community of Practice gathering on the Journaling tool; our presenters have copies of their handouts and slides that you should take a look at. Journaling can be a powerful pedagogical tool and the Journal and Discussion tools in SPARK provides one way to implement journaling in your class.

Art Keene from the Anthropology department discussed his use of public student journals as a tool for refection in a community service learning course. Glenn Caffery discussed the benefits and challenges he has encountered using the private journaling for student-teaching discussions.

Art Keene’s handout on the benefits of Journaling

Glenn Caffery slides on his experience with Journaling

The second SPARK Community of Practice event of the semester will be in April, we are still looking to recruit speakers so if you would be willing to talk about your use of SPARK with other instructors please don’t hesitate to contact me at tony@oit.umass.edu.