A few tips for faculty who'd like to offer digital storytelling as an option for student projects. For more resources, see: http://digitalwriting101.net/teaching
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Tips for Teaching
Digital Storytelling Projects
Amy Goodloe
Program for Writing & Rhetoric
University of Colorado, Boulder
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Teach the genre, not the technology
Focus on helping students:
Understand how digital storytelling functions as a genre
Develop and organize their ideas effectively
Recognize and apply composing strategies appropriate to an
audiovisual medium
Let someone else teach the technology. Doing so:
Helps students have clear expectations about your role and your
area of expertise
Avoids the problem of blaming the instructor for the students’ own
issues with technology
Encourages students to take ownership of their own tech learning
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Provide plenty of tech resources
Invite academic technology experts to come to class to lead
workshops and/or serve as mentors for students
Share links to step-by-step instructions and screencasts that will
help students with specific aspects of the composing process
http://digitalwriting101.net
Remind students how to make effective use of Google searches to
find help
Encourage tech-savvy students in the class to help others
Organize workshop groups based on level of skill
Devote some class time to letting students help each other
Provide an out-of-class forum for students to use
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Clarify your expectations
Show a range of sample projects
Explain where each falls on the evaluation criteria
Connect to learning goals
Emphasize the use of narrative to communicate
Goal is to expand range of options available for
communication…
… not to produce a slick short film for a film studies class
A photo slideshow with a killer soundtrack won’t cut it
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Raise the stakes
Use peer pressure to your advantage by arranging for every
student’s project to be visible to the class (or a larger audience)
Allot time for in-class showings
Ask students to post projects on a class blog or wiki
If your class time is limited, ask students to vote on their
favorites and show the top 3 in class
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Give students plenty of time
Week 1: Week 3:
Find and discuss lots of Revise story boards
samples Prepare audio recordings
Brainstorm story ideas (voiceover, music, sound
Introduce strategies for effects)
composing in words, sounds,
and images Week 4:
Produce a rough cut for
Week 2: workshop
Develop and workshop story
boards Week 5:
Continue exploring Revise and polish
composing strategies Hold a showing on final day
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Be patient!
Many of today’s college students grew up learning how to write,
but this may be the first time they’ve been asked to compose a
multimodal message
They’ve likely had poor instruction in technology
Perhaps due to the faulty assumption that they’re “digital natives”
So keep your expectations realistic, especially for students who
struggle to use computers
Frequently remind students of the value of what they’re learning, to
help them focus on the end goal and not their technology hassles
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Do it yourself first
I highly recommend that instructors who want to ask students
to produce digital storytelling projects go through the process of
making one themselves first, ideally through a workshop.
Until you’re confronted with the challenge of telling a brief
narrative in a multimodal format yourself, you won’t be as well
prepared to help students with the kinds of rhetorical and
composition strategies available to them.
You’ll also develop much more realistic expectations for what is
and isn’t possible in this medium!