Chapter 4
This Chapter was about how to assess a Digital Story. One important factor when creating a Digital Storytelling assignment is fellow teachers, administrators, parents and students will ask you why? When developing a Digital Storytelling assignment you must have a clear goal in mind as to why you are assigning it. One interesting point that was brought up in this chapter was that everyone things technology is making us smarter, which in fact it is not necessarily. What will make students smarter is learning how to use the technology to prepare them for using it effectively in the real world.
When evaluating a Digital Story a teacher needs to have a clear goal in mind and relay that goal to the students so they understand it. The story as well as the how the story was produced, the students understanding of the content, use of media teamwork and performance need to be assessed. I found it interesting that Ohler suggested that you should always have a performance of the Digital Story and not only have the class look at it, but have your students show it to the community. It got me thinking that that's exactly what we do; as soon as I create something, such as this weeks video, I showed it to multiple people to get their feedback. I'm sure students would enjoy this as well. The last thing that should be included in a rubric is a student self assessment. Many times in this self assessment you see the troubles, difficulties and success the students went through int he process that you would not get in the final performance.
Chapter 5
In order for a Digital Story to be compelling it needs to have a Story Core. This is basically a beginning, middle and end that flow together. Usually a story core will have a protagonist that is faced with some sort of challenge that leads to a transformation. a student can either begin with a story core or develop one as they are developing their story idea, but it is essential that they have one.
Once a student has a story core, they can move on to create a story board. This is basically an outline of their story to keep them on track when actually creating it. It can either be written as a narrative or outline or it can be drawn. I story board serves as a more in depth version of a story core. Having students use a VPS or visual portrait of a story, they are more inclined to develop a full story including a beginning, conflict leading to a transformation and growth concluding in a solution leading to closure. With these elements, students will have a successful Digital Story.
Chapter 6
One thing that stood out to me in the chapter was that even though a story may have a beginning, middle and end does not mean that it will be engaging. As story needs to have some sort of tension to be powerful, memorable and/or useful. The main character also needs to go through some sort of transformation. If a story, "sounds like something that could have happened to us on a normal day," it will not be interesting because, "stories aren't usually told about ordinary people on normal days."
Creating a visual portrait of a story will help students see not only the big picture of their story, but also the little details that make the story interesting. IT will also give them a chance to see if their story is memorable, powerful and/or useful. When creating a story always remember, "We forget lectures, but we remember stories."
