Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is about
different struggles you may have when teaching Digital Storytelling (DST) and
how to overcome them. The first thing to
consider is the group you are teaching.
Every group is different and has different needs, it is important to
take that into consideration when developing your lessons. Sometimes students have a difficult time
actually writing their story, if this happens you should ask leading questions
to get the writing juices flowing.
Another problem that students face is containing their stories. I thought the Research box, where students
create a box and write what they want included in their story inside the box
and points that are related to their story, but are not going to get addressed
in the story. When students create a
research box, it allows the teachers to see what the students will be writing
about and how to help guide them to creating a strong story core.
The quote at the end
of this chapter, “Break the rules after you understand them and can use them
effectively,” really struck a chord with me.
There are traditional ways to do something whether it is writing,
painting, photography, music, etc… it is usually against the grain to break the
rules but as the quote states, if you know what to do you can break through
those barriers and possibly create a masterpiece.
Chapter 8
This chapter focuses
on transformations/changes toe characters in a story. The first section of the chapter states that
transformations do not have to be big to have a huge impact. It got me thinking of series of shows. When you watch a series the characters are
ever changing; when you finish a series and go back and watch the first
episodes the characters seem completely different because of the changes they
made throughout the series. Many of these
changes are so small that they seem insignificant at the time, but over time as
the character develops those small changes drastically affect the series.
There are 8 stages of
transformation that characters will go through, Physical, inner strength, emotional,
moral, psychological, social intellectual/creative and spiritual. These levels can help students tell more effective
stories, helps the students grow through their stories as well as help the
teacher understand the students better.
Many students put more of themselves into a Digital Story than a normal
assignment or even research project.
This allows the teachers to delve into the students personalities, what they've learned and how they view the world.
DST can open the creative world for a student which is why it is a great
way to integrate technology into current curriculum.
First off, love what you did in showing the dog’s perspective, ingenious way to highlight angles, it was so good in fact that you don’t need to tell us what you’re going to do. You can totally let your video do the talking for you.
ReplyDeleteWe had similar takeaways from the reading, needing to know your audience’s perspectives and needs is essential in receiving the objective outcome you desire, and the research box not only helps the students, it was a tool I used in developing my story. I enjoy finding pragmatic tools in the creative process that help get the brainstorming and sets parameters the benefit the novice learners.
This transformation thing is growing on me, I’m struggling to find DST integration with the social sciences and the 8 stages of character transformation might be a perfect fit when dealing with history and government. All of those stages can be found throughout the field. I can see DST being a way to tell primary source stories through the interpretation of the students.
I like that the transformation chapter got you thinking about television series. I went to the same place myself, and spent a lot of time thinking about shows that do show a lot of transformation like Dexter and Breaking Bad as well as those that tried to not show transformation but still did like Seinfeld. I think Seinfeld definitely fell into the small changes that over time became much larger than they seemed at the moment. It is just an interesting way to think about stories for me. I don’t think I have ever really spent time thinking about this sort of thing before, so there is a lot of cool applications to the stories I like for me in these readings. Glad to see I was not alone.
ReplyDeleteI think you noticed and touched on something important, about "it is usually against the grain to break the rules but as the quote states, if you know what to do you can break through those barriers and possibly create a masterpiece."
ReplyDeleteMany of the worlds' "Greats" are writers, filmmakers, spiritual leaders, artists of some kind who broke the rules. And as we know, were often not appreciated during their own times of production. We have to remember this as teachers, to teach the students the rules, but be willing to let a student break them, sometimes, after they know the "traditional" way. And when we know they're not just being lazy! :)
I liked your comment about having to first understand the rules before you break them, but when you don't know what you don't know, it may be wise to try to follow the rules at first to see if there is something you didn't know.
ReplyDelete