Article Assessment No. 4

“Thinking About Story and Applying Story Maps”

by Jason Ohler

Overview

These chapters introduce “Thinking About Story” and “Applying Story Maps,” and explains how a digital story should consist of three parts – story core, story mapping and story types – in order to effectively engage the storyteller’s audience. Storytelling has such a rich history that it still thrives in today’s digital world. Whether the story is told in books, movies, jokes, digital stories, or orally, the human desire for a good story should never go extinct. In these chapters, the key for telling a successful digital story depends on specific guidelines set within the development of a story core and story map that the storyteller has followed.

In Chapter 5, “Thinking About Story,” introducing the story core helps students concentrate on the value of their experiences by constructing effective ways to materialize those events into a potentially powerful story. The basic idea of a story core involves a main character, which goes through a transformation. Whether the character resists change, is challenged by circumstances to keep from changing, there must be a tipping point – or “tension-resolution dynamic” – in order to have forward motion or internal rhythm so the audience can make connections.

Tension-resolution dynamics usually works well in sports stories: i.e., a talented football player in the 1960s is kept on the sidelines because of his race, but he keeps his wits, trying his hardest despite the circumstances; he reaches a tipping point, realizing he must voice his concerns on the inequality in order to succeed, and eventually he surpasses even his own expectations.

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Educational Philosophy Movie

Producing my education philosophy movie would have been difficult without my MacBook Pro and its iMovie software. I got to know iMovie really well this past summer in Sitka while making a movie of my wedding. It made this movie-making experience so much simpler as opposed to learning from scratch.

Simple, yes, until I realized I had hardly any pictures of my students. Thankfully, a fellow team teacher is a habitual picture taker. I bummed as many pictures as I could off him, loaded them to my thumb drive, and transferred them to my iPhoto. In retrospect, I wish I had taken more pictures of my classroom, students, and their projects. Finding the appropriate time to take my camera out and snap a few shots or videos was a challenge.

Earlier this year, my mentor teacher and I assigned our gifted class to create personal narratives by using Photo Story 3, a program very similar to iMovie. Having the background knowledge of making a multi-media movie really helped the students themselves understand the program.

Click here to watch my movie.

Article Assessment No. 3

"Orchestrating the Media Collage"

by Jason Ohler

Overview

This article introduces reading and writing multiple forms of media and how integrating the two creates an entirely new meaning of the word “literacy.” By definition, literacy is a noun, meaning the ability to read and write. However, “Orchestrating the Media Collage” by Jason Ohler points out that the deeper meaning of literacy goes far beyond the walls of English classrooms. Ohler said that literacy can include reading and writing competencies in math, research and even citizenship. But the most important form of literacy, he said, is digital literacy. It’s no secret we live in a technologically driven world and those who fail to keep up with its ever-evolving jargon will be left in the dust of discarded textbooks.

In the “Writing What You Read” section, Ohler explains that having an ability to read and write today isn’t good enough. Digital expression can be narrowed into three categories: 1. New media demand new literacies, such as sound, graphics and images; 2. New media coalesce into a collage with Web pages, blogs and digital stories; 3. New media are largely participatory, social media by using collaborative publications such as Facebook, GoogleDocs and YouTube. These categories have changed the Internet from a read-only resource to a worldly community where the exchange of information is nearly limitless and forces the public to be more hands on and creative with their work.

Ohler lines out eight guidelines for teachers who want students to hone their digital literacy skills: 1. Shift from text centrism to media collage; 2. Value writing and reading now more than ever; 3. Adopt art as the next R; 4. Blend traditional and emerging literacies; 5. Harness report and story; 6. Practice private and participatory social literacy; 7. Develop literacy with digital tools and about digital tools; 8. Pursue fluency. Ohler ends the article urging teachers who feel overwhelmed with technology to step back and chill out – teachers don’t need to know everything; let the students discover technology for themselves because it’s more than likely they know more than you do.

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Energy Conservation Project

For my energy project, I compiled information on how many sandwich and freezer bags my wife and I used over the course of three weeks, how much it cost us, and how much it was saving on the environment.

After looking at my numbers, I realized plastic bags are really cheap. Throwing plastic bags away after just one use will not break your bank account. However, the plastic bags we use sure do add up. Click here to view my PowerPoint presentation.

Over the course of 50 years, my wife and I -- both teachers who pack our lunches every day to school -- are on track for reusing 48,000 plastic bags over the next 50 years. In our three weeks of washing sandwich and freezer bags, we have become permanent bag washers. Click here to view my Excel spreadsheet.

Of all the requirements for this project, the video was the most daunting. I'm not sure why, considering I was alone in my classroom. I guess I feel more comfortable talking in front of students. Click here to view my YouTube video.

Here's a list of things that could have been improved: The camera should have been moved back (sometimes my face was cut off); visuals would have helped, like an actual sandwich or freezer bag; and, finally, I said "umm" and "uhh" way too many times.

All in all, I enjoyed watching the same teaching style my students witness. It generated some great internal constructive criticism.

Article Assessment No. 2

"The Read/Write Web"

by Bill Richardson

Overview

This article introduces a concise timeline of the World Wide Web and how it has evolved from a "read only" resource to a read/write tool, where anyone can publish their ideas and products from anyplace in the world with an Internet connection. Early days of the Web only gave people the ability to consume information - a one-way street for users. But now, with the introduction of blogs, forums and file-sharing programs, the Web is a new way to create online communities - two-way streets with plenty of detours.

The new read/write Web has changed the way people do business, run political campaigns, educate children, receive/report news and spend leisurely time. Tim Berners-Lee, who helped develop the World Wide Web in 1989, had a vision to make it, “A place where we (could) all meet and read and write.” His vision has evolved into a tool in which our world’s economy could no longer function without.

According to Will Richardson’s article, a 2003 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, more than 53 million American adults (or 44 percent) contributed to content that is found online. In 2006, Technorati.com, a blog tracking service, found more than 25 million blogs. The word blog is short for Weblog, a resource people use for creating personal journals, building sites for colleagues, or filtering news for large or small audiences. Today hundreds of thousands of blogs are created daily and even more blog postings are being added to the unlimited amount of space on the World Wide Web.

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Energy Conservation Project Overview

For my energy conservation project, I'm going to research the amount of plastic bags my wife and I generate weekly and how many bags we contribute to the Anchorage landfill each week. We are already avid recyclers in Anchorage - No. 1 and No. 2 plastics, newspapers, tin cans and mixed paper.

I believe, however, throwing away good plastic bags is a habit I can break to cut down on the waste. Some questions and facts I will be researching are:

• How much money will I save by reusing sandwich and freezer bags? Will it make a dent in my budget?
• Reusablebags.com, an all-you-need-to-know Web site on how to reduce your impact, resuse what you've got and recycle your plastic. It's message is using the four R's: reduce, reuse, recycle and react. It's a user-friendly Web site and I'm looking forward to researching it.
• I will keep a daily log on what I did to reduce and reuse (sandwich bags, freezer bags).
• I will tally each plastic bag and compare it to the amount of plastic bags an average person uses in a week.

AnthroTech Assignment

The abundant opportunities for using technology at Goldenview Middle School is what makes it a special place to get an education in the Anchorage School District. Though cell phone use isn't allowed during school hours, students are inundated with technology on a daily basis.

The most obvious is the computer. Each pod has at least at dozen of them - some have many, many more. Some pods have expensive iMacs that teachers raised money to purchase, while other pods have slow Dells that should be replaced.

Each classroom has a Promethean Board, which were installed in every classroom at the beginning of the school year. These boards are like SmartBoards on steroids. Only a few teachers I observed have barely tapped into the Promethean Board's true potential. The majority have included the board into their daily routines.

I asked one of the school's technology leaders if Goldenview - located in an affluent neighborhood of Anchorage - receives so much of "the good stuff" because of economic status. The simple answer was no. Economic status plays only one part. Many Goldenview teachers are technology advocates. They want it so they work hard at trying to get it. They write grants, ask for donations and make technology a huge part of the school culture.

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