Ch. 4 Reflection "Assessing Digital Stories: The Opportunities and Challenges of New Media Evaluation"

I have used several rubrics over the years to grade digital products my students have created.  The earliest I used were simple to the point of being a “pass/fail” based on if they had completed a project.  As I noticed challenges that were impairing my students’ messages in their media I sought and created or find other rubrics to address those issues.  I find that focusing in on a few objectives in in a project is easier for me to grade and clearer for students to master per project.

I would encourage teachers to constantly revise how they are grading student digital stories.  Ohler also champions this advice.   "Therefore, we shouldn't expect to understand how to assess new media in education so soon after its arrival.  But that shouldn't stop us from beginning the process."(location 973)

Below are some sample video project rubrics used by educators along with a rubric based on Ohler’s assessment recommendations.  I encourage you to grade the rubrics and see how they both support students learning and sometimes miss the mark.

Review of Digital Story Rubric (Based on Ohler's Recommendations)

Tech TV Video Project Rubric

Caroline McCullen's Multimedia Project Rubric

Poway Unified School Districts collection of Rubrics for Video Production


Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity (location 973). Kindle Edition.

Ch. 3 Reflection "Digital Storytelling as an Educational Tool: Standards, Planning, and Literacy"

Ch. 2 Reflection "Defining and Discussing Digital Storytelling: Helping Teachers See, Think, and Talk About Digital Storytelling"

In my experience it is not uncommon for a media arts teacher or their students to be recruited to develop a video for any gambit of gatherings from back to school night to graduation.  In most cases the individuals requesting the video do not realize that these projects take about one hour of production time to one minute of finished product—for an experienced creator.  Many times these projects will be rushed and the end result is a story that is not compelling and lacks what Ohler calls "story core" in chapter 5.  It is important for educators to understand that digital story telling has a process that takes "time" and that "the time" is not wasted if the students are following the process and learning.  I feel that in this chapter Ohler does a good job of reviewing several principles that could help guide a teacher to set clear targets for their student’s productions.  Such expectations could help clarify the purpose of the work and significantly increase the rigor of skills needed to complete a project.  I think that Ohler's information in this chapter relates well with my own views that teaching with technology is much like teaching with literature in that the relevancy of what I teach is in my student's ability to grapple with ideas, process information, and apply practiced skills and not necessarily the book I have chosen for them to read.

Ch.1 Reflection "Confessions of a Digital Storytelling Teacher: Twenty Revelations About Digital Storytelling in Education"

Ohler, J. (2008). Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy,

Learning, and Creativity [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

I like Ohler's use of student generated artifacts as an assessment of the “depth and breadth” of the work students do when telling a digital story.   I agree with the author that several “literacies” are present in the process of digital story telling.  Professional storytellers use a variety of approaches and skills to collect, develop, and publish their ideas.

I remember several years ago when I was teaching a media technology class at a Sacramento middle school, one of the first realizations I had was that my students could figure out most technical issues with software and equipment on their own or with a partner—what they struggled with was having the foundations of how a story is developed.  They just did not know how writers and artists create a story from scratch.  I tried to introduce tools like planning sheets, storyboards, and self-assessment documents, but they were resistant to doing the work.

In retrospect, I think their resistance was because I had not clearly demonstrated to them how the tools were authentic parts of the DST process.  As I continue to read Digital Story Telling for Classrooms, I am curious learn about how the Ohler related similar tools and their value to his students.

Action!