Chapter 11. Response "The Media Production Process, Phase I"

“If your students are having difficulty understanding the five-phase media development process, I recommend having them translate something they already know how to do into this process…” (Location 1784)  This recommendation by Olher generated an idea for how educators could go about developing professional development guides for using media to create stories in the classroom.  Ohler is right that digital story telling is a process just like any other process we learn to do.  So, the same steps could be used to organize new digital media programs within a school.  Please note the outline I have provided below:

Five-Phase Media Development Process	Five-Phase Professional Development for Media Use in Instruction
Phase I: Planning	How does media instruction support your school’s vision? What educational objectives and standards align with the use of media technology and digital story telling? What other schools have also successfully implemented media into instruction? What limitations might need to be considered for media projects.  Site limitations?  Community Expectations?
Phase II: Identifying and gathering materials, expertise	What funds does your site/department have that can be used to purchase equipment? What equipment does the school/district already provide? Who are the media technology leaders in your site/district/community?
Phase III: Development and implementation	What projects demonstrate 21st century skills that every student should be able to perform at your site regardless of subject/grade? What basic skills do instructors need to support media use in classroom projects at your site? How do limitations with equipment and experience provide learning opportunities such as collaboration and problem solving?
Phase IV: Honing, editing, and finalizing	Be sure to include: Objectives Materials Procedures Examples Assessment Strategies
Phase V: Sharing with others	Have teacher’s complete activity / lesson / project as training.   Collect feedback.  Provide support materials.

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

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

Chapter 10. Reflection "Other Kinds of Stories: Other Story Forms and Story Perspectives"

Ohler suggests that “Having your students experiment with creating digital stories using non-Western story forms can help them develop a multicultural appreciation of story”.  (Location 1747)  However, he notes in the chapter that such stories rarely follow the patterns we are used to in the west like Campbell’s Hero’s Model.  This puts a teacher like me at a disadvantage being that there are many forms that stories can come in that I may have never been exposed to.  Ohler does try to give some pointers for teachers who would be interested in venturing down this path, but he also acknowledges that such work is foreign to his own understandings and though worthwhile, one should realize that it is very challenging.  As for myself I am not sure where I would begin to collect valid models of non-western culture stories being that many may have been tainted by exposure to the west in the past.  I’m interested in finding sources so please post your ideas or links about non-western culture story telling in the comments section if you can help me get started.  Thanks!

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

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

Ch 9. Reflection "More Story Maps"

In chapter 6 I was starting to question Ohler’s recommendations on how to approach mapping a story.  I felt that there were more ways for a story teller to visualize the path a story takes and that a plot chart might be an even simpler for students to consider when planning the events in a digital story.  I was surprised that in chapter 9 Ohler opens up the playing field to number of approaches to mapping stories including a simplified “Aristotle’s Story Map” which is clearly a predecessor to the plot chart I use with my own writing students.  He also shared a simplified Joseph Campbell map which works as a great scaffold when trying to explain Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” concept.  Below I have completed such a diagram to represent the hero’s journey that Luke Skywalker went through in Star Wars: A New Hope.

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

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

Ch 8. Reflection "Transformation Formations: How We and the Characters in Our Stories Change"

In chapter 8 Ohler leads us through the importance of "transformation" on the main character of any story.  He expands such transformations to cover not only the fictional world but also the lives of our students has they develop knowledge.  He tinkers with the use of Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy and how it can be a scaffold in breaking down how a character or student transforms over time.  He believes that many educational theories about our development as learners could make interesting models for developing transformations in stories.  At the end of the chapter he challenges the reader to compare Kohlberg's "Stages of Moral Development" as a way to view character transformation.  Below is video I produced that explores this relationship in term of the development of the character Anakin Skywalker in the Start Wars film series.  The video demonstrates Anakin’s transformation through his and other's dialog in several key scenes.  I recommend that you open the video in full screen to be able to read the text based examples featured in it.

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

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