Stay Tuned!

Check out my digital story on YouTube here.  The essential question I tried to answer in this video is "Why is it important to study the element and principles of design?"

Stay tuned for more information on how I used this digital story with my homeschool class...

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

So, what you have read is mostly all theory to me.  Stayed tuned to updates as I implement these ideas into my class.

I would love to hear about your experiences and approaches to using dynamic media and digital stories in your classroom.  Please share in the comment section below!

Meeting the Standards

How can using digital storytelling in your class meet state and national standards?  The lesson plan I described in the previous post meets the following standards as applied to visual art.  There may be more for Social Studies and ELA:

SC Visual Arts Standards for Grades 6-8

I.  Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes

-Select and apply the most effective media, techniques and processes to communicate their experiences and ideas through their artwork

III.  Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subjects, Themes, and Symbols

-  Analyze and describe the relationships among subjects, themes, and symbols in communicating intended meaning through their own artworks and in interpreting the artworks of others

IV.  Understanding the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures

-  Analyze, describe and demonstrate how factors of time and place such as climate, resources, ideas and technology influence visual characteristics that give meaning and value and value to a work of art

V. Reflecting Upon and Assessing the Merits of Their Work and the Work of Others

-  Use descriptive, interpretive and evaluative statements to make informed aesthetic judgements about their own artworks and those of others



21st Century Skills

-  Communicate Clearly-  Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts

-Use and Manage Information-  Use information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand

- Create Media Products-  Understand and Utilize the most appropriate media creation tools, characteristics and conventions

- Apply Technology Effectively-  Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information

ISTE NETS

Creativity and Innovation
-  Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes
-  Create original works as a means of personal expression

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
-  Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project

Riding the Storyboard... A Lesson Plan

In the last post, I discussed how I would implement dynamic media into my art class using a class blog. How then can I go about implementing digital storytelling into my class?

One of the benefits of teaching art is that I have the freedom to fit so many different subjects into my classes through a variety of media.  I love the concept of digital storytelling because it fits so well within the visual art classroom.  Below is an outline of how I might approach implementing a lesson using digital storytelling into my class.  Due to the limited class time, I probably would not choose to use a digital storytelling project in my homeschool group class.  Rather, I might use digital stories to teach and as prompts for art projects.

I would begin by having students discuss movies they have seen.  What movie stories stayed with you? Which ones inspired you to do something?  Which ones made you think about events or stories from your own life?

I would show students an image of Migrant Mother by photographer Dorthea Lange.  We would begin by discussing the image using some of the following questions:  What do you see in this image?  What are some of the emotions you feel when you look at this photograph?  Who do you think this woman is and why did Dorthea Lange take a photograph of her?

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Museum of Modern Art

These questions and the class discussion would be a jumping board into an exploration of the work of Dorthea Lange and also the history of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.  Students could look these up on their own reading biographies of Lange such as this one or look into information on the Dust Bowl such as this.

We would then discuss the idea of a storyboard and look at examples of one such as this.  What do storyboards remind you of?  Where is the beginning of this story?  Where is the rising action/falling action?  Where is the conclusion?

Students will choose another photograph by Dorothea Lange.  With the parts of a story in mind, they will write a story that answers the following questions:  Who is this person?  What led up to them being in this situation?  What happens after this scene?  

After completing their writing, students will break up their story into 8-12 scenes on a storyboard with accompanying drawings.  One scene must use the Dorothea Lange photo rather than a student drawing.

Students will use 8x10 drawing paper and draw out each scene from their story.  Their drawings do not have to be perfect and can be simplified images (just enough to tell the story).  We will photograph each  of their drawings.

Using an audio recording program, students will record themselves telling their story.

Using the recorded story and images of their drawings, students will build a digital story.

When complete, we will upload the digital stories to YouTube and then onto a class blog.  From there students can view each other's work in order to comment and critique the work of their peers.

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Lange, Dorothea. 1936. Migrant Mother. [Gelatin Silver Print]  Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A3373&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

Essential Questions

So, how do digital storytelling and dynamic media apply to the art classroom?  Below are two essential questions I had to consider and explore as I prepared this presentation:

-  How can digital storytelling and dynamic media be integrated into the art curriculum to promote greater understanding and self-expression?

 -  How can digital storytelling and dynamic media be used to help students enjoy exploring art history and self-evaluation?

Here is how I plan to integrate dynamic media into my art class.  Every Thursday I must post to a dropbox lesson plans for each day of the week for my students to complete.  These are usually very simple assignments such as read a biography on an artist or a sketch assignment.  I already have a class blog which I have used in the past as a place to display images of the completed student work.  I can use the existing blog as a central place to post images for the students to reflect on, links to artist biographies, sketchbook assignments, etc.  Rather than sending my students all over the internet, they have one place to refer to.  Blog comments also provide a place for students to respond in written form and ask questions.  I could even post images of student work and have them critique each other's work.  This idea will require me to discuss with them internet safety and netiquette.  However, these are concepts they need to learn anyway.

Check out the class blog here.

I used a blog similarly a couple of years ago for a six week digital photography class.  Students posted their images for each assignment and then were supposed to comment on each other's work.  This particular class was not great about commenting in order to help each other improve.  They tended to only say "Good job!" but the idea of them interacting and learning from one another was there.  Check out this blog here.

Photo by Maggie McGee (used with permission)

Integrating

How can digital storytelling and dynamic media be integrated into the classroom in order to promote understanding?

"Don't reinvent the wheel."  Imagine this statement said from beneath a mustache and with a British accent.  My first year teaching, I had the privilege of teaching alongside another first year art teacher.  Teaching was a second career for him and he had the advantage of experience which was such an aid to my young, naive self.  He taught me not to reinvent the wheel.  Don't spend effort redoing everything.  Use what you have and be creative.  

As you have read this blog you may be thinking, "Your ideas are nice and all, but when will I have time to redo all of my plans for the year to fit in yet one more project."  My answer is:  You may not have time.  However, digital storytelling and dynamic media are a wonderful tool.  The best part is your students, for the most part, already know how to use them and do daily.  

What are you already doing where you can fit these tools in?  What units are you teaching that need work anyway?  Don't we all tweak what we are doing each year?  How can digital storytelling and/or dynamic media make what you are doing better?  

  

Promoting

• How can the use of digital storytelling and dynamic media promote the development of understanding in the classroom?

Think back to your foundations of education classes.  Mine was mostly in the dark with only the light of an overhead projector to illumine my notebook paper as I hurriedly took notes on the history of education.  Our professor had taught the course one to many times and I believe she had all the information memorized.  I am also pretty sure she hardly inhaled as she recited all the necessary information we needed to know.  Ironically, one of the concepts I hastily scribbled down was Bloom's Taxonomy.  Remember this?

Or a revised version... this?

Our goal as teachers is to ask our students to spend time in the highest levels of thinking.  Students will learn, remember, but more importantly understand best if we employ the highest level of thinking.  While good teachers may still ask their students to take notes in class, they do not rely on note-taking and memorization as the only means for learning.  They have their students take the information, and like a ball of clay in a student's hands, rework it to produce something new.  

Much like fingerprints on a clay vessel, often when a student reworks the information to produce something new, the student works a bit of himself or herself into the product. Therefore, they are much less likely to lose what they have learned as they "own it" now.  They have seen the information from many different angles, explored it, and made it their own.  

Digital storytelling and dynamic media do just this in our classrooms.  They give us a tool to help our students own the information we present to them.  Creating digital stories and participating in dynamic media cause students to dwell in the highest levels on thinking... just where we want them.

Check out the following article for more information on the impact of digital storytelling and student learning...

"Digital Storytelling:  Helping Students Find Their Voice"

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Churches, Andrew.(April 1, 2008). [Bloom's Taxonomy]. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/studies-in-ed-tech/0020/blooms-taxonomy-blooms-digitally/44988

Churches, Andrew.(April 1, 2008). [Bloom's Taxonomy Revised]. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/studies-in-ed-tech/0020/blooms-taxonomy-blooms-digitally/44988