Thing 4: Digital Storytelling UPDATED

Thing 4: Digital Storytelling

Although I did this topic way back in Cool Tools 1, I wanted to re-visit it since there are so many new tools and ideas that have been developed in the past couple of years. It also came at perfect timing because the 7th grade ELA teacher in my school just asked me to collaborate with him on a Digital Storytelling project! Of course I said YES! I immediately dove into Thing 4 to get some new ideas.

As recommended, I began with the article 6 Reasons You Should Be Doing Storytelling With Your Students.  I appreciated that the article reinforced the benefits of this sort of activity: it creates leadership in students through giving them initiative to be decision makers and problem solvers, it increases technological competencies and prepares students for tech careers down the road, and most importantly when working with my ELA7 students: “Digital storytelling is still writing. Whether it is a multi-day project or a storyboard created in ten minutes, the process for digital storytelling is the same as any other project:”

• Brainstorm
• Plan
• Create
• Revise
• Edit
• Publish
• Reflect

Additionally, digital storytelling encourages creativity and can produce a final project that is easily collaborated on and shared out, all while providing an alternative means of assessment.

I then went back to the Thing 4 assignment list of resources, and the article The 5 Rules of Digital Storytelling Every Teacher Should Know About  next caught my eye. The TED talk by Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy Story and WALL-E, talks about some of these rules in The clues to a great story. I shared this video with the ELA7 teacher as well, and then checked out the infographic that went with it:

The infographic seemed like it’d be a handy reference, so I printed out a color version to have handy during the upcoming project.

The Teacher’s Guide to Digital Storytelling was my next stop, since I was still looking for specific ideas on how to use digital storytelling with the students. I liked how this article immediately referenced the meaningfulness of this tool, stating “Teaching critical thinking and creativity in writing can be a difficult task, but it is crucial in preparing students to meet the standards of the Common Core. Digital storytelling is a highly effective technique for doing so, as it requires a clear organization of thought, discipline, and problem solving skills — all of which can translate directly into more traditional essay writing.”  This would be a great article to share with administrators who are interested in learning more about the value of digital storytelling in the academic curriculum.

Sorry for the long “copy and paste” from the above article here, but I wanted to keep this list handy for future reference, since I really like some of these ideas and definitely want to revisit them:

Digital Storytelling Lesson Ideas

1. Dream Scenes. Have students write a narrative essay about what they’d like to be when they grow up. Then have them draw digital pictures to animate their vision and put it all together in a YouTube video.
2. Animated Personal Narrative. Teach students how to write a personal narrative. Then help them turn that narrative into a storyboard, and finally have them put it altogether in an xtranormal animation.
3. Google Story. You know those (tear jerking) Google Ads, like the one that uses Gmail to tell a father’s story about his love for his daughter? Teach your students the epistolary format, and then have them write a Gmail story of their own, to be compiled via video or compressed into an illustrated PDF. Alternatively, use this Google search Parisian love story as inspiration. Have students brainstorm plotlines, write an outline, and flesh it out with the magic of Screencast-O-Matic and Google search.
4. Historical Slide Show. Have your students pick a favorite figure from history and write their biography. Then have them scour the web for Creative Commons images that are relevant to their project, distill the biography down into its essential parts, and put it all together in a shareable Slideshare presentation.
5. Book Trailer. Who needs a run-of-the-mill book review when you could have a book trailer? Trailers should help students practice their critical reading and analysis skills, while also developing their constructions of arguments and use of rhetoric as they battle to convince their classmates to read their book next.
6. How To Guide. Every student has a secret talent. Have students describe theirs in a straightforward YouTube video, laying out each step in logical sequence. This is an especially effective lesson for more hands-on students who struggle with writing and need a more intuitive connection to a physical skill as they learn to lay out steps logically.
7. Two Sides of the Story. Sick of the regular old persuasive essay? Assign students a controversial topic. Then have them research arguments supporting both sides, and put it all together in a video, presentation, or infographic that must devote air time to articulating a clear thesis for both sides of the story.
8. Family or Community History Project. Send your students out to interview and record members of their family or community about their past. Then challenge them to put this together into a podcast, video, or newscast, reviewing all that’s come before.

I also enjoyed checking out some of the sample projects included in the list, such as “Don’t Let the Pigeon be the the Principal” book trailer and some of the teacher guide links, and appreciated the “ready to go” list of Creative Commons image libraries. They definitely make it easier to convince students not to simply “steal” from Google images (of which I’m guilty of myself!). I will bookmark my favorites from the list and use them as my “go to” image libraries when teaching lessons that include photos.

Of all of the options I looked through, Adobe Spark’s “Tell a Story” option seemed the perfect place to start considering the project I hope to do with the 7th grade English classes. I loved the animated story examples! I decided to have one of my current students test out Adobe Spark for me as part of his author study project. It turned out to be very easy to use. Here is the link to my 6th grader’s author study presentation: https://spark.adobe.com/video/aWANgawUBrzrG

I can’t wait to try this out with the ELA7 classes in late March! Another great “thing”!

Thing 26: Makerspaces

Thing 26: Makerspaces

Before starting this “thing”, I had some basic understanding of what a makerspace is. I’ve attended a workshop on how to get started with them in my school library, but still didn’t quite grasp how to really implement this sort of space into my middle school library.

I started out by reading the article “What is a Makerspace?” to see if I could gain a better understanding. Most of the information was general, including the links to helpful tips. I did appreciate the different sections on multi-literacies, participatory learning, professional standards, and setting up a makerspace. However, I still didn’t feel this article helped me with gaining insight into how to actually implement a makerspace in my school library.

That being said, I moved on to the next article on Edutopia: Fostering Creativity With Makerspaces.  This article also had helpful hints, broken down into the following sections, complete with a photograph example for each tip:

1- Find the space: the library can work because it should be the hub of learning, open all day, and already monitored by staff.

2- Find the money: Write as many grant proposals as possible.

3- Find the tools: filled with tools that students wanted and tools to get the students thinking.

A few things that have been popular in other makerspaces and ended up being used immediately included:

1. Makerbot.3D printer
2. Ideapaint on a wall (students can write directly on it)
3. Makey Makey is a great tool to get kids thinking about programming
4. Chromebooks so students can access work from home

4- Find the Students

There are students that have been waiting for a space like this our school. The minute word got out that a makerspace was going in, those students started hanging out in the library. Use the school newspaper, put something on the announcements, hang fliers in the hallway, visit classrooms, and do anything else you can think of to get students talking about the space. They're the ones who will make or break the space. Promoting the creativity aspect will make a difference. A makerspace is a great place to get away from the standardized testing and try something new and exciting. Maker contests are another way to bring kids in. We hope to run one per semester. Once the students populate the space, the rest will take care of itself.

Having already a good sense of the “what and why”, I decided to move on to the next section of suggested reading articles, hoping the “planning and how to” articles would be more of what I was looking for to help me get started.

I started with the article “Setting Up Your Own Makerspace”, and WOW! It was an amazing resource on how to actually get up and running - and was exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for! The author’s own school website, http://lc.liberty.k12.mo.us/MakerSpace itself has a plethora of information to help new MakerSpaces get started. I will definitely refer back to this webpage when I’m at that point in the process with my own school library’s MakerSpace!

I decided to reach out to Shannon Mersand, a library media specialist who does MakerSpace presentations, and ask her for specific ideas. We communicated via e-mail and I was able to get a lot of tips, including asking our tech department to save laptop boxes (kind of like pizza boxes) for me to use in my MakerSpace to store “in progress” students projects and setting up a dry erase table in the MakerSpace area to simplify student project planning.  I plan to implement many of her tips!

• How do makerspaces connect with learning? How do the fit in schools and libraries?
  I think MakerSpaces help students connect with learning by offering a variety of tools from which they can learn. MakerSpaces can fit into school libraries in lots of ways: offering students a place to visit during lunch/study hall/after school periods; in collaboration with robotics club advisor, and possibly other subject area classes as well.
  
• What do students gain from making?
  Hands-on creation makes learning more memorable and engaging. It also offers skills that students might not necessarily be able to practice in other classes.
  
• What sort of makerspace might you create in your school?
  I’m in the process of setting one up this year.  I have 9 dedicated shelving units with plastic bins that I label.  Right now I have everything ranging from glue sticks & construction paper to a couple of K’Nex and circuitry sets to a pair of OzoBots.  Now it’s just continuing to learn how to actually use them and implement them into the school program.
  
• How would you justify your plans to your school administration?
  I’m fortunate to have a very supportive administration, and using the explanations above, supported by some of the articles and websites included in this “thing”, I would be in excellent shape if asked to justify this space in our school library.

Thing 23: Infographics & Data Visualization

To begin, I compared the data visualization vs infographic examples to make sure I understood the difference between the two things.

• 20 Inspiring Childrens Book quotes – Infographic
• Annual Library Usage Compared to Per Capita Expenditures –data visualization

I am still preparing for my upcoming Board of Ed presentation, so I considered that when selecting a topic for my project. Since we are in our first year with increased library staffing (3 full-time library media specialists), I decided it’d be important to show how circulation has increased since this change. As K-12 Coordinator of Library Services for my District, I have access to many reports for each of my four school libraries. I wanted to learn how to create a data visualization that encompasses all four schools, and hopefully reflect an increase of usage/circulation.

To get started, I explored some of the resources listed in this “Thing”:

“Dissecting an Infographic ” was interesting and one I might use with my students to show how even the most “official” or realistic looking graphics may still be deceiving. Only the most perceptive people may notice the publication date, which proved to be critical to the accuracy of the information regarding plane crashes & deaths in a given year. Creating content in March and making a claim for the entire year is rather premature (and inaccurate!).

“Infographics Lie. Here’s How To Spot The B.S.” was also a helpful tool and one that I may take content from for my own classes. I particularly noted the importance of the quote: “time and time again we have seen that data visualizations can easily be manipulated to lie. By misrepresenting, altering, or faking the data they visualize, data scientists can twist public opinion to their benefit and even profit at our expense.”  So important for the public to remember!

The Complete Guide to Creating Infographics for Non-designers was very helpful. At first I almost stopped exploring it due to the rather dry beginning, but am so glad that I decided to skim down a bit. The “quick snapshot of services” was easy to read through and explore.

I also started following the #slscooltools “conversation on Twitter and instantly found some great infographics to share. My eye was drawn to the post called: 7 Characteristics Of Teachers Who Effectively Use Technology http://buff.ly/2jNb3PG  #slscooltools and I retweeted that out to my followers. I found the information to the point and relevant to teachers sometimes struggling to include technology in their curriculum.

To create my own infographic, I thought about what information would be helpful to share. Rather than create a report like I had at first thought about doing, I decided to create an infographic for an upcoming Board of Education presentation I am doing. To do so, I decided to use Venngage to create a basic infographic using one of their “beginner” templates. I created a free account and watched the tutorial. Venngage seemed pretty easy to use, so I moved forward and created an infographic called “K-12 Library Program: Increasing Student Achievement: Three Primary Roles”. It was super easy to use their template, and I was able to figure out how to bring in images fairly easily. The most challenging part was getting a printable version, as the ability to export/download your work in Venngage is only possible if you purchase an upgraded account. This was disappointing, as I wanted a printable copy to share as a handout during my presentation. I used the vendor’s “chat now” feature to inquire about printing options, and was instantly replied to by a helpful customer service agent. She provided me with a “one time courtesy” PDF file that I successfully downloaded and printed. I really like Venngage and send the Educator pricing information to my District Technology Director in hopes of having the district pay for a subscription next year! I can see myself using this tool with students when studying infographics as part of my Digital Literacy course; and maybe even having them create their own on various topics. Thanks for exposing me to this great tool! Here is the URL for the infographic I created:

https://infograph.venngage.com/p/216617/k-12-library-program-mcsd