Confessions of a Digital Storytelling Teacher

The use of digital technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two decades and its rapid growth will continue to amaze even the most innovative thinkers.  In Jason Olher’s book, Confessions of a Digital Storytelling Teacher (2013), he reflects on the use of technology in the classroom since the early 80’s with the introduction of the personal computer.   Here are a few of his insights:

 

• It is the special responsibility of the teacher to ensure that the students use the technology to serve the story and not the other way around.

• Learning communities are storytelling communities.

• Stories help us make sense out of the chaos of life.

• Story provides a powerful metaphor, framework and set of practical processes for resolving issues, educating ourselves and pursuing our goals.

• Stories help us remember.

• Digital stories allow today’s students to pursue academic content in their own language or modality.

• Digital stories combine traditional and emerging literacies, engaging otherwise reluctant students in literacy development.

• Digital story creation offers an effective means to teach media literacy and skills that are transferable to other endeavors.

• Digital storytelling helps students develop creativity and innovation skills needed to solve important problems in imaginative ways.

• Teachers are needed to assist students with both the technology and the guidance to tell stories with clarity and humanity (Ohler, 2013). 

 

His insights into the use of digital storytelling are helpful in framing this mode of learning for assessment purposes.  Unfortunately, many people believe that the simple use of technology in education should somehow make students smarter, but this is like saying the when students use the pencil it makes them smarter.   Yet as this debate wages on our students are becoming more engaged with digital devices both for recreational and academic use.   Currently, our educational system is not keeping up in assisting students in how to use these technologies for demonstrating skills, creativity and literacies for real world practices.  For our students to be competitive in the global economy educators need to recognize that learning how to understand and create new media is an important relevant skill (Pink, 2006).

 

Ohler (2013) gives three compelling reasons to assess new media.  The first is that new media still consist of old media.  Reading and writing is very much a part of the new literacies production process and can provide a way to motivate students to engage in traditional literacy.  Secondly, new media has become part of what it means to be literate.  Teaching new media needs to be approached in a proactive, instead of in a reactive way that will eventually lead to a scenario of playing catch up.  Finally, more learning opportunities are becoming readily available outside of the formal educational structure.  Students can bypass parts of traditional school to find other sources of information, education and social interaction.  The educational system is at a critical crossroad in having to decide whether to choose to become part of the technical ecosystem and guide students through the perils of technology or letting them find their own way.

 

One major question that arises is how do teachers go about assessing student’s learning with the use of new media.  Fortunately, Ohler (2013) gives some insight into a practice he has developed over his years of working with digital storytelling.  He does recommend the use of rubrics for transparency of grading, however he warns about this structure being too restrictive for a creative, subjective process.  He has created a list of ideas that are useful when one is assessing digital stories. Below are his ideas to keep in mind when evaluating a digital story:

 

• Set clear goals

  • Does the story meet the guidelines of the assignment?

• Assess the story

  • Are storytelling principles used effectively?

• Assess all of the artifacts created to develop the story           

  • How is the written part of the story?

• Assess the planning and the process              

  • Were the planning skills demonstrated throughout the process?

• Assess media grammar and use of media

  • Does the media support or distract from the story?

• Assess understanding and presentation of the content

  • Did the student demonstrate understanding of the material?

  • Was it presented in a way to show that to the audience?

• Assess any teamwork/collaboration and use of resources

  • What was the level of involvement with the team and resources?

• Assess the final performance

  • Did the final project achieve what it was meant to accomplish?

• Self-assessment or peer assessment can be useful

  • The use of a reflective piece around personal or peers work is a critical part of the creative growth process (Ohler, 2013).

 

As new media is destined to be the future, the choice to be actively engaged in creating assessments for new media or to let this opportunity just pass by will need to be made by educators.  The more proactive educational institutions are to accept the need for new media assessment the more prepared students will be to enter the environment in which they live.