Issues to consider when students create stories in your classroom
The proposal that students work to create digital stories may strike you are a great opportunity for your classroom. Here are some additional observations related to such activities.
Quality - What will you regard as a quality product? Will the focus be on the quality of the presentation, the quality of the communication, or the quality of the information the story communicates? Your answer, in part, will likely depend on what you see as the essential skills and knowledge you feel responsible to help your students develop. A history teacher asking her students to create historical fiction would likely have a different perspective than the English teacher engaging his students in the study of literature.
If we have a suggestion here, the issue we would raise would address the quality of the presentation. We place high value on the process of content creation and less emphasis on the polish attached to the appearance of the final product. Our concern relates to the issue of efficiency we have raised elsewhere. Taking a product such as a short video as an example, the time that can be invested in the details of editing can be immense and we would suggest there is a diminishing return on the educational value of the time invested. There is time required in learning the techniques and there is time even when the techniques are mastered in applying them. One educational advantage in using simple tools is that the tools limit the techniques that can be applied (see Explain Everything).
Digital storytelling could take on many formats. However filmmaking seems a popular proposal. In advocating classroom storytelling, Ohler (2008), for example, is mostly describing the development of video products. In keeping with the general theme of efficiency, it might also be helpful to note that the advocates (Ohler, 2008; Theodosakis, 2009) are typically describing examples that are short - well under five minutes.
Assessment - Clear communication of what will be assessed will influence what is emphasized and how a project is understood. In the case of projects, it may be helpful to identify and assess artifacts or tasks that are part of the process leading up to the creation of the final product. Consider that the background research and related analysis may provide a good part of the content-area benefit of a project. A story shaped from this background integrates multiple skills and the creative process of communication with what may have been learned.
Educational implementations of storytelling, for example the tasks required in the Theodosakis (2009) filmmaking process, would allow the examination of documents or presentations in addition to the final product. For example, one task requires a team to “pitch” their concept for the proposed video. Another task could require the submission of a script. Either task could be used to determine whether the team had developed an understanding of concepts at the core of their proposed product. If necessary, further preparation could be required.
A rubric provides a convenient way to communicate tasks and expectations and to then evaluate accomplishments. If the pitch for a documentary is to be based on the integration of information from three sources, the rubric might specify that notes to accompany the pitch must include summaries based on three quality sources.
Responsible behavior - Technically, and we guess this means legally, what we are describing here is “publication”. Others may not go this far, but if you create content for use by others it would seem possible to describe this as publication. Classifying something as a publication should involve the acknowledgement of certain responsibilities. First, and this may surprise you, you should probably consider what implications there are for you in dealing with the publications of your students. Sharing publications online should respect the rights of the creator. Do students agree to have their products shared? Of course, since your students are likely also minors, what do the parents or guardians think? Your school may or may not have asked parents to sign a release form. You need to find out.
Then, there is the matter of the content students may want to incorporate into their projects. We strongly encourage students to create/capture their own content. This was one of reason for some of the topics in “Desktop and online tools for working with images, sound, and video“. The one area in which using content created by others is typically the biggest problem is music. Students want to use music. Students especially want to use music when the project has an emotional component as is so often the case with stories. However, it also seems fair to say that the creative artists who create the music we enjoy and the companies that support them are protective of their content. While we understand “fair use” guidelines to allow 30 seconds of music in the context of your classroom, we would not recommend that you use commercial music when sharing products online. We discuss copyright free and creative commons resources in “Responsible use of technology”. Issues of copyright and fair compensation for creative people are very important. What better place to learn about important issues than your classroom?
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Resources: We have not made the effort to delve deeply into the specifics of teaching the storytelling process as unique from the more general model of hypercomposition we provide. If you have a specific interest in storytelling, we would recommend the books we have already cited and the following online resources.
Alexander and Levine - Web 2.0 Storytelling - we cite the work of Alexander. This a web site focused on storytelling developed by Alexander and colleague.
DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories
Discovery Education - Hub For Digital Teachers - Storytelling
JasonOhler.com - this is the online site associated with the book we site in our analysis of classroom storytelling.