Final Project

Final Reflection

Digital storytelling offers the potential to support transformative global citizenship education (Truong-White & McLean, 2015, P1),  and when these tools are given to the students they can take my example and create stories of their own (ISTE 1.7.a, 1.7.b, 1.6.a, 1.6.c). The general consensus among scholars is that global citizenship education equips learners with skills, values, and knowledge to navigate in an independent world and work collectively to global problem solving tasks. Digital storytelling was not, at the time of publication, mainstream within K-12 classrooms. In my own experiences, between 2018 and 2024, more technological tools have been incorporated within curriculum at the collegiate level than they were when I began college in 2015. Digital storytelling leads participants through a process of sharing lived experiences in a story circle that results in a blending of personal narratives with multimedia content (Truong-White & McLean, 2015, p.7). Within the community in which I will be living and teaching terms such as social justice, climate change, perpetuated injustices, are not terms that would be given much consideration. But the students have a desire for creating content in many formats and digital storytelling would be a good tool for them educationally, as well as personally in their own efforts to tell their stories. Participatory media can inspire individuals and develop better global citizens. One of the strengths of the Bridges program was the utilization of a virtual platform for interaction and group work. 

This experience has given me the opportunity to reach into other skills that I have to create meaningful stories that hopefully will resonate with my students and that they will see themselves within them. The stories do not need to be complex for them to be effective and the numerous tools I have at my disposal outside of the classroom married with whatever I may have access to within a classroom make it easier to present and provide my students with access to them. For students a tool like the one we used in week 2 would be great for students in a K-12 environment. I can see digital storytelling as a useful tool for collaborative or group projects with the ability for students to connect remotely to complete a group project. Perhaps it could be possible to spark interests in more global issues through digital storytelling like Garbages, or Your Carbon Footprint to get them to engage in critical thinking about solving global problems. It can help in defining the definitions of self (subjective) and social (collective) within the student body that then can be applied post graduation within their own communities and beyond them. It can also be beneficial in the development of Innovative Designers (ISTE 1.4.a, 1.4.b) where students are then creating their own processes for solving authentic problems. And Creative Communicators that have the skills to create original works or remixing other works to communicate complex ideas (ISTE 1.6.b, 1.6.c, 1.6.d).

Source:

Truong-White, H., & McLean, L. (2015). Digital Storytelling for Transformative Global Citizenship Education. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de L’éducation, 38(2), 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/canajeducrevucan.38.2.11

Hemlock Elementary By J. Lawrence Carter Available in Ebook by request.

https://read.bookcreator.com/NoX1sWv20kWiSFrnVsroKtvIoqE3/QtRnjVj3TdKqaIaYMdwlRQ

Empowering Learners

I’m uncertain of which of these would meet these proficiencies. When this process began it was from an idea that has been germinating since 2018 when I was completing my undergraduate in Art. Literacy proficiency has always been very important to me, and starting children reading early has been the drive behind this project. During the course of this project the idea has evolved from a children’s book with ink and watercolor on heavy toothed paper into what it will become by the end an eBook. If I were then to assign my students to create their own story digitally using my book as an example it provides the technical opportunity for them to explore editing software and expand upon their communication skills and further develop them. They are then provided with a platform for self expression to share their own stories and experiences. Collectively this can help serve marginalized and disempowered groups (Davis, et al. 2019, p319). These groups can then present to faculty and their peers stories that are oftentimes overlooked giving glimpses of truth where there might only have been veiled stereotypes from their native communities. Screen time because of the access to smartphones and tablets and their addictive qualities provides a tool to use their object of interest as a tool within education. The use of digital storytelling as a part of education has been growing in youth centers and afterschool programs (Davis, et al. 2019, p322). However I may argue with the “call to re-think the meaning of literacy” only because literacy and digital literacy are not quite the same. With students having high digital literacy skills but underdeveloped literacy proficiency, that they are connected but not the same things. 

Story telling being the act of sharing stories that get passed from one generation to another is traditional dating back to ancient Greece, it has evolved from oration, to written word, to printed word, and that evolution has continued into our digital age (Kubravi, et al, 2018, p787). This project supports the community in providing an alternative to traditional media and providing something that can be accessed anywhere at any time. This empowers students to access it on school approved devices, faculty and staff to provide this as an option for early educational literacy development curriculum, and families who oftentimes give their children screens to occupy their time to have an option that can foster their Childs development that is complimentary to what their teachers would be providing in school. There is the potential of digital storytelling to give students the opportunity to create emotional and conceptual connections between their classwork and life outside of school (Davis, et al. 2019, p323). My project may not provide students with the opportunity to tell their lived experiences through digital storytelling but it may present them with recognition and visibility within the story, and if they are under represented then I can correct that and write a student to meet that moment when it comes to pass. Students can then begin to develop critical thinking skills, motivate their learning progression, and empower them to take the tools they are already developing and give them additional tools they may already have some interest in. Providing students with the opportunity to engage in digital storytelling provides them with control of their voices, pacing, even the soundtrack should they be so inclined (Kubravi, et al, 2018, p787). Representation of rural students is often overlooked, they are marginalized from the overall conversation as they aren’t in the big cities that get all of the attention. This would be a tool that they would be able to utilize like other marginalized student groups in expressing their experiences. They would then produce digital artifacts that have the potential to reach beyond their own schools through technology and social media (Staley et al, p2). 

Digital storytelling does provide the opportunity for educators to create a bespoke curriculum that they can fine tune to their classroom situation and demographic make up. In my class I can take the digital story I have created and expand it to include other characters that relate to the culture of my students. If my students see themselves in the stories they are being told then they may feel they have more of a stake in the classroom and engage with the materials more. Researchers have suggested that digital storytelling has the potential to serve as a significant resource in the process of identity change and identity development (Davis, et al. 2019, p326). “An emerging body of qualitative research on the impacts of digital storytelling on identity sup-

port these findings from psychologists. Davis and Weinshenker (Davis, 2004; Davis & Weinshenker, 2012) described through detailed case studies how the day-by-day processes of script development,

revision, and eventual showing of digital stories before a supportive audience of peers were associated with positive re-constructions of self

with long term effects.” I know the focus of this exercise is 1.1 Empowered Learner, but it has the potential to expand well into 1.2 Digital citizen (1.1a, 1.2b), 1.4 Innovative Designer (1.4a, 1.4b, and 1.4d) (ISTE, 2016).

Story Planning Process.

1. Story Core
1. The hero’s problem is anxiety about interacting with new people. Miss Teacher is nervous about meeting her new class. She is human and they are monsters. Will they like her. During the course of the story she introduces herself to the class. 
2. As each student introduces themselves and tells Miss Teacher about themselves and their lives and families she sees that although they are very different, they are also the same in that they have families and their lives aren’t so different after all.
3. Through introductions and telling each other a little about their lives Miss Teacher overcomes her anxiety with her new class and she can’t wait until the next class together so they can start learning new lessons. 

2. Story Map and script

Miss Teacher is the first human in over 100 years to come to Hemlock Elementary to teach the monster children of Hemlock Heights. As she is coming up the mountain from the village she can see that the rocks of the buildings seem to glow with an eerie green illumination of some kind which is why from so far away it looks so creepy. As she enters the halls of the school she is wrestling with her doubts and anxiety. What if the children do not like her. What if she becomes scared, she has never taught little monsters before. Would she be welcomed within the class. Miss Teacher always feels nervous talking to new people that she has never met before. As she comes into the class she can see all the different faces sitting at their desks in her class. She tells the children her name and instructs the children to tell them her name and something about themselves to get to know each other. She calls on Manny Marsi to begin. Manny acknowledges the name presented on the paper but requests to be called Molly instead. Miss Teacher acknowledges Molly’s request and asks them to continue. Molly lives with their Mommy and Mummy. They make mummy wrappings and sell them in the village. Mommy makes the wrappings, and Mummy fixes the machine Mommy uses to make them. They live in the pyramid on the west side of town. Miss Teacher points to the next student. A little werewolf stands. Sammy Stein is Jewish and lives with his mom, dad, and 6 brothers. All of his brothers like to wrestle and fight all the time, but all Sammy wants to do is read. He wishes his brothers didn’t fight so much and read with him. The next student, Georgie Gillman, lives in the lagoon next to the cemetery. Georgie lives with his mother and sister, he has never met his father. His favorite time is summer because there is no ice on the lagoon and he can swim all day when he is not at school. Gina Gorganna lives with her mother and two aunts. Her dad was accidentally turned to stone and had to be moved into the cemetery. Gina shows off her glasses and head wrap that the Witch Doctor prescribed for her to wear because she has sensitive eyes and to protect anyone around her so that she doesn’t turn anyone to stone. Alex Abramovici lives with his dad east of the cemetery. His mother passed away when he was very young and his dad tells him she became the princess in the river. He was excited when his father tried to take him down into the village to go to the catholic church there but was sad when they were chased off by the villagers with torches and pitchforks. His father has talked about getting a church built for them up in Hemlock Heights and Alex might someday become a priest. He detests being dirty, and washes his hands often. Miss teacher is overcome with the sweetness and honesty of her students. She reintroduces herself and tells them that her favorite time of year is fall when the leaves all change color. She likes the chill in the air that comes after dark where she might need to wear a light sweater. She loves apple cider and pumpkin pie. Maybe someday she will get a cat. The students all get excited at the mention of her getting a cat and offer suggestions to get a black one or a calico one or a siamese one. The bell rings and it's time for the students to go to their Mad Science class. Before her students leave she tells them how she was nervous about class and how she hoped they would all like her and she cannot wait until their next class together. As the students file out into the halls she overhears how they like her and think she will be a good teacher. Standing in the empty classroom Miss Teacher is relieved and tells herself she shouldn’t have been worried, yes its scary talking to new people, but after you talk to them they aren’t strangers anymore and there was nothing to be scared about to begin with.

Rubric