Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Jason Ohler on Digital Literacy & Digital Storytelling #iste11

These are my notes from Jason Ohler’s 2011 ISTE presentation, “New Media, New Literacies: Educational Transformation through Digital Creativity.” MY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS ARE ALL IN CLASS. THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME TO EVER HEAR JASON PRESENT! WOW! HE IS HIGHLY ENTRALLING AS A PRESENTER AND SUPER THINKER / EDUCATIONAL CHANGE AGENT

http://www.jasonohler.com/resources/handouts.cfm

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm

we need to value writing!

Good media is based on good writing, if it ain’t on the page it ain’t on the stage

Adopt art as the 4th art: the foundational media literacy today requires us to be artists today
– that girl weds to wield a pencil and photoshop to be media literacy

Follow the DAOW of literacy
– digital
– art
– oral
– written

The attitude is the aptitude

Don’t get attached to the stuff on hour desktop, if you have a good attitude toward learning you are the new intelligent person

very little media out there is the product of individual effort
– social Book by Jason:

don’t fool yourself that the world of innovation is going to take a week off at some point

video of synthetic life announcement by J. Craig Venter Institute
http://www.richardprins.com/2010/05/ted-craig-venter-unveils-synthetic-life/

the legal buck stops with the school board
– most school boards are playing whack a mole with augmented reality, cyberbulling, sexting, etc
– this is the new reality

character education for digital kids is key
– it used to be normal to have character education: Plato to Eisenhower
– somewhere in the 60s we got weird about foisting our values on others
– we lost the idea that it’s ok to talk with kids about values

now we force kids to sign a piece of paper that says “I promise to be good” when I go online

mission statement for a school: Students will study the personal, social and environmental impacts of every technology and media application they use in school.”
– who does this in school

every technology connects and disconnects
– microwave is an example
– connects are shiny and fun
– disconnects we find out about them later after technology becomes embedded

MY THOUGHT: WHAT TECHNOLOGY WANTS DISCUSSES THESE AS 2ND AND 3RD ORDER EFFECTS

example: microwave has helped do away with the family dinner
– that gives us more time, more after school activities
– sign: old houses have dining rooms, new houses have feeding troughs attached to the kitchen and entertainment centers

I love talking to kids about these issues
– you have to jolt them out of their thinking (the invisibility of these issues)
– example: digitally retouching photos and how ubiquitous this is

MY THOUGHT: JASON REMINDS ME A LOT OF IAN JUKES, FAST PACED PRESO, FILLED WITH GREAT IDEAS AND STATS, VERY CHALLENGING (IN A VERY GOOD WAY!)

I used photoshop 2.0 (without layers) to digitally doctor a photo

Fluency not just literacy

Great book: Digital Storytelling in the Classroom – New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity

http://www.corwin.com/booksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book229157

we need to harness both report and story: embrace story!
– author says kids start school knowing the genre of story as an information container
– it has problems that make you lean forward and want solutions, invites you emotionally into the information set
– most kids come to school understanding the story form, but they come to school and we start giving them information in list format
– kids want the story of the information you are presenting

I prefer “new media narrative” to digital storytelling

digital storytelling advice: leave the clicks and the tricks to the kids
– convince them it’s not – be the guide on the side not the technician magician

Kids need us to set standards of quality for media production
– we are so scared to tell kids when their movie isn’t good
– I am not afraid of that

by and large we give kids an “A” for anything that moves on the screen

we deconstruct movies we see at the theater all the time, we’re not movie producers, directors, actors, etc
– we are critical consumers of the media in our lives
– by and large we don’t do this with our students, and we need to desperately You need to evaluate everything that goes into a media production
– innotivity, creatical thinking (no typo here)
– more

I’m going to show you a few stories now… to explain what it is I want Don’t use storyboards with students, they are BAD
– I think storyboards just make sure your boring stories flow logically
– I have an alternative to storyboards which I think works much better

“William Tell and the Young Girl Who Could Fix Computers…”

Good stories have to have an extended problem
– every story that really engages you has transformation

three things you need in every story
– beginning
– transformation
– end

If you ever want people not to zone out when they watch images on a screen, give students a question to think about AFTER the video clip
– you want kids leaning forward and listening intently / with focus

this video we saw had a problem (ball didn’t roll at first, it just moved to the side)
– a story involves emotional connection

2nd example: Brady

the antithesis of a good story is a slideshow of someone’s vacation: there is nothing original about that, there is no thinking about that
– student created a story about how he overcome his fear before an operation
– teachers said: before this project the student could just write sentences, after the project he can write paragraphs

I tell kids “we’re not going to write, we are going to media script”
– I connect our activities to a movie
– this works

I see all the time: Green screen storytelling I get kids to move with their words before they go to words / paragraphs
– I’m sure there is a good neural explanation of that
– we can use new media to improve old media

“How Jessica Become Happy”
– this is a story about cochlear implant for a student in Mexico

MY COMMENT: THIS IS A VERY EMOTIONAL VIDEO FOR ME TO WATCH BECAUSE OF A FAMILY FRIEND WHO MOVED TO OKLAHOMA CITY TO GET A COCHLEAR IMPLANT

Next video no time to share: Reluctant leader

Creating media and sharing it with teachers as administrators is a game changer

MY COMMENT: THIS IS A STRATEGY MARCO TORRES LIKES TO USE WITH ADMINISTRATORS AS WELL AS TEACHERS, “THE B ROLL” VIDEO (SHOW OTHERS AN ASPECT OF YOUR PERSONAL SIDE)

Have your administrators lead with the gear

Other stories we don’t have time to share today: Carl, Alesia, Mike G, Alli, King John, Global warming, Kenya, La Oficina, 1/2 meet 1/3, Local history, Artist within

Traditionally we story board, I say story map

Brett Dillingham developed this originally

You can look over a student’s shoulder and can tell in 30 seconds if that story is going to work

then move to a two column story table

you don’t want kids to just say “I need a dog” and then Google dog photos
– that is not how professional mediasts create stories

great assignment for students: watch any professional movie and What do teachers want from administrators: CARES
Compensation
Assistance


Support risk, pilots

teachers really want the last one: principal to go to the school board for them, when they want to use a wiki to teach science the principal supports them

going to bat against the IT department

I tell administrators: “Your IT department works for YOU”

last piece of advice: turn concerns into goals
– a concern is just a negatively framed goal

don’t let someone else’s concerns stop you from moving forward

Digital makeup is coming
– I don’t like videoconferencing, I like audio conferencing
– we will have feigned attention, canned laughter
– how does it work?

Book Digital Storytelling in the Classroom just become a Corwin bestseller

Go tell your story!

Sent from my iPad

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4 responses to “Jason Ohler on Digital Literacy & Digital Storytelling #iste11”

  1. ? Stephen Ransom Avatar

    Thanks for capturing all of this, Wes!

  2. Kmalsbenden Avatar
    Kmalsbenden

    I had Jason Ohler come to NH back in 2007. He was well received and very accommodating. My teachers stated that he gave new life to their approach to writing. I’m so glad he’s presenting at ISTE and sharing his knowledge.