Digital Stories...some thoughts about text....

The new minister at our church entitled his first sermon "Who and I?" He entitled his second sermon "It's not about me." In that spirit, I am going to take a wild leap and move past my personal stumbling block regarding technology. (I'm referring here to the fact that being required to do anything beyond word processing causes my sweat glands to open, my heart beat to accelerate, and my brain to sound a frantic "Mayday, Mayday!" alert.) It is the 21st century; the world is digital. The "new literacies" may not be just using technology to present the old literacies in innovative ways. Our students need to learn to "navigate information networks," locate, evaluate, and synthesize information, and communicate their conclusions to others. The world they inhabit is also multi modal. Images--graphs, charts, pictures, video--are not just enrichments or illustrations but part of the messages we send and receive. What does it mean to be literate in today's society? Mulling this over in the light of this week's readings, I decided that literacy now involves audience feedback and multimodal approaches.

When Erica Boiling studied the reactions of her graduate students to integrating technology and literacy in the classroom, she found that many of her students initially thought of technology as a way to spice up their traditional practice with high interest motivators rather than as a pedagogical strategy to engage and support student learning in fundamentally different ways. Boiling's graduate students/teachers had concerns about safety on the internet when blogging, the revelation of personal information on blogs, the time and planning such projects would take, etc. Like the guest speakers Boiling invited to speak to her classes, the articles in Newkirk's book showed how teachers have integrated technology into their practice. Sara Kajder, Dave Boardman, and Lisa Miller wrote about how blogging, podcasting, wikis, and digital stories (there were more!) could be used to motivate students to become real writers in the real world. The readings placed two words before me: feedback and multi modal.

When writing for podcasts, blogs, or wikis, students felt that they had something to say and cared about how they said it because someone was listening and responding to their work. Not the teacher only, but other students. They got immediate feedback on their work--something that rarely happens when typed assignments are turned into a teacher who has a hundred essays to grade. I was surprised that students cared about revising their work before publishing--and independently edited their work before reading it for the podcast or making the final selection of text for a digital story. It seemed that student's attached more meaning to digital assignments--not just because they got to use technology, but because it allowed them to express themselves in ways more meaningful to them. This is so difficult for me to really "get"--sending messages and images into cyberspace, sharing personal thoughts with people you've never met...these are inhibitors, not motivators for me. But my students were not raised in 1960, and the world they inhabit is a virtual world. Using interactive technology in the classroom gives teachers the opportunity to directly address internet safety and copyright issues. Change comes at lightning speed...this is the world kids live in and write in as well. One thing this course has make me realize how literacy is changing in the "flat world."

The second word from these readings is multimodal. I ushered for a lecture by Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi on Tuesday. Her "defense" of graphic novels and comics, of the power of the blend of image and text, of the difference between "illustrations" and a melding of two modalities was eloquent. Lisa Miller's and Dave Boardman's articles highlighted the rewards of having students composes digital stories--using images, video clips, voice overs, and text. Since every word counts in a digital story, it is similar to poetry in that it requires editing and careful word choice. Images and text must be closely linked to create the final project. This teaches imagery and literary techniques, the emotional affect of words and images...and since students are composing for an audience, the importance of voice. It forces students to refine (edit!!) their work because they care about the message and how it is received. I had a very different understanding of multimodal. Multimodal meant adding a "visual" to a speech or using powerpoint so the audience has a point of visual focus and reinforcement. When I think of Jane Austen, I think of curling up in a chair with a book, not renting a movie from Blockbuster. But as Marjane Satrapi said Tuesday night, a movie is fundamentally a different artistic expression than the book. Images and the thousand other decisions that go along with text and dialogue create a unified experience to which we respond. I guess I am ready to admit that students expect to experience and learn new things in a multimodal way; they want to express themselves in this way as well.

I can't close without confessing that the Miller article was completely intimidating. I skimmed the overwhelming parts, as there is no way that I could ever comprehend, let alone support others, in interfacing the programs needed to create a digital story. I can't imagine having the time to do that in a high school classroom setting. So personally, I'm reversing my "wild leap" as I know my limitations and digital stories are beyond my reach. But I do see the potential of really integrating technology in the classroom; it will be essential if schools are to meet our students in the "real world" and prepare them to be successful in the "real world." In many ways, while I wasn't looking, the "virtual" world has become the real world.

Barb