K-12 Teacher Workshops

Workshop Series

Phase II Workshops Summary | Workshop Support Documents
Implementation Ideas | Intro to Digital Storytelling

Five new workshops are under development by the Mars Hill College AAM Partner. This introduction provides valuable insight into this new and exciting AAM workshop series.

Program Overview

AAM Digital Storytelling is a professional development program that enables AAM teachers to equip students with needed interviewing, writing, and organizational strategies.  It enables students to visually document their learning of core curriculum studies, and succeed in inquiry-based learning regardless of their ability or learning style.  Digital Storytelling not only enables students to find value in their own backyard, the program gives them a voice in the digital age by using the National Digital Library resources.  When a teacher is trained and the students have a voice, school takes on a whole new meaning.  

Goals of the Program

• Improve written, oral, and visual communication skills of teachers and students
• Increase collaborative learning between students and teachers
• Increase participation by female and minority students by bridging the gap in technology literacy.
• Integrate primary digital resources (American Memory) and technology with daily lesson plans
• Enable teachers to use digital primary resources and technology to measurably increase student achievement.

Program Delivery

The Digital Storytelling workshop program uses the immersion method of staff development: This method requires 20 hours of contact time during a semester (Level I) and a 20 hour advanced summer workshop

(Level II):

• Level I classes will meet three hours per week for four (4) weeks
• Level I will meet on Saturday morning immediately following the four weeks for 6 hours
• Each teacher in the class will produce a digital story
• MHC Digital Storytelling Team will provide support and evaluation throughout the following school year and the participating teacher will serve as mentor to another teacher and produce four digital stories.
• Level II training is adding digital video to the digital storytelling process.  It will take place during the summer following Level I training.
• Level II classes will meet three contiguous days for 20 hours of contact time.
• Level II classes will learn digital videography and editing.

Workshop Knowledge Base

Digital Storytelling is based on constructivist learning principles

(Classroom 2000 Project  http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/c2000/pubs/mm96/index.html). 

One will learn how to integrate student-centered projects and problem-based learning by doing three things:

• Mastering basic technology and digital resources use needed to handle the hardware and software commonly used
• Mastering and learning how to integrate strategies and proven lesson plans into your classroom
• Understand how to assess the results, and adapt the application of these strategies.

What one will learn during the hands-on portion of the workshop:

• Difference between analog and digital devices
• How to plan a digital picture and video production using a storyboard
• Help student set and meet project deadlines
• Organizational strategies
• Relating storyboarding to the writing process
• Concise pictures
• Effective combination of sound and pictures - "say dog, see dog" and other odd rules
• Rule of thirds/talking room/walking room
• Understanding how shot>scene>production relates to sentence>paragraph>story.
• Basic rules: wide/medium/tight, action/reaction, beginning/middle/end, KISS
• The art of the interview
• How to setup camcorders, lights and microphones to shoot video production
• Accurate documentation for field studies and technical processes
• Cool tools - how to make the most of technology in your school and Wal-Mart
• How to capture video using Pinnacle Studio Software
• Understanding basic edit theory
• Relating edit theory to writing skills
• Rubrics for assessment
• Building a community of storytellers in your classroom and school
• IVR - Instant Video Reflection - video as a "tool of the mind" to increase student reflections
• How to edit using Pinnacle Studio Software
• Understanding the difference between stored and streaming video
• Coaching and mentoring strategies
• Using the Self-Paced Learning Kit
• Reflection and sharing as a tool
• Digital resources (American Memory) as a classroom tool.

NCLB

There are a lot of education fads. Does No Child Left Behind do anything to prevent bad ideas or untested curricula from being used in my child's classroom?
The President's No Child Left Behind Act puts a special focus on doing what works. The new law stresses the importance of selecting instructional approaches that have a proven track record. For too many years, too many schools have experimented with lessons and materials that failed and have not proven effective.

What is scientifically based research?
To say that an instructional practice or program is research-based, we must have carefully obtained, reliable evidence that the program or practice works. For example, an evaluation might measure a group of children who are learning how to read using different methods, and then compare the results to see which method is most successful.

No Child Left Behind moves the testing of educational practices toward the medical model. Whenever the results of scientifically controlled studies (like clinical trials) are available, educators are expected to consider their results before making instructional decisions. Under the new law, federally funded education programs or practices must be based on evidence that validates their usefulness in achieving the stated outcome specified in law.

-from the NCLB.gov Web site FAQ.

An Adventure of the American Mind is made available through a Library of Congress grant funded by the U.S. Congress. AAM is administered through the Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas Inc.
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