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Who I Am/Why I Write: Digital Stories

as Participation in Learning

Dr. Chris Fosen

Dr. Kim Jaxon

English Department CSU, Chico

Digital Stories =

??

Any Questions??

From one of Julia's freewrites:

I guess overall my writing life has been mostly talk with very little action. Why? I have no idea [. . .] I guess my inner writer is self conscious. I wish that it had a better vocabulary, better grammar, better spelling, more creativity and anything less than brilliant is just embarrassing. But I'm getting off topic.

What will my Digital Story tell about me? That I never finish what I start? I don't see my inner writer that way. I think my inner writer is just too dependent but has great potential. [ . . .] I remember when I was four my mom signed me up for ballet and whenever I would complain about how hard it was she would take me out of the class and then when I wanted to go back, she would sign me up again, this happened about three times: quitting, restarting, quitting, restarting, etc. (I never did go to my recital.) Since then, I think I've been afraid to fail and when things become difficult I find it easier to retreat than persevere. This mentality translates into my writing. My inner writer needs a clean slate, to take (greater) risks, to explore. I hope to achieve some of these goals through this class and this assignment.

Other examples:

  • One student told the story of her engagement with books with clips featuring Disney princesses.
  • Another discussed his frustration with teacher grading using the bunker scene from "Downfall." He cast "himself" as Hitler.

Not just writing with a few added features!

Multimodality

Schools and universities are “staunchly logocentric, book centered, and essay driven, invested as are most educators in the versions of meaning making whose value they know best and committed as are many educators to sharing the languages and modes of power” (Hull & Nelson, 2005).

Affordances

What kinds of learning or participation could a new design or mode enable?

What kinds of learning or participation might it undermine?

“What, in this environment, with this kind of audience, with these resources that are available for implementing my design, given these social, economic, ‘political’ constraints, and with my interests now at this moment, is the best way of shaping that which I wish to make, whether as ‘message’ or as any object (of design)?” (Kress, 2004)

Ways of analyzing multimodal texts

Texts give us insight into the makeup of the social world.

Learning Goals:

  • access to workplace skills
  • collaboration
  • access to symbolic capital
  • development of a multilayered voice
  • civic pluralism, engagement
  • increased critical or meta-cognitive awareness
  • practice with new, culturally valued forms of expression
  • critical literacy
  • ownership or empowerment
  • advocacy and "increased civic voice”
  • the use of a variety of communicative tools to make meaning

Potential Assessment Criteria:

  • message appropriately shaped for the rhetorical situation (purpose,audience, context)
  • student gained new understanding of communicating effectively
  • student gained new understanding of utilizing technology medium/s for communicating
  • message had impact for audience/s
  • student designed message with unique combinations of modes or materials
  • message utilized many persuasive strategies
  • message involved readers with interactive elements
  • message was communicated clearly
  • message foregrounded a strong point or presence

Continuing the Discussion

How could faculty across the disciplines use digital texts as a tool to increase engagement, foster community, start a public conversation?

What questions do you have for us about "teaching" digital texts?

Thank you

Writing Images Color Music Voiceovers Title Pages

Arrangement Cuts Interplay

Ways of Assessing Multimodal Texts

What do I learn about the social world from this text?

What are the affordances of these modes?

What identities do digital stories project, and how?

How are all these different modes used? To what effect?

What assumptions are made about the reader/viewer?

Stories

Digital

What is recognizable? Are there standard conventions?

??

Ways of Crafting Multimodal Assignments

The Assignment

A Variety of Genres:

Autobiographical narratives

Social critiques

Public service announcements

Reenactments

Animations

Reports

Biographies, oral histories

Variety of Purposes:

Argue for some social change

Interpret a pivotal moment or key event

Represent a place, space, or community

Preserve history

Reflect on course texts

Reach, inform, or influence a wider audience

Report findings of some primary research

Monica Chinn

Process Memo:

What I am trying to accomplish with this piece to show how my reading and writing has changed from when I was in elementary school. I enjoyed reading a lot more when I was younger because I was able to read fun books and not have to worry about catching little details to write an analysis essay. I also liked writing because I had creative freedom. I did not have to follow a “concrete detail, commentary, commentary” format. I am trying to say that my reading and writing has become more serious because of school. But I also do a lot of writing online, like Facebook messages or emails to keep in touch with my family, which is something I never did when I was younger.

I feel like it is important to notice how many pictures I have of myself reading when I was younger. There are so many pictures of me reading by myself or to reading to others when I was little, but there are no pictures of me reading when I’m older. It’s sad that I don’t get to read out loud to people anymore. Another thing you should keep an eye out for is the end sequence. I worked hard on the end picture sequence and I’m proud of myself…I’m such a nerd :-)

One of the challenges I had with this assignment was that I didn’t even know where to begin. I had a lot of ideas in my head, but I just didn’t know how to combine them to make a movie. I also had the challenge of figuring out iMovie. It was a fun challenge though; I liked playing around with the program. I also found it hard to pick the right music. At first I had a song with lyrics, but they started competing with my voice, so I went with an instrumental song.

I would love feedback on if I answered the question correctly in my video. I don’t know if you are looking for more on why I write now, rather than when I was younger. I also would like to know if the audio is okay and it isn’t drastically going soft and then loud, and then soft again. Thanks for watching my video!

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