SITE
March 28, 2007
2007
San Antonio, TX
The Convergence of Digital Storytelling and
Popular Culture in Graduate Education
Bernard Robin
University of Houston
Combining Two College of Education
Graduate Courses:
Popular Culture & Digital Storytelling
 6-semester hour block – classes meet on the same day
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for four hours; half of the students go to Pop Culture
class first and other half go to DS class; flip after 2
hours
Many first year teachers enrolled
Students critically analyze issues and trends regarding
popular culture in education
Select popular culture topics for use in both courses
Create a digital story project on the pop culture theme
Popular Culture Themes
Art
The Berlin Wall
Fast Food
First Generation Americans
Heroes
Print Media
Guns and Violence
Hollywood’s Portrayal
of African Americans
September 11th
Terrorist Attack
The Palestinian Conflict
Marathon Running
Tattoos
Teen Pregnancy
The American Dream
Football
Television
Childhood Obesity
Vietnam
Race and Prejudice
Special Needs Children
Dealing with
Disease
Digital Storytelling Process
 Write the first version of their script
 Create and collect media (such as images, speeches,
interviews, music, video clips)
 Students used images from the web, scanned from
books, & taken with a digital camera
 Develop a storyboard
 Interview a content expert
 Record narration
 Add appropriate music (usually, but no always royalty-free)
 Write a Project Report
The Script
 Iterative versions
 Facilitated through the use of Small Group-Story
Circles
 students meet in small groups
 share their ideas for their stories
 read draft versions of their scripts aloud
 provide constructive criticism and suggestions that can be used to
improve the scripts and the overall plan for the final stories
 “Students that share their stories in our circles recognize a
metamorphosis of sorts, a changing, that makes them feel
different about their lives, their identities” – Joe Lambert, CDS
(2007)
 Was the case with our own students, many of whom were not
familiar with a story circle and had not participated in one.
Literature Circles
 De Craene (2006) suggests assigning specific roles to members of
a group to help keep students just beginning to use Digital
Storytelling on task.
 Discussion Director – leads the group discussion
 Summariser – provides a synopsis of the main ideas and
character generation
 Investigator – researches the topic for useful
background information
 Illustrator – creates visual sketches, concept maps, flow
charts, etc.
Storyboard
 Created in Microsoft Word; Revised this Semester
The Oral History Component
 Task: Interview someone who could add meaningful
material to the story
 Some students were very creative and conducted
“virtual interviews” with subjects who were
“unavailable” –such as Andy Warhol, John Lennon,
Ronald Reagan, Edward R. Murrow, etc.
 In one case, a student recorded a young man reading
the letters of her uncle, who was killed in Vietnam
Royalty-Free Music Sites
Magnatune https://magnatune.com
JamGlue
http://www.jamglue.com
ccMixter
http://ccmixter.org
Jamendo
http://www.jamendo.com/en
Royalty-Free Music from Magnatune
https://magnatune.com/artists/license/student?artist=Rob+Costlow&album=Sophomore+Jinx&genre=New+Age
Non-Commercial Use
No paid license is required for people creating new works for non-commercial use. You
must meet the LEGAL REQUIREMENT for "non-commercial use" as defined by the
Creative Commons License which governs all Magnatune MP3 files.
Please note that if you are a "non-profit institution" this does not necessarily imply that your use is "noncommercial". Please consult the license for details.
You must abide by the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike use restrictions placed by the license.
Common examples of uses we consider non-commercial are:
• anything a student makes while attending school (i.e. homework)
•demos, resume and other samples by individuals, even if they're being used to get a job or solicit
contracts (we assume you'll want to use our music at your job once you get one)
•films that are being shown in places where no admission fee is charged
•GNU/Berkeley/OSI licensed games or software that are given away for free (or included incidentally
inside a larger distribution, even in a pay-distribution)
•Remixes that are given away for free (we're active participants in CC Mixter)
•Podcasts and video blogs
Royalty-Free Music from Jamendo
Thanks for downloading this album!
Its free and legal distribution is done by jamendo:
http://www.jamendo.com/
On this website, you'll be able to:
- Write a review about this album, and check out all the other reviews already written
by members of our community.
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So feel free to visit jamendo, and help us promote free music!
Thanks again, have a great time listening to this album!
--The jamendo team.
Putting It All Together
• Microsoft Photo Story 3
• PowerPoint
• Adobe Premiere, Premiere Elements, After Effects
• Flash
Digital Story Project Report
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What is the main topic of your digital story?
Why did you select this topic?
Who is the intended audience?
Describe how this story might be used in an educational setting?
Briefly describe the process you went through in completing your story,
including:
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software programs used
where the content came from
what changed from early stages through completion
any other pertinent information
Describe the major challenges that you faced in creating this digital
story?
What were the most significant things you learned from completing
the final project?
Please add any other information you feel should be included in the
report.
Distributing the Completed Digital Stories
 .WMV file for playback on computer
 DVD for playback on computer or TV set
 Created with Sonic’s MyDVD Studio
http://www.estore.sonic.com/enu/photostory/default.asp
A Few of the Digital Stories
 http://coe.uh.edu/digitalstorytelling/2007
Justice or Just Us?
The American Dream
Television
Print Media
Vietnam
The Legacy
Feedback from Students
 Biggest Challenge -1
Each day as I look at my class I see the differences and
similarities amongst my students. I have been assigned the
inclusion class and as a first year teacher, it has been very
challenging. This is why I chose the topic of special needs
children. The most challenging part of creating this story was
hearing my student’s opinions about their special need. I have
since altered my demeanor towards my students and I now
understand that most of their needs are not their fault. Some
were born with special needs and others are the result of
environmental factors. Creating this digital story has made me a
better teacher overall because I have developed an in depth
connection with my students. We can move forward while
helping each other as we become more successful.
Feedback from Students
 Biggest Challenge -2
I think the most significant thing I learned in this class is that
doing an oral history and creating a digital story out of it is really
interesting, but very difficult and challenging. It is difficult to do
justice to the oral history and the person behind it. Doing such a
history is interesting because you are bringing together your own
viewpoint and beliefs with the person you are interviewing and
you are trying to produce a balance between them. I think the
most important things from this course are not necessarily
technological. They are mostly about valuing other people and
wanting to preserve their history in some way. It is also about
allowing your inner psychological feelings to have expression.
Feedback from Students
 Most Significant Things Learned -1
I now understand what it is like to create a digital story in an
organized and multiple-leveled fashion; therefore, my students
will be enriched by this experience as well because I can carry on
this learning with them. Because the actual content, the digital
story, was infused with something relevant to my life, teaching
and working, and some control over my learning was present,
the learning and acquisition of information was possible. We
always talk about making the learning applicable and relevant to
students’ lives, and I thank you for making this class one of those
venues.
Feedback from Students
 Most Significant Things Learned -2
The most significant thing that I learned from this course and
completing the final project is that digital storytelling can be a
powerful medium that can be utilized in the classroom. I am
looking forward to integrating this type of learning into my
classes. It’s not just a new and improved version of
PowerPoint…it is meant to tell a story and to encourage critical
thinking.
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-1
I would present this story to my class to model writing
the Personal Narrative. The first time my students
wrote a personal narrative they had a hard time
choosing a moment in their life that changed them.
Another part of this writing process that I hope to
convey better is the importance of detail. I have always
tried to analyze movie scenes to emphasize the
importance of detail and now I will have the entire
process of brainstorming, to writing to making a movie
of it to show my students.
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-2
I cannot wait to use digital stories in my teaching. I
think digital stories would be a great way for students to
show what they have learned about a particular subject.
It gets them to go beyond the basic reciting of
information for a test and actually put their knowledge
to use. They also get to show off what they can do,
which all of my students would love to do. I think their
parents would be very impressed as well.
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-3
I think this is a great project to have students engage in,
especially at the conclusion of a unit. It would be
interesting to have the students make a digital story of
their prior knowledge and then at the end of the lesson
they can make another story-comparing and
contrasting their exploration and learning.
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-4
My students can feely browse the site where our digital
stories will be posted to get ideas and training on
building their own digital story. Allowing them hands
on practice to teach themselves encourages active
learning, but it allows students to take responsibility for
their own meaningful learning. I see Photostory as a
tool in art class for the students to express themselves
through creativity. They can share information about
themselves and their culture.
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-5
I will be using my current digital story project as an anticipatory
set for art history or a unit on designers for media/products. It can
also be used as an introduction to art for the beginning of a
semester to allow insight into what art contributes to our society. I
think digital storytelling is a great tool for the classroom, for
teachers and students. I plan on using it and in the future
allowing students to create their own digital stories as an art
project using technology. I feel I could use the stories for
introductions or to add depth to the topic of study. They could
also be used for closure and reflection at the end of a unit. I also
think these are great alternative texts because they play out as a
movie segment would. They can be entertaining and informative
at the same time, while not being too long and boring.
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-6
I intend to use the digital story that I created in this course as an
anticipation guide before reading The Great Gatsby. The digital
story should provide some necessary background information
about the life and culture of the 1920s, as well as a “teaser” about
the main character, Jay Gatsby, that will hopefully spark some
interest to read and find out more about him. The digital story
will also introduce the theme of “The American Dream” and pose
the question of whether it is largely illusory in nature. This theme
would be discussed in greater detail at the completion of the novel
(and I might perhaps show the digital story again).
Feedback from Students
 How this Story Might be Used in an Educational Setting
-7
I will use digital storytelling to assess personal narratives or any
writing that we do. We are doing Poetry right now and a digital
story would really compliment the vocal aspect of poetry; poetry is
meant to be read aloud. In fact, the "it" thing for contemporary
poets today is to create moving/visual poetry. Their poems are like
little music videos; the poet reads while images, pieces of movies
appear that relate the feeling and images in the poem. I would
show some of these visual poems by contemporary poets, then
create a story with the class using a poem we write as a class and
allow us to create the digital story as a class. Then we can move on
to individually creating digital stories of our poems.
Next Steps – Suggested by Students
 More hands-on time in-class
 Hiring of TA’s to supervise specific computer lab
sessions to provide more work time & answer
questions
 More story circles and help with scriptwriting
 Better alignment of lecture material and assignments
between the two courses
Next Steps – Suggested by Faculty
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Create audio and video podcasts of our class lectures
Have material on CDs/DVDs & downloadable from
iTunes
Develop and implement The Popular Culture Digital
Storytelling Network - archive of stories plus student
stories where feedback can be given by instructors
and other students during the development
Create and manage a course Blog and a Popular
Culture/DS wiki
Next Steps – Suggested by Faculty
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Collaborate with the Houston PBS station, KUHT
and Houston NPR station, KUHF to explore the use
of existing content for educational use
Work with Law School to investigate issues of
copyright and educational fair use of multimedia
content for student-produced projects
Host a regional conference on these topics on the UH
campus
Explore how students in our courses can share their
work and ideas on social networks such as YouTube,
MySpace and Facebook
The SITE Digital Storytelling SIG Page
The SITE Virtual Screening Room