Digitally Yours...The Media Specialist's Role in Digital Storytelling

By:  Tamara Creech

Storytelling has been a part of our communication methods since the beginning of our existence.  A technique that originated orally to pass down culture and history has evolved into something permanent and remarkable:  Digital Storytelling.  The term is just that simple, a digital account.  The account can be personal in nature, educational, historical or humorous and there are many digital tools that you can use to create a digital story.  To many, creating a digital story is overwhelming.  The Media Specialist is a valuable resource that can guide students and teachers through the digital storytelling process by providing tips, steps, guides, tutorials, software and copyright information.  Who else knows their way around the latest and greatest technology, understands copyright and fair use laws and can link educational standards to technology?

Regardless of the content area, the Media Specialist can match the digital storytelling process to state standards for content areas as well as technology standards.  As many topics as there are out there to create a digital story on, there are almost as many tools and guidelines that go into the making of the digital story.

The Media Specialist can assist students and teachers with choosing the most appropriate software to create their digital story with.  If students are creating their digital stories at school, then the media specialist will provide the access to the software and can assist with software tutorials.  On the University of Houston’s Digital Storytelling website, http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html, several software options are listed such as Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 and Apple’s iMovie.

Digital Storytelling as an educational tool can consist of several elements.  Media Specialists can collaborate with teachers to introduce elements of great digital storytelling to make sure students understand the instruction and what the outcome should be.  The Center for Digital Storytelling gives some basic elements such as pacing and point of view.  Check them out here:  http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/7elements.html. A media specialist can customize elements to fit the lesson and vision of the teacher and student.

Teachers and students use digital storytelling to tell their story, let someone peek into their world and thoughts, but that is not the complete experience.  The components that go into making a digital story create another type of instruction and knowledge base, with the Media Specialist at the center of and guiding that learning.  Digital Storytelling introduces new technology and sharpens existing technology skills.  It allows students to research topics and to present their new knowledge in a digital format, so they are linking content area learning with learning technology.    

                                             

Digital Storytelling - Original Post

I first learned of Digital Storytelling at the SCOLT (Southern Conference of Language Teachers) conference in Feb/March of 2009. It was here that I sat in on Michel Couet’s learning session on how to create a digital story using PhotoStory 3 (Windows XP compatible). Michel Couet is a Technical Integration Specialist from Lexington High School in Lexington, SC.

He presented a play-by-play of how foreign language teachers could use PhotoStory 3 to create digital stories and have the audio be the student’s voice speaking the foreign language throughout the story.

PhotoStory is different than iMovie and MovieMaker in that it allows you to include everything, but videos. All music within the program is pre-approved. If you wish to use your own music, you can, but of course, you need to be sure that you fall within the guidelines of fair use.

In the Spring of 2009, I had my French II classes create a digital story based on an event from their past (something that occurred in childhood, real or imaginary). Students had to utilize past tense (le passé compose) and the imperfect (l’imparfait) correctly in order to tell a descriptive, but action-packed story.

Because every aspect of the technology was new for both the students and me, I wanted to keep the activity simple and guided. For this first time, I didn’t offer a lot of technology freedom.

As guided by Mr. Couet, I had the students think of a simple event of their childhood and use the “handouts” version of blank powerpoint slides as their storyboards so that they could create their text and make sure that it was grammatically correct by the time the audio recording came around as well as keep tabs on the number of slides they were creating in order to meet the rubric requirements (5-7 plus a title and ending slide). Students could also outline the picture that would best describe the text of the story at that particular point.

As for pictures, I didn’t have the students use real photos, I wanted them to keep the child-like feel and draw our pictures with crayons, markers, or colored pencils. The students could scan the pics in to a flash drive or their school account via the media center scanner or a scanner at home. We also used original works because citing sources is very important to me and being this our first digital storytelling project, we wanted it to be as simple as possible with regards to citing sources.

  

My students thoroughly enjoyed creating the digital stories as well as watching their classmates finished products.

It was the highest rated project of my career!

In the Spring of this year, I would like to attempt another digital story…and have my students either take pictures of themselves with a digital camera or create videos while using a flip video camera. This time, they would record their own audio, this time using Audacity. I will probably have Win 7 by then and will fully switch gears to MovieMaker.

Creating digital stories is easy and rewarding! Students not only enjoy creating them, but watching the creativity of others shine---and digital stories are perfect for the student who is a little timid in front of an audience. The digital story can be played, thus reducing anxiety of speaking in front of a large group.

As a future library media specialist, I feel that digital stories are a great way for students to express themselves as well as share their knowledge on a specific subject.

I look forward to broadening my horizons with the different types of options to make photo stories.

Fair Use and Copyright - Original Post

First, let me tell you that thought of me having to write on fair use and copyright makes me a little bit nervous because it so closely deals with the law and I don’t want to break any laws (knowingly or unknowingly).

If I think using a certain copyrighted resource in my classroom will break the law…I’m not going to use it…my lesson can go on without it.

Well, after reading the article on Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, I realize that I am probably worrying just a little too muchJ

According to the code, “Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant.” (p. 1)

Being in education, we more leeway. We need to follow the rules, but we are educators and that allows us to use some works for the benefit of education.

There are, however, a few myths regarding fair use.  One of them is the following:

MYTH: EDUCATORS CAN RELY ON “RULES OF THUMB” FOR FAIR

USE GUIDANCE.

Truth: According to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, “Fair use is situational, and context is critical. Because it is a tool to balance the rights of users with the rights of owners, educators need to apply reason to reach a decision”. (p. 14)

I am a rule follower and prefer rules when dealing with copyright. Below is a link to a pdf that explains copyright and fair use clearly. It is put out by Hall Davidson.

http://www.halldavidson.net/copyrightTEACH.pdf

I refer to this pdf often and now, after having read about the best practices, I understand that there is some flexibility with being an educator. I do need to brush up on my knowledge of fair use because as an LMS this will be part of my everyday lingo.

For now, when I’m in doubt, I talk to my LMS to be sure that we are on the same page….

References

Center for Social Media. (n.d.). Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education [Brochure]. Retrieved from http://mediaeducationlab.com/‌sites/‌mediaeducationlab.com/‌files/‌CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse_0.pdf

Debunking Some of the Myths of Fair Use

By Tamara Creech

I define Fair Use as using copyrighted material for educational purposes in a true learning environment without malicious intent to take money out of the copyright owner’s pockets.  Fair Use is flexible to say the least and like most laws can be twisted around to support proponents and opponents of Fair Use.  As educators, we have more leverage in making Fair Use work for us in our instruction and also if someone challenges our use of copyrighted materials.

Let’s debunk a few of the myths that come with The Use of Fair Use!  We will just look at a few.  You can find the full list of myths compiled by American University’s SOC Center for Social Media here:  http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/files/CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse_0.pdf

Myth 1:  FAIR USE IS TOO UNCLEAR AND COMPLICATED FOR ME; IT’S BETTER LEFT TO LAWYERS AND ADMINISTRATORS.

Debunk:  Get a backbone.  You are the Education expert here. As an educator, you are in the classroom and learning environment several hours a day.  You are perfecting your instruction and making the curriculum come alive for your students.  You know what is needed to get the instruction across to the students.  What do lawyers do?  They call in the experts.  Yes in this case, that’s YOU!  Make your voice heard so Fair Use is clear and understandable for your fellow educators.  Fair Use is flexible for that reason, so you can make it your own and apply it as needed.

Myth 2:  EDUCATORS CAN RELY ON “RULES OF THUMB” FOR FAIR USE GUIDANCE.

Debunk:  I have searched HIGH and LOW for Rules of Thumb for Fair Use and found little to nothing.  As an educator, you are held to certain ethical standards in your positions and should have basic knowledge of Copyright Laws.  You will have your own views of what is considered Fair Use and your school and district may have guidelines about Fair Use.  Share your views with your colleagues, other teachers, your media specialist, technology specialist and administrators to make sure you are on the same page with your views or even in the same book.  Use your views and theirs to come to a collaborative agreement of what your school would like to define as “Fair Use” and leave it open to interpretation and discussion.  As forms of media evolve and your students get more tech savvy, you will have to revisit this topic often to make sure you are in the guidelines of what your school has agreed to as Fair Use.

Myth 3:  FAIR USE COULD GET ME SUED.

Debunk:  Know your rights and learn some legal language.  If a copyright owner sends you a formal letter to “cease and desist”, it does not mean that they are suing you.  If you know that you are outside the guidelines of Fair Use in your use of the copyrighted material, then “cease and desist”.  If you are Using Fair Use Fairly, stand your ground!

Links to Further Help You in Using Fair Use Fairly:

·       The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml

·       Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ21.pdf

PBS Teachers Copyright & Fair Use

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/copyright/