Week 3 Blog

    I plan to delve into the story of how birds impact me and have taught me lessons through various phases of my life. This is a discovery story designed to explore various types of birds, their characteristics, and habits. I’ll be choosing the birds of focus based on events in my lifetime that have a particular connection to the birds (Lambert, 2010). The goal will be to show how I’ve uncovered truths about myself through this unique avian connection. 

Ultimately, this is a story of transformation, so I believe that Ohler’s story arc is most useful for story mapping. This type of discovery story is more of a question and response that leads to transformation rather than a more traditional problem and solution (Ohler, 2012). The story arc provides the framework for that movement through the story. Essentially, the overarching story arc will be show how I’ve grown and changed throughout my life. There will be smaller story arcs in the forms of anecdotes and factual bird information that move the story from beginning to end (Ohler, 2012).

Students in 9th and 10th grade are engaged with writing throughout their ELA courses. For example, OAS 10.3.W.4 says students will blend narrative, informative, and argumentative writing to suit their audience and purpose. OAS 10.7.W charges students with creating engaging multimodal content that intentionally addresses an audience and accomplishes a purpose. OAS 10.1.S.3 says students will conduct formal and informal presentations in a variety of contexts supporting their message with evidence and using verbal and nonverbal cues. My digital story could easily serve as an exemplar for an activity designed to meet these standards. This story could also be useful in professional learning environments, particularly those where I may be engaging teachers in discussions about effective uses of technology in their lessons. 

One of the stories that I’d like to tell is the story of how I got my name. I plan to ask my dad to use his iPhone to video himself telling this story. I’ll then use Canva or iMovie to edit the video depending on the medium I eventually use to tell the full story. I also have a large number of my own pictures and videos that I will edit using native iPhone software and Canva. Older photos will need to be digitized. I do have a scanner that I can use for this purpose, or I will use the scan feature on my iPhone to capture those images. I would love to find a medium through which I could tell my story and include some interactivity. I’ve considered experimenting with Claude Code and developing an interactive website while also engaging my future son-in-law, who is a coder, to provide additional technology support. That may be a bit too ambitious, though, so I’m also investigating Canva websites as a potential tool. I’d prefer an option that, like the DST PinePoint, is interactive and asynchronous, allowing the viewer to move through the story in smaller chunks and in any order (Simons & Shoebridge, 2011). 

Lambert’s Digital Cookbook has been a valuable resource as I have worked on the early planning stages of this project (2010). The Cookbook provides a number of specific, actionable steps for finding your story and for avoiding the trap of overthinking (Lambert, 2010). I have found this to be the most helpful thing so far. I’ve returned over and over to Ohler’s Story Arc as a mechanism for thinking about how to move from the beginning to the end of a story (2012). 

References

Lambert, J. (2010). Digital storytelling cookbook. Digital Diner Press.

Ohler, J. (2012, October). Story making tools. storyconcepts. https://storyconcepts.blogspot.com/2012/10/story-maps-shapes.html

Simons, M., & Shoebridge, P. (2011). Welcome to Pine Point [Interactive documentary]. National Film Board of Canada. https://pinepoint.nfb.ca