Summer break kicked off yesterday; I’ve got about 80 days to work with, doing whatever needs doing. A few people have asked me what I’ve got planned, and my basic answer is, As little as possible. I do have some general objectives, though, to include: exercise, camping, fishing, gardening, reading – just being here.
-thinking about next year:
We had an inservice session last week with Jason Ohler, a media education specialist from Juneau who does digital storytelling projects. The timing on this was good, since I’m buying a Flip video for the classroom next year and I want to do some multimedia projects with my next class. I enjoyed Jason’s presentation a lot. His orientation is more toward the storytelling than the technology, but he has a lot to say about both. His basic message is to focus on expression first, and technology second. One of the things he talked about was how to create emotional interest in even a short project of just a couple of minutes.
Coincidentally, this morning I read an article, Media as a Weapon, about a group of New Orleans filmakers called 2-Cent Entertainment. Mentioned in the article was a short award-winning video called New Orleans for Sale that asks a really good question.
4 Comments
Thanks for the info on Jason Ohler. Love his thinking that I found through your link and mention. So much of all of this focuses on the technology and not the craft of writing –What does it mean to understand? What does it mean to create? Love his thinking and the way he emphasizes both.
Franki, Jason has a lot of how-to information – like this step-by-step guide for green screen digital storytelling, which seemed real useful.
I’ve had a flip since December. I think you’ll love it.
I have been working with digital storytelling for years and I have read and been inspired by Jason Ohler’s work, especially in writing and crafting the stories because that’s the heart of the work, story first.
I just finished a big project with a large group of 6th graders and it was slow and steady and wonderful in the end.
Bonnie
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