Chapter 13
From theory to practice, Ohler offers countless suggestions to best help produce your DST. While I appreciate his guidance, I’m a little dejected about seeing it listed in black and white. Obviously, I’ve used many of the tools he suggested, but the depth of work it will take to accomplish this at my school bums me out. Being a small independent charter school most of the resources he suggests we use are not available to me, in fact, I’m one of the top three digitally literate instructors at my school, how scary is that? I did find the chapter quite informative, it shows what I need to be successful in my DST, but like I said, I’m not looking forward to giving this to my students just yet.
When I started using computers professionally I had to learn all the Mac commands and intricacies, this drove me crazy coming from a PC in my personal life. I just got back into Mac now after being strictly PC for six years and I don’t know why I ever left in the first place. Everything that we’ve done in this class is pretty new to me and this MacBook has made the whole process a little easier. Now I’m at a PC work site and I’m somewhat leery of having to figure this whole thing out on a new platform. I know I sound like Ohler, who basically shills for Mac throughout this chapter, but his point is quite valid about the ease of use for all the software programs he mentioned. Let me make this clear, I am NOT an Apple fanboy; I’m just realistic in my limitations about taking DST into the classroom.
Ok, just reread my post and it’s a little bleak, I want to say I’m not as dejected as I made it sound. I still have optimism in my DST project. I am also planning on using this in my class and I think it will be fun in doing so; my small class sizes and availability are perfect for this type of project. Not to mention the learning that will come from this, I will make this happen. I just want to get the learning I need to make it possible.
The video is private, unable to view. I'll check back tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely wondering where Jiminy Cricket comes into things with Jefferson. There definitely is a schism between "all men are created equal" and what we know of Jefferson's slave ownership. I'm in no way educated on the subject, but I always figured it was the fault of my modern values that created the issue. Did Jefferson actually mean an all inclusive "men" meaning both genders and ethnicities other than white? Did men mean white guys that were land owners? I know our values of today would put a very different spin on that quote than may have been intended. It will be interesting to see where you go with this.
ReplyDeleteAs for your post, I don't see it as bleak. It is being real with this material. I have yet to have anyone visit my blog, which puts forth a similar sentiment as yours, who has told me that this is totally doable. Ultimately, what he is describing exists as either an elective class or an entire school that is built around visual and performing arts. You can't slipstream this material into any class at any school like you could academic literacy or inquiry.
As for your tech concerns, the PC version of things is as clean as the mac version honestly software wise at least. Its a matter of preference and will probably take you about an hour to become as proficient in movie maker as you are imovie. The trick, as I mentioned in my blog, is going to be whether every PC has a SD card reader and a working dvd burner. The real nightmare though is in the lesson planning. Unless you have a lot of spare time or students who know all of the software needed already, you can't squeeze this into a couple of days worth of time.
I like the idea of using your video as an assignment. I think it would be valuable for students to pick a controversial figure in history, present both sides and leave the conclusion open. A lot of characters in history have some controversy like Jefferson. Things are not usually black and white...no pun intended. Personally, I love movies with open endings and I look forward to yours.
ReplyDeleteAs for the time it takes in lesson planning,maybe you can document yourself making this video and use that as an example for your class.
Josh, I think your video will be very interesting and it definitely pertains to your class. I'm interested into how you will be creating your video. Will it be pictures, videos, historical reenactments? Can you elaborate a little on that?
ReplyDeleteThe story mapping was done with a good amount of detail. Recommendation is to develop a clearer storyboard following Ohler's suggestons. This week as you develop your story, my suggestion is to re-visit the storyboard. I would be glad to provide further comments on a more structured storyboard.
ReplyDeleteWith your students the focus on writing will be helpful coupled with the motivation that a digital story is at the end of the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteWindows Live Movie Maker is a very simple, somewhat limited, but powerful tool that can be learned fairly quickly (windows 7).