Personal Digital Story: Finished Video and Reflection

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As the first assignment for EDLD 5363 Multimedia and Video Technology, students were asked to create a personal digital video using images, video clips and sound. Our first task was to review examples at the Center for Digital Storytelling.

The website provided excellent examples of how a digital story conveys a personal and meaningful message.  As I watched the videos, I began thinking about the message I wanted my video to convey. Since the video and assignment are part of my master's program, I wanted my message to give some insight as to why I became a teacher.  The reasons are many, so I decided to concentrate on how my upbringing and the people who contributed to that upbringing had a part in the decision.

After I decided on an overall idea, I began to narrow my focus.  When the phrase "I was born a wild child" came to me, the rest of the story seemed to flow naturally.

The hardest part of the project was finding the images.  I can remember telling students doing similar projects to just find images and replace them if they had time later.  I tried to keep that advice in mind as I searched for just the perfect image!  I rejected as many images as I ultimately used, and most of the photos were drawn from my own collections.  I would have preferred to have used all, or most, of my own photos, but time restraints required that I complete the work after school in my classroom, so access to personal photos was limited.

I recorded the voiceover at least a dozen times.  My first recordings were too drawn out, so in subsequent recordings I tried to pace my narration so that it conveyed the feeling of the images, but kept to a pace that I hope will keep the viewer interested.  I put my final recording in a video editing program called Screenflow where I adjusted the volume and cut some of the longer pauses.

I then imported the audio into iMovie.  I used transitions from iMovie to fade in and out of the images where the audio was slower, so the pace of the video and the audio coincided.  Other transitions were placed to coordinate with where the video subtly changes direction.

There was some concern with my fellow students as to the length of the video as well as other technical issues.  At the point where I began questioning the length of my own video, I found myself feeling a frustration that many of my students have expressed--that their own standards for their project did not comply with the actual requirements.  In other words, I had worked so hard and so long on getting the video to the point where I wanted it to be, it was no longer just an assignment, but a personal project that had to be finished to my own standards, even if those standards don't comply with the actual requirements.

Side note:  In the past I've told my students to turn in two projects:  the one they did for themselves, and the one they did for me.  I will no longer do that!  Instead, I will ask them to explain the changes and the reasons behind them, and then allow them to turn in the one they felt so strongly about that they were willing to sacrifice points to complete it.

Personal Digital Story: Script

Our Lives are Made of Stories

I was born a wild child—raised in combination by a working mother, an older sister and a step-mother who, for three months out of the year, tried to tame the wildness though long games of scrabble and lessons in kneading dough.

But circumstance and events proved greater than double letter values and the smell of blossoming yeast. Each year the wildness grew stronger, the risks greater, the recklessness so outrageous that now  I look back in wonder that I ever escaped the self-fulfilling prophecy of my youth.

When I was 15 I fell in love with a boy from a large Catholic family. His mother welcomed me into their home—a home over filled with furniture and knick-knacks and photos, and most of all, family.

On the wall in their living room were seven eight-by-ten portraits.

She pointed them out the first day we met, her fingers trailing along each of their faces, pausing at the lips of a child who had died too young.

I did not know then, but I know now that in the time it took for teenage love to spark and blaze and ultimately flame out,

She taught me that my wildness was not about rebellion or defiance, it was about need, the need to be connected to something greater than myself.

My step-mother once said that the person we become is shaped by our ever accumulating stories—the good ones, the bad ones, the right and the wrong—and by all the people who care enough to make us part of their own tales.

If that is true then the person I am now has been shaped by stories I will never tell, by a woman determined to provide for her children,

by sibling love fiercely loyal and protective,

by long summer nights of 7-letter-words,

and by the memory of a mother's longing and pride mirrored in a portrait 15 years old.

Now I have my own portraits on a wall,

and the need that drove my wildness has evolved into the need to help the children who come into my life—

children who have yet to recognize their own needs.

When they ask me, “Mrs. Miller, what were you like as a child?”

I laugh and answer, “Me?  I was just like you.  I was born a wild child.”

Of course they don’t believe me.

But oh, the stories I could tell.

Personal Digital Story: Storyboard

My first assignment for  EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Technology was to create a personal digital story.  

This is not exactly a storyboard, but a place I gathered images I knew I wanted to use in my story.

Reflection on Action Research Origins

I created my action research plan from something my site supervisor said about career and technology classes being gender slanted in ag tech and welding. She also was concerned with the  low ratio of male students in what she called nursing.

I pulled a few things together into a little bit of research--I needed to do it for my course anyway --and presented my findings to Stephanie and the staff.  One staff member wanted to know why her subject wasn't part of the study, and another objected to the word 'Nursing' to lump her myriad of courses together in one word.

The next thing she said gave me pause, however. If the counselors and administrators, and presumably teachers and students are doing the same, the stereotypes have entrenched themselves so tightly and so deep that the stereotype exists because the counselors and administrators and teachers refer to her classes as nursing instead of paramedics or radiologists or any of the other fields they can learn about when they enter one of her programs.   They are just all lumped together in one word-- nursing.

National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators

NETS-Administrators

Reflection Questions for Self-Assessment

 

1.

Critically reflect upon the knowledge you gained from the technology self-assessment activity.

 

After taking the NETS self-assessment survey, I realized that while I am highly proficient in many areas of technology, my leadership experience is comparatively low.  I am weakest when it comes to areas that require research—or time for research--and time for involvement in outside areas. As a future leader I realize I am going to have to make time to learn more about policies and programs on the local state and national levels as well as stay in touch and participate in different learning communities.

 

 

2. How does the information you gained from the technology self-assessment activity compare with old information you previously held to be true about your technology skills?  

 

As far as true technology skills, my belief as to the extent of my own skills compared to those outlined in the self-assessments are spot on.  However I know that those areas that go beyond actual skill, such as professional growth and leadership, are areas that I still need to work on.  I have been lax in joining and participating in organizations and leading professional development. Although I am passionate about technology in the classroom, for the most part I’ve restricted my contribution to one-on-one help with specific teachers.  I need to broaden my reach and initiate professional development opportunities.

 

3. How might the information you gained from the self-assessment affect your success as a school leader?

 

I never thought of the school leader as being a leader in the area technology, with the exception, of course, of those leaders actually in the educational technology field.  I did not see technology as being one of the high levels of responsibility of school leaders.  Instead, I considered it to be the job of those individuals specifically hired to lead in the areas of technology.  However, I can see now that all leaders should model the use of technology.  I think my success as a leader will depend greatly on a shared vision.  That vision has to include technology transformation, and as a leader I will be more accepted and successful if I model the use of the technology I expect the teachers and students to use as well.

 

 

 

4. As a lifelong learner, what questions or issues challenge you and are worthy of future research or investigation?

 

The issues that challenge me as a life long-learner center around time—time allocated for learning, for reading and for researching.  The question I will have to answer is how much time should be allocated to those areas compared to the time it will take to complete or pursue my other responsibilities.  

 

In addition to the issue of time, there are areas of broader responsibilities that I am unfamiliar with, such as the establishment of an infrastructure for technology and facilitating a shared cultural understanding.  I will need to seek out leaders in my district to clarify those responsibilities and help me gain a greater understanding of the leader’s role in these areas.

 

My Internship plan, draft one

My Interview with our education technology curriculum specialist

Laura Hearnsburger 

•

 What is the school vision for technology?

The technology vision for our school is based on the SAMR model—Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and—don’t laugh at this last one—transformation.  

What that means is that over the next four years, we are going to transform the way education is delivered.  But we’re smart enough to know that that can’t happen in just one year.  This is the first year of the implementation at this school, so what we’re looking for is Substitution.  We’d like to see teachers substituting technology for the way they’re used to doing things—a math teacher scanning her worksheets and putting them in iTunes U, a history teacher having students put together a slideshow in Keynotes on the iPad, an English teacher grading in eBackpack.  That’s the sort of thing we’re looking for this year.

•

If technology were removed, what learning would be impossible/impaired?

I don't know that any would be impossible, but definitely project-based learning would be impaired. You can't do that easily without the convenience that technology offers.  Students can create a Google site, email each other and the teacher, and create blogs and wiki-type pages.  Without that, that project-based instruction becomes incredibly hard for the students to put together and really hard for the teacher to implement.

•

How do you support professional development?

Most of my job at the campus is to plan and deliver professional development in the area of technology.  And right now, that’s about all the professional development is about.  What I’d like to add to the piece is time for teachers to visit other classes and see how they’re using the iPads, and other types of technology.  We’re doing some great things here.  Some teachers are already doing flipped classrooms.  That’s more than what we expected, and I think if other teachers got to see that in action, and got to sit in to see how teachers are using iPads in the class, they’d be inspired to use them more.

•

What is the best “advice” you would give for moving technology/learning forward in a way that will make more impact for all students?

If you’re not already, start working on project-based models and let the students be the drivers.  The content has to be meaningful, and when they’re in charge of the learning, they can cater that content to fit their interests.  Otherwise they’re just doing whatever the teacher mandates—and sometimes that’s fun, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes that has little interest for the student.  I know it’s hard for the teacher to give up that control, to become the facilitator, but once you give up that control you find there’s so much more that you can do with the students—the conversations you have with them, and guiding their learning instead of directing it.

Personal Self-Assessments

Personal Self-Assessments. 

 

Self-Assessment #1:  TELSA Self Assessment

 

The TELSA Self Assessment is a complicated and involved assessment tool that asks users to rate certain tasks in the areas of difficulty, importance and frequency for each task listed. Tasks are broken up into ten areas of leadership responsibility, and after completing the assessment users calculate each of the task’s scores and find the average for each area of responsibility.  Using a given scale, users are then able to rate the priority (low, medium or high) of their need for development in these areas.

 

The TELSA was the most difficult of all the assessments, because the user is asked to predict his or her ability to perform a task, rate the importance of the task and determine the frequency of how often that task is performed, regardless of whether the user has ever performed the task or not.  However, I feel I was able to competently make the majority of those predictions based on observations of our school leaders. Additionally, I enlisted the help of one of those leaders for those tasks with which I was unfamiliar.

 

According to the results of my assessment, my lowest area of required development is in the area of using technology to communicate.  This was not a surprising result, since I teach technology classes and use technology every day to communicate with students, parents, peers and leaders.  I was surprised at the inclusion of some of the older technologies, however, such as operating a slide projector or overhead projector, the former of which I have never operated in my life, and the latter of which I have not used in more than fifteen years.  

 

The area of highest developmental need was almost equally divided into two sections: the area of performing budgetary and other administrative duties, and the area of performing staff-related administrative duties.  This was also not surprising since I am seldom asked to perform many of the tasks listed.  However, I feel the staff-related administrative duties would rely heavily on interpersonal skills, so would be lower in difficulty to perform than the budgetary skills, which would require more technical training.

 

I feel that this assessment was the most valuable of all the assessments undertaken.  Although the other assessments provided important insight into different areas of leadership responsibilities and beliefs, this assessment pinpointed the precise area, or in my case, areas, of developmental need.  This assessment will be a great help in determining the focus of my internship.

 

Self-Assessment #2:  Keirsey Temperament Sorter

Score: Idealist Healer

 

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is comprised of 70 questions designed to determine an individual’s personality type. According to the Keirsey Temperament Theory, personality types can be broken down into four basic groups, which are referred to as Artisans, Guardians, Rationals and Idealists. These four groups are further divided into four separate “Character Types,” so there are four types of Artisans, four types of Guardians, four types of Rationals, and four types of Idealists.

 

Based on my answers to the 70 questions, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter determined that I am an “Idealist Healer.”  In the workplace, an Idealist Healer is seen as someone who is flexible, is open to new ideas and is tolerant of unexpected complications.  I believe this is true of myself, as well as the claim that Idealist Healers are impatient with everyday details.   Like the Idealist Healer, I usually work well with others, but I am happy to work on my own. I do feel it is my calling to help others, not just in the subject matter I teach, but also in their lives—to recognize those who suffer from inner conflict and to find a manner in which to help them ease that conflict.  Like Keirsey’s “Idealist Healer,” I often find that I feel set apart from my coworkers in that I truly believe that every individual has the capacity for good. However, unlike Keirsey’s model, although I am likely to take my own feelings into consideration when making a decision, I almost always equally consider the facts, so I feel that my decisions are soundly based in a combination of both awareness of the individuals involved and the facts behind the situation.

 

Self-Assessment #3:  Motivation Beliefs

 

I believe that there are two basic types of motivation:  internal and external.  Internal motivation is derived from personal beliefs and the desire for satisfaction in job completion, whereas external motivation comes from outside the self:  advancement, salary, and tangible rewards.  

 

When I motivate students I tend to begin with external motivators, such as prizes, grades, praise, etc.  As the year progresses, however, I try to help them realize that true motivation must come from within.  I try to help them recognize that my opinion of their project is less important than their own opinion.   I hope to help them see that when they rush through an assignment, they are not just compromising their grades, they are compromising their “inner” integrity—that part of themselves that doesn’t rely on what others think, but on which they themselves think.  Questions like “Mrs. Miller, is this good enough?” will always be answered with, “I don’t know—is it?”  “Do you think I should change this?” is countered with “It’s your project, not mine.”  When I taught journalism, the answer was “It’s your newspaper,” and “it’s your yearbook.”  In this way I hope to help my students recognize that striving for the best in an intrinsic motivation that we must all build and keep shoring up throughout our lives.

Two instances where I was successful

1st

A few years ago I taught a video class at a magnet program located on the campus of a large high school.  I am interested in helping special education students through technology, so I contacted the Life Skills teacher on the main campus and asked if my video class could work with her Life Skills students to create video modeling projects—videos that model a particular positive behavior.    

After training my students to work with special needs individuals, I grouped my students with one to two of the Life Skills students to work on the videos.  Subjects ranged from “How to stand in a line,” to “How to introduce yourself” and more.

After completing the video portion of the project, my students then came back to the classroom to edit the videos, which were compiled and sent to the Life Skills teacher to use with her students.

I received a Time Warner National teaching award for the project, which came with a trip to D.C. and amonetary award for my school and myself.  However,the outcome that I am most proud of is twofold:  after using the videos with her students, the Life Skills teacher reported a definite improvement in the skills covered in the videos, and my students became more aware of and more accepting of students with abilities different from their own.

2nd

Creating a class to train teachers

Because I teach technology, everyone assumes I am a computer expert.  I am always asked for help with both software and hardware issues.  It became more frequent when some teachers received iPads, so eventually I began sending some of my more advanced students to help them.  When the district decided on a one-to-one initiative using iPads, I decided to request a class just for training students to work with teachers.  

I recruited fifteen students who were spread throughout my classes in order to be available during different periods.  I adapted the curriculum of one of the already approved courses so that it covered the TEKS of the course while allowing me to design the curriculum to cover the areas of technology most needed:  iPad use, web site creation and maintenance, blog development, digital photography, creating presentations, etc.  

The year after I created the course the district decided on a one-to-one initiative with iPads.  I received six iPads in order to train the students to train teachers on the device.  I polled teachers on the type of apps they would most like to use, and students downloaded, tested and wrote reviews on apps in those areas.

Students also began working with the technology coordinator who was in charge of choosing apps for the iPad deployment.  At the end of that year, she asked them to teach a workshop to the teachers who would be receiving their iPads first.  

The teachers not only benefitted from my students, my students benefitted just as much or even more.  They became more knowledgeable about the subjects they taught, they learned patience and adaptability—because like students, teachers have different learning styles--and they gained the self-confidence that comes from helping others.