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Windows 10 Fall Creators
Good TeachingMicrosoft

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update: Moviemaker Lives

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Are you a storymaker? If so, you will want to take a hard look at Windows 10’s Photos app. In its Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has finally unveiled the feature-rich Story Remix TCEA reported on earlier this year. “The reimagined Photos app makes it easy to tell your story in video with a soundtrack, transitions, 3D effects, and Windows Ink,” says the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update website. Rather than a separate app, Story Remix is built into the Photos app.

Become a Storymaker

“There are so many different ways lives work out, so many stories, and every one of them is precious: full of joy and heartbreak, and a fair amount of situation comedy,” says Texas novelist Sean Stewart. How can we communicate these stories with a larger audience? Children are swapping stories online via YouTube. Whether we like the content of the stories they swap or not, we can celebrate the fact that these children are becoming familiar with the language of images and sound. So, with that in mind, how can we enhance story swapping in such a way that we take advantage of this media-rich language our children are using online?

There are many tools available online that teachers can use to accomplish this. One tool that many have missed is Microsoft’s Moviemaker. Learn more online about becoming a storymaker.

About the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

With the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the Photos app offers built-in features that facilitate video creation and sharing. Get a detailed walk through online. The Windows 10 Photos app offers an easy-to-use feature set reminiscent of PhotoStory more than MovieMaker. Still, it offers a wonderful tool for creating videos of still photos and adding audio, filters, and other effects.

The re-imagined Photos app makes it easy to import photos, arrange them in sequence, and add special effects. Then you can export the video as an MP4. This video format can easily be hosted on YouTube and other online locations.

One Example

To explore the features, I combined a few pictures and made them into a video. The process was simple.

Source of Featured Images: TCEA Technology Leadership Summit, which took place on October 11, 2017 in Austin, Texas

Video Overview of Photos:

A New Generation of Hobbyists

“Digital storytelling begins,” says Joe Lambert, co-founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling, “with the notion that in the not [too] distant future, sharing one’s story through the multiple mediums of digital imagery, text, voice, sound, music, video, and animation will be the principal hobby of the world’s people.” As our world becomes more connected through the internet, the importance of learning to use digital tools to share your ideas, your vision, and your stories becomes all the more critical. Microsoft’s revised Photos app makes this all the more possible.

 

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managing change
CTO/CIOLeadership

Managing Change – It’s Not for the Faint of Heart

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

Imagine walking into a teacher’s classroom and telling her that you are going to completely turn her classroom upside down. The tried and true laminated lesson plans that she has been using for years are no longer going to be applicable. Her students will all have devices that connect to the Internet, so she is going to have to figure out how to help them manage their time on task. Introducing a one-to-one ratio of devices to students in a teacher’s classroom also shifts the control of the learning. The teacher is still in control, but now she has the ability to let her students pursue things that are relevant to them. This means that, potentially, her students may all be learning the same standards but using different resources. You are asking a teacher to fundamentally change the way she has approached teaching. When the teacher realizes how different this model of teaching and learning is, it is likely that she will look at you and say, “You want me to do what?”

Managing a new initiative is stressful. It requires someone who understands how to help navigate Changepeople through a dramatic shift in their professional practice. The types of change require different kinds of leadership skills. Changing a teacher’s planning period takes different skills than telling them every student is going to have a device and most of their lessons and materials will be delivered over that device. First order change usually deals with cosmetic changes, while second order change deals with the paradigms and philosophies. Research indicates that the leadership team should approach the management of these two types of change differently.

One of the reasons a first order change is easier to manage is because they generally are met with less resistance because they do not challenge an educator’s fundamental belief. Second order changes require teachers to become learners, to think deeply about their practice, and to adopt new and often challenging ideas about their role in the classroom.

It is highly recommended that you review research on first and second order change. I highly recommend the book Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles, and Potholes by Hall and Hord. It’s expensive, but when you are investing this much time and money on a project that involves such change, it’s a wise investment.

When implementing a transition from print to digital instructional materials, you might also want to consider the following:

Leadership

Need collaborative leadership, not just individual leadership. You need buy-in from leadership at every level of the district. This is critical. If the leadership is not actively involved and supporting the staff implementing the change,  the change will fail.

Planning

Address infrastructure, maintenance, learning strategies, training requirements, technical support, and policies. Make sure flexibility is a part of the planning process. Interventions will be necessary. Don’t be surprised when your plans go awry. Making appropriate interventions are key to the success. When you make necessary adjustments, it communicates you are listening to the staff who are implementing the change and reduces their resistance.

Engagement

Involve teachers in the planning and roll-out of digital learning. Identify the tools, content, Changetraining, and support they will need. Organizations adopt change, but individuals are the ones that implement change. District leadership might have decided to enact the change, but it is the people at the school level that actually make it happen. The change process can’t be dictated from central office.

Creativity and Flexibility

You can’t mandate a second order change. Let your stakeholders find the flaws, but also identify solutions. Your goal is to find a mutually satisfactory outcome. This is not a sprint, but a marathon.

Persistence and Prioritization

ChangeSuccess takes time and commitment to strategic action plans, review, and adjustment. It may take several cycles after implementation to determine if the new initiative is working. Expect an implementation dip.

Supplant, Not Supplement

Modify the curriculum to replace ineffective practices with those that best leverage the technology. Don’t let bad practices bring down the initiative.

Sustainable Funding

Moving to digital materials requires annual budgeting for the cost of devices, broadband, training, and content. An analysis of the budget should be done to determine where savings may be found so the budget can be realigned to sustain the initiative.

I helped implement a project of this nature. I have the battle scars to prove it. It was one of the hardest things I ever did as an administrator, but one of the most gratifying. I knew the human aspect of the project was going to be the most difficult, but I was surprised at how much time we needed to spend on thinking through the psychology and dynamics of the change process. My best advice is not to underestimate the need to put a strategic team together just to review and analyze the project and refer to the research on managing a second order change.

Managing Change Resources

Photo credits: Header Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash,  2. Charlz Gutiérrez De Piñeres on Unsplash (edited), 3. Photo by Climate KIC on Unsplash,4,  Photo by Jonathan Simcoe on Unsplash, 

 

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Content AreasGood Teaching

The Why’s and How’s of Student Badges

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

All individuals want to be recognized when they learn something, and badges can accomplish that. Whether it is mastering a new skill, meeting a goal, or doing a good deed, students (and adults!) seek validation for their achievements.

At first glance, the word “badge” may conjure up images of a Girl Scout’s sash featuring material badges that demonstrate mastery. While the concept is similar, the badges of today have implications far beyond that simple picture. Today’s badges are credentials that represent skills, interests, and achievements earned by an individual through specific projects, programs, courses, or other activities.

Reasons to Use Student Badges in the Classroom

Badges celebrate learning and can motivate students to do well in school and beyond. Take a look at a few reasons why you should reward student learning with badges.

  1. Acknowledge Accomplishments

    student badges

    Click on the image to download a PDF.

Badges show accomplishments. They can be awarded to students for completing a difficult assignment, doing an act of kindness, or improving behavior.

  1. Promote Collaboration

Badges provide greater opportunities for student collaboration, cooperation, and interaction. Students will motivate and encourage one another, as well as compete with one another, to earn various badges in the classroom.

  1. Validate Progress

Badges can certify that students are meeting specific goals and showing progress in their learning. This will lead to visible improvements in the classroom.

  1. Expose Skills

Badges uncover students’ skills that a number or letter grade might not show. This might be empathy, entrepreneurship, leadership, cooperation, or  deep thought. They give students a way to share what they have learned in a public way.

  1. Surpass Traditional Assessments

Badges can be used as an additional assessment tool to assist in the identification of a student’s specific strength and weaknesses. Go beyond written tests, quizzes, and grades in order to identify areas needing improvement.

  1. Give Joy in Learning

Badges can add a fun element to the classroom as students are encouraged to compete against one another.  Show students that there can be fun in learning.

 

Types of Badges to Use in the Classroom

The type of badge you use in the classroom depends on what works for you and your students.

With digital badges, you can create and download a digital version of the badge and post it to a student portfolio or class blog page.  Some resources for making digital badges can be found at the Badges for Professional Learning blog post.

With traditional badges, you can download or create a badge that you make many copies of and distribute. You could even display them for a while on the classroom bulletin board before giving them to your students.

With button badges, you turn student badges into buttons using a button machine. Students could then pin their earned button on their jacket or backpack.

Have you ever used badges in your classroom before?  If so, what has worked for you?  Leave a comment and let us know!

 

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Screenshot of digital whiteboard - source provided
Educational TrendsGood Teaching

Digital Whiteboard Solutions

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Many of us have experienced interactive whiteboards. Less expensive digital whiteboards (web or app-based alternatives) are disrupting more expensive options for whiteboards in schools. In this blog entry, we’ll take a look at some digital whiteboard solutions as alternatives to more expensive solutions.

Newcomer Alert: Be sure to check out Whiteboard.chat as a great whiteboard tool that you can use to support remote learning.

Modeling Thinking with Digital Whiteboards

Digital whiteboards enable students and teachers to make thinking visible. Yet,without explicit professional learning (such as what the TCEA Professional Development team offers), teachers may not reach their full potential in using technology. The National Educational Technology Plan (January 2017) makes this point succinctly:

Technology can accelerate, amplify…expand the impact of effective teaching practices…to be transformative, educators need to have the knowledge…skills to take full advantage of technology-rich learning environments. [emphasis mine]

Organization and Interactivity Are Key

Digital whiteboards cost less to deploy, are more mobile, and lend themselves to increased teacher organization and student interactivity. ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine points out requisite strategies for using whiteboards:

  1. Teachers should think through how they intend to organize information.
  2. Digital flipcharts should contain visuals. Those visuals must focus learners on important information.
  3. Students need to express themselves.
  4. Assist students in focusing on essential content in the lesson.

These effective strategies work regardless of how much you may have spent on your whiteboard solution as long as you first invest in professional learning for your staff.

Digital Whiteboards Save Money and Maximize Learning

“We use Doceri,” said one principal in an Area 2 district.  “It gives us a variety of features.” Whatever your device, consider some of the following low-cost digital whiteboard solutions available.

Web-Based Whiteboards

iOS-Based Whiteboards

Other popular iOS whiteboards that include recurring costs include Doceri and Explain Everything. Both offer a multitude of features that make them must-have app(s) for school iOS devices.

With device mirroring technologies, you can display any whiteboard app via a digital projector. You may already know about these apps for mirroring your iOS device to a computer connected to a digital projector:

One no-cost alternative for Windows users to mirror their device is LonelyScreen.

Begin Now

As you begin, focus on how digital whiteboards will support student problem-solving, make thinking visible, and enhance teaching and learning in your classroom.

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TCEA responds
CTO/CIOGoogle Tips and TricksMicrosoft

TCEA Responds: Saving High School Seniors’ Digital Work

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Welcome to TCEA Responds #7.  Submit your own question(s) online. Today’s topic is helping high school seniors take their digital work with them.

tcea respondsDear TCEA Responds:

Our high school seniors are moving on soon. They have data stored in Microsoft OneNote. Do you know if students can easily print all their OneNote tabs at one time to create a hard copy of a notebook to take with them after graduation?

-Gina

Dear Gina:

It’s amazing, isn’t it? The young men and women who arrived just a few short years ago are leaving. But what to do with all their digital files, some of which would help them at their next stop at the university? Some of the old options include:

  • Print all the documents (not very eco-friendly)
  • Saving all files/folders to a USB flash drive (but what if it gets lost or the media is corrupted?)

Let’s explore some possible responses.

Option #1 – Copy Files with Multcloud

While you could print an entire OneNote notebook, another approach would be to have students create a OneDrive account, then use an online utility (free) to copy their OneNote notebook from their school account to their personal OneDrive account. The online utility that they would use is Multcloud.com.

CloudHQ.net and CloudGopher are two other utilities (available at cost) that work great. Note that these approaches work well with any cloud storage solution, including Google Drive and Dropbox. Read more about it here.

TCEA responds

Option #2 – OneNote Export

If copying to OneDrive cloud storage is not an option, then you could export the entire OneNote notebook containing student work as a Word or PDF file. This would allow the student to have a version of the document they can edit. They could then take the Word file(s) and open them in Google Docs or with their free Office 365 account.

Below,  you will see the various export windows depending on what you want to export. Note the different output formats available.

Export Page Export Section Export Notebook
tcea responds tcea reports tcea responds

Choose the Best Option

With all the available tools, there really isn’t a need to print or save work to temporary media that may get corrupted or lost. Cloud storage provides a much better option than copying work in unusable formats. And with tools like Multcloud or CloudHQ, your students can back up data to any location, not just the one where they created it.

 

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Digital BreakoutEducational Trends

The 50 States Digital Breakout

by Peggy Reimers
written by Peggy Reimers

The great thing about educators is they are constantly adapting things found out in the real world and puttinthg an educational spin on the endeavor to help students. After visiting an escape room (a room where a group of people are locked in and have to solve clues and riddles to escape), James Sanders and Mark Hammons developed Breakout EDU. They could not lock students in a room, but they came up with a unique twist on the concept. The two built a wooden box and added a hasp with a couple of locks. Then they built a storyline with clues that could be found in the physical classroom and on the internet. Given 45 minutes, students search for and decipher clues in order to “breakout.”

The next iteration of this phenomenon has now happened: enter teachers Justin Birckbichler and Mari Venturino. They loved seeing their classes engaged and motivated with the Breakout EDU concept. The two wanted to replicate the game with only digital tools, so they developed a Google Site with clues and distractors. They used a Google Form with data validation to replicate the locked box.

In April 2016, James Sanders reached out to Justin and Mari and asked if they would like to officially become Breakout EDU Digital, and take on breakoutedu.com/digital. They said yes, and now there is serious detective work TOTALLY online.

And the timeline continues:  This past January, I took notice of a post in the GFE Certified Trainer Google Group from Tonya Coffey. She posted, “Just in time for Groundhog Day 2017 – The Runaway Shadow, Digital Breakout.” She has her own website of eight digital breakouts themed around holidays.

Being bitten by the Breakout EDU bug a good two years ago, my colleague Jennifer Bergland and I designed two audience participation breakouts for conference and convention settings. Both are complete with props, costumes, and digital and physical clues to introduce Breakout EDU. This session is now one of my top favorites to lead as the game unfolds differently each time. It’s education at its best.  It is fun, learning without realizing it, and builds 21st century skills. 

After checking out Tonya’s website, I got JAZZED up again. “I thought to myself. I want to do this!” But, let’s take a step back first and answer some fundamental questions about a digital breakout.

Who should play?

Small groups of students

What is a digital breakout?

A webpage with images, text, and hyperlinks. Students use the information to solve digital puzzles. These puzzles are set as Google Form questions with data validation. Unless you provide the exact content, the question does not unlock. And you will not be able to submit the form unless the correct content is entered.  

How does it work?digital breakout

Let’s say you have a six-letter word lock puzzle about Texas as the ultimate goal. Students use the website to find the answer. They might first think that the solution is Austin because there is an image of the capitol building with information about the city. Could the word be Austin? A student would type Austin in the Google Form under that particular lock. If it is not the correct word, students keep looking for more clues that would lead to a different six-letter word. Do be aware that there are “red herrings” that will distract players and could lead them on a wild goose chase.

How much time?

Usually 30 to 45 minutes.

Why have students participate in a digital breakout?

  • Logic
  • Problem-solving
  • Critical thinking
  • Creativity
  • Team building
  • Communications
  • Collaboration

Where can you start with digital breakouts?

So many words ago, I mentioned that I’m all in when it comes to breakouts. I didn’t just bite off a little piece of the digital pie. I am in WHOLE HOG! My goal was to create a digital breakout game for all 50 states and I have done it!

I used the same format for each state, but varied the locks and used unique facts. Each state includes:

  • Storyline
  • Suggested timeline of 30 minutes (adjustable as the teacher sees fit)
  • Four digital locks
  • Standard locks  (1 or more)  word, number, directional, and color
  • Speciality locks (1 or more) letter and number combinations, abbreviation, time zones, alliteration, etc.
  • Work these along with your students or tackle them first 

I am so excited to rollout the The 50 States Digital Breakouts.

I have edited each state three times, tested the links, and verified that all information is on the site. (You will need access to Google maps when it comes to the directional locks.) But, as you know, from outside one’s Google domain, things may be slightly different than one figures. Please send me your suggestions, comments, and questions. Feedback is graciously accepted. Enjoy!

More Free Digital Breakouts

Featured image designed by TCEA.

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storytelling
Educational TrendsOnline Tools and Apps

Empowering Students Through Storytelling

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

With all of the discussion lately about fake news and how divided we seem to be as a people, it can be easy to start feeling negative and depressed. And that negativity can flow over into our students. After all, they are hearing the same stress and confusion from their parents, the news media, and most of the adults around them. The good news is that we can teach students how to combat such bad feelings through the simple use of storytelling, one of the most significant ways for someone to feel like he/she matters. And storytelling becomes even more powerful and affirming when it’s done together. With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to a new digital storytelling tool: Sutori.

Beginning the Storytelling

Sutori offers a way for anyone to create a story in literally minutes. Simply begin typing. Once your story is in place, you can add all sorts of media, including video, audio, and quiz questions. (How very cool, by the way, for students to create quizzes about their own writing for others to complete!) But what makes Sutori even more powerful is that it is collaborative. You can invite others to help you with your story, to provide feedback, to co-author, or to peer review.

storytellingThis new tool works on any device with Internet access, making it perfect for the BYOD or 1:1 classroom. It is free (more about that below) and allows you to share your stories via email, social media, or on a website or blog. It can be used for not only creative writing, but also for research papers, book reports, journals, science logs, and much more. It does require registration and a login however, so it would work best with students from third grade up.

The Education Version

With the education version of Sutori, the teacher has the ability to share a story with a group of students, allowing them to comment and discuss. And the comments can be moderated by the teacher. In addition, the teacher can create and share templates with the students for a particular assignment. You can even add students to the group from Google Classroom.

Pricing

Sutori has two pricing structures. One is free and unlocks all of the features for up to two groups. The other is unlimited and allows for as many groups as you want. The unlimited price is $99 a year, which is very reasonable.

In the Classroom

Because Sutori is so easy to use and yet so powerful, the only real limitation in the classroom is our own imagination. It would be great for daily or weekly journals, culminating projects, book trailers, virtual vocabulary walls, and even the improvement of writing for standardized tests. It’s also a great tool for helping students learn how to help others by giving them constructive feedback, a skill that many students lack. Since it’s free, you have nothing to lose by trying it yourself today!

 

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interactive
Content AreasMicrosoft

Creating Interactive Math Textbooks

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

“It is not the reader of a text who learns the most,” says Stephen Knudsen, “but rather the author.  When a student makes a textbook in a course, the student engages daily in all classifications of learning…when students are asked to make a textbook, they are required to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. The results of this process are often nothing short of astonishing!”

Combine popular math tools like OneNote and GeoGebra to create astonishing, interactive math textbooks. Let’s find out how below.

Creating a Digital Textbook

Microsoft OneNote makes digital textbook creation easy. Students can work together on a single OneNote notebook that is organized into “notebook, section groups, sections, and pages.” Create a OneNote notebook as a textbook template, then share it via Docs.com. Students can grab the OneNote notebook digital textbook template, then enhance it. Each student or group of students can take responsibility for a specific section. OneNote enables you to insert all sorts of content, such as Vimeo, YouTube, Office Mix, Sway, and Microsoft Forms.

Organizing a Digital Textbook

Want to create a digital textbook template for your students? Let’s adapt Stephen Knudsen’s suggestions for a digital textbook:

  • Section 1: Welcome
    • Title page featuring student-created cover art
    • Dedication
    • A short Foreword by the teacher or someone who has read the textbook
    • Table of Contents. You can use Onetastic add-on to OneNote to auto-generate a table of contents for each “section chapter” and the digital textbook as a whole.
    • Author’s page with pictures of students, including their Twitter addresses
  • Section 2: Chapter 1 – Introduction
    • Organize the OneNote notebook into sections. Each section is a chapter.
    • Each section chapter will include its own table of contents and introduction.
  • Section 3: Chapter 2
  • Section 4: Chapter 3
  • Section 5: Chapter 4
  • Section 6: Chapter 5 – Conclusion
  • Section 7: Chapter 6 – Appendix

Students create hand-drawn resources and then digitize their creations with the mobile-friendly Office Lens app. Tablet access? Students can create their first draft of figures within OneNote. Identify key terms, record video/audio definitions and explanation. Design tall buildings and describe in a video how they were created. For math problems, students can use OneNote digital whiteboard technology to draft their explanation. Or rely on Microsoft Snip’s whiteboard capabilities and then embed that in the OneNote page. A few other tips include adding tags to chapters, creating a hyperlinked table of contents for each section, and setting a page template specific to each section. When complete, future classes can access the digital textbook via OneNote Online or a “frozen” copy can be permanently published at Docs.com.

Exploring GeoGebrainteractive

Wondering how to add difficult mathematics constructs? Take advantage of GeoGebra tools and materials.

GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education (free to non-commercial users) that joins geometry, algebra, spreadsheets, graphing, statistics, and calculus. It also runs offline and works on various software platforms and devices (Source).

GeoGebra enjoys a rich community of support (check out Kurt Soeser, fellow Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE), work | watch his video) with over 500,000 pre-created resources. In addition to creating content with GeoGebra, students can also place any of those half a million resources within their digital textbook. Want to see this in action? Go to my TCEA Connect OneNote notebook using this link. You can also watch the YouTube video walkthrough.

Conclusion

Rather than rely on traditional textbook publishers, adopt a maker attitude in your math classroom. Empower students to create digital textbooks using Microsoft OneNote and GeoGebra. Publish to a worldwide audience and ensure that the learning is meaningful and authentic.

Featured Image Source

“Embed GeoGebra in OneNote” via Kurt Soeser as featured in the LearnOneNote Conference. Available at https://www.learnonconference.com/kurt-soeser-2016 during 11/12-11/17, 2016.

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TEC-SIG
Professional LearningTechnical Support

Become a Connected TEC-SIG Educator!

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Dream more, learn more, inspire more. These aspirations define leadership. And for the Technology Education Coordinators Special Interest Group (TEC-SIG), these words have power. Register for TEC-SIG’s next meeting on October 26, 2016 to tap into this power. At the request of TCEA members, the October 26, 2016 meeting of TEC-SIG has been strategically placed next to the fall TCEA SysAdmin Conference. These two events take place October 26 through October 28, 2016. tecsig

  • Stay connected, especially important during Connected Educators’ month.
  • Engage in community-based learning efforts that support hyper-connected students and staff.

Dream More

“How are you using digital signage in your district?” Technologies abound that can shape teaching, learning, and leading. When members ask, “How can I use new edtech in my situation?” they invite you to collaborate with them in world-building. Each effort forces us to re-imagine the possibilities. Whatever your role (technical, policy, instruction), you are invited to dream and learn more.

Learn More

“Use a cheap Android USB dongle and GoogleCast,” shares one TEC-SIG member. “Or,” counters another, “you can use Xibo, Navori, Visix, or  flat panels connected to a video multiplier running Powerpoint!” These meetings inspire attendees to learn from each other. Relationships begin in face-to-face encounters that endure via digital connections TEC-SIG makes available post-meeting.

Inspire Others

“We place digital signage in front of schools, in cafeterias, in hallways, gyms, libraries, and offices. Our high school librarian programs the specific messages that appear on each.” When everyone can be your teacher, it’s important to have a few colleagues you can trust and rely on. Being in the presence of so many educational technologists will inspire you to be a leader.

Act now to inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more. Be a TCEA TEC-SIG Connected Education Leader.

More about TEC-SIG

TEC-SIG is the largest SIG and was established in 1989 for the purpose of providing a means of communication between technology coordinators, instructional technology leaders, and other administrators. The organization furnishes its members up-to-date information on legislation, happenings within the Texas Education Agency, grants, and TEC SIG activities. Members share their own technology-related experiences at three yearly meetings in an effort to educate and inform each other on what is happening in the field of technology. You can also participate via the email listserv and TCEA Community.

More about TCEA Sys Admin Conference

The 2016 System Administrator and Technical Support Conference is specifically designed to offer useful and practical information to individuals like you who provide hardware, software, network, and infrastructure support for PreK-16 educators. We have created this conference specifically for the tech savvy system administrator, and we have planned a comprehensive package of strands that covers the real-world problems you encounter every day, offering solutions you can use.

 

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Good TeachingOnline Tools and Apps

Become a Storymaker: Creating Engaging Digital Tales

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

When I first participated in Joe Lambert’s digital storytelling workshop, my father had just passed away. Creating a digital story, Garbed in Silver, a combination of narrative and images, helped me cope with the grief of his death. It also helped me reconnect with some of my best memories, allowing me to create a remembrance for my young son that endures today on YouTube and Teachercast video hosting sites. Digital storytelling can be a powerful way to connect with others. In this blog entry, we explore digital storytelling resources and tips.

Join the ongoing TCEA Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) SkypeChat via your mobile device or online. Explore and share concepts at the intersection of teaching, learning, leading, and technology!

1) Finding Digital Storytelling Resources

Looking for digital storytelling resources? There are quite a few available online. Here are my top three favorites:

Each of these contains digital stories that connect at a visceral level. And some, like We Are StoryMakers, invites the work of writers, actors, and media enthusiasts to create with a simple directive: you have five minutes to create a narrative and then record it.

2) Storytelling Keys

“In oral culture,” shares Joe Lambert, “we humans learned to retain stories as epigrams, or little tales that had a meaningful proverb at the end. In our current culture, many of us have not developed an epigrammatic learning equivalent to these processes.” Yet it’s not just about creating stories that are entertaining; it is about creating stories that transform us. As Vyasa says, “If you listen carefully, at the end, you’ll be someone else.” To accomplish that, I like to think that stories engage both our experience and beliefs, as Gretchen Bernabei demonstrates in this image, and helps us reflect and transform our perception of what has happened in our lives.

digital storytellingThere are various approaches to storytelling. The oral storytelling approach focuses on a beginning event, a middle with multiple events, each summarized by an image that captures our attention, until it reaches a turning point, moves to falling action, and ends. This story structure can be used for a lot more than just oral storytelling, of course. To prepare for this type of approach, Joe Lambert suggests creating a “memory box.”

Of course, it is easier to collect images, videos, and sound in one virtual space (e.g. Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) than ever before. A few tools I recommend for creating a digital memory box include the following:

  • OneNote + Office Lens: These two free apps, which work on a multitude of mobile devices, allow you to store text, audio, images, and embed videos, and could easily be used to collect information. The Office Lens app lets you digitize content, snap a picture of paper items or photos, and save them to OneNote, a digital notebook. With OneNote’s built-in digital ink, students can easily fill in the chart and storyboard their digital story. The teacher can take those student creations, combine them with the final products, and publish them on Docs.com as a OneNote Notebook (which is free for everyone and works great on iPads, Chromebooks, Windows/Mac computers, and Android).
  • Google Photos + Google Drive:  With these two apps, you can save photos or videos taken with your device to Google Photos, saving content online. Google Drive offers unlimited hosting for GoogleApps for Education (GAFE) users, so you can easily drop videos and images there.
  • Collecting images can be straightforward with mobile apps like Camera Awesome (iOS and Android), Camera MX (Android), and Google Camera. Image annotation becomes easy with Annotate (iOS), Photo Editor by Aviary (Android and iOS), SnapSeed (iOS and Android), as well as EyeEm Camera and Photo Filter (iOS and Android). Don’t be afraid to take advantage of green screen apps (DoInk for iOS and Green Screen Pro for Android) to further enhance photos, making your own greenscreen with a $1.00 Dollar Tree store green plastic tablecover.

 

3) Find Photos That Make You Care

“Is that your son?” asked a friend when I showed him the digital story I had made of my Dad. The picture showed my son, perched like a king, in my Dad’s lap. Both were grinning, the picture such an attention grabber that even now I find it hard to look away. If you are looking for examples of photos that hold your gaze, check out the IPPAwards.com site. You can also find a wealth of images in free, public domain, or available for re-use online.

Note: Want to learn more about becoming a story maker? Be sure to join Miguel Guhlin at TCEA’s Tots and Technology Conference taking place this summer in both Galveston and Frisco, Tx!

4) Combine Images and Audio into a Digital Story

“Little strokes” said Benmin Franklin “fell great oaks.” Epigrams like this one powerfully send the message that you have achieved something, overcome adversity if it comes at the end of your digital story. If you can’t make one up, find the right epigram to borrow, properly cited, of course. Practice telling your story aloud, using the pictures as your guideposts; keep your wisdom brief.

Apps like Shadow Puppet EDU, Adobe Voice, and Storymaker 2, as well as MS Office Mix (Windows/Mac) enable you to combine content in powerful ways. The process is straightforward, but the key lies in creating epigrams that will stick in people’s minds. Include music only if it enhances your story; otherwise let your voice, or silence, and images make the message clear.

Conclusion

All of us are carrying countless stories in our mobile devices, in the moments that we felt compelled to capture with a camera. And those moments call to our spirit, seeking to liberate words that lay afraid in our minds. Digital stories can set you free.

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