Dawn’s Plight
The Rationale Behind the Story
Choice of Medium
Prior to leaving the world of digital storytelling, I was asked to create a story. I decided I wanted it to teach inferring skills, and how to handle a workplace problem. The story I chose to tell was about a common problem experienced by immigrants – the death of a family member, in another country, and how to handle it professionally in the Canadian workplace. This story is relevant and worth telling as this situation or one like it, will likely happen in the course of students’ lives. However, professional allowances and behavioural expectations differ from culture to culture. What is considered acceptable behaviour here when someone dies can differ dramatically from what is acceptable in a student’s culture. All too often In my own teaching experience, students have disappeared for days, dealing with sick or the funerals of loved ones and then returned, expecting to continue from where they left off. Unfortunately, because they were unaware of cultural expectations and did not notify the school of their absence, they faced negative consequences. Given that one of the units in my course deals with workplace problems, I felt this was a good time to tell this story.
There are several reasons as to why I chose to tell this story using a comic medium. If I had just used pictures, how well would students able to easily relate to the pictures? Would they have connected the story with their lives? Had I just written it as a text-based story, I’m not sure the full impact of the story would have been felt. Students might have said-“it’s bad that it happened”, but would they have felt the emotional impact, and been able to sympathize with Dawn? Would they truly have understood why Dawn was fired? Studies have shown that memory, visual aids and emotions are closely connected (CBC DocZone; 2010). Using pictures with text to tell this story heightened its’ emotional impact, while helping students see the connection in their own lives. Pedagogically speaking, the story allows students to identify with a situation they may face, and recognize what is inappropriate behaviour. The following discussion and reflection activities built in to the lesson allow for further development of recognizing appropriate work behaviour.
Aside from the content contributing to student learning, the medium was an instructional tool. By their very nature, comics entail an interaction of visual and written communication to tell a story. Often, the full meaning has to be inferred. This skill rarely comes naturally to intermediate EAL learners and has to be taught. Using a comic about a real situation helps students develop this skill. The story leaves students having to infer what Dawn did wrong and decide how she should change her behaviour. However, I felt that the comic as a stand-a-lone tool was not enough to effectively teach inferring and solving this problem. For a lesson to be effective, it must allow for reflection, interaction with peers, and allow for interaction with the content. (Chickering and Gamon; 1987) (Anderson; 2008) Therefore, I added reflection and discussion activities through the use of lesson questions and discussion forums. In this way, the story supports not only content learning but also skill building in critical thinking, inferring and communication, providing a rounded learning experience.
Selection Process
In order to choose the medium to tell this story, I first focused on the story I wished to tell and let that dictate the choice of storytelling tool. As I mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I decided to use my Moodle unit- Advising, Problem-Solving and Inferring, as the basis for the story. I created a story that would teach students about inferring and professionally dealing with a death in the family. Using Alan Levine’s website, cogdogroo.com, I then explored over 30 different storytelling mediums, through his story about his dog Dominoe. As I explored these mediums, I focused on deciding which one would best tell my story. Most of the mediums relied on inputting pictures into slideshows, timelines, maps, comics etc. which could then be enhanced with audio, text, or drawing. Some could also be converted into video form. I decided against using these technologies for several reasons. For one, I did not want to add video, or sound to my story, as my goal was to develop reading skills. Video, music, or audio files would add another element that students could use to interpret the story, negating the goals of the assignment. Additionally, video and slide shows rely on pre-set timing, and gauging speed for my readers would be very difficult. Some students read very slowly, and many prefer to read out-loud. Therefore, ensuring that all of the students had enough time to read the information and look at the pictures, without moving the story too slowly would be very difficult. As I mentioned in my blog, programs like Tar Heel reader and Tikatok would also have been satisfactory, but they involved very simplistic reading skills – not to mention the addition of audio, which would have defeated the purpose of the lesson. Finally, I considered the amount of prep time instructors needed to create stories using the various mediums. Stock photos are rarely taken to have more than one or two scenes with the same characters so this would make it difficult to create a recurring cast of characters without editing the pictures. Many instructors do not have the time to cut, edit and manipulate multiple pictures to fit a format that would be reused. I decided on creating a comic, because it would allow me to manipulate the elements I desired to manipulate, focus students on inferring skills, and provide for consistent characters.
Pixton proved to be the best comic program for my needs. The characters provided were not child- oriented, which made it suitable for an adult audience. I could create my own scenes and characters, and tell my story without having to add stock pictures, video or audio. Additionally, it was a very easy program to learn to use, so I could expand my lesson by having students create their own comics, without focusing too much on learning to use the medium itself.
Advantages and Limitations of Storytelling
In a world where communication is becoming increasingly visual, storytelling is a great way to engage students who have been weaned on digital media. It not only presents information in a way that is visual, but allows instructors to address multiple learning styles. Instructors can add audio and text to stories, therefore addressing the needs of visual, audio, and read-write learners. Kinaesthetic learners can enhance their learning by creating their own stories or manipulating images, text and audio in a story. When it comes to addressing the needs of different language levels, lower level students can follow more complicated stories by listening to the video and reading the text at the same time, while higher level students can listen to and create longer stories. Storytelling is a great way to make a dry and boring topic seem interesting. After all, a family death is never an easy or fascinating topic to discuss; yet approaching it in a story makes it far more palatable. Using storytelling is also a great way to engage students. Think about counting: seven, eight, nine. It’s pretty dry and boring. Imagine how much more engaging it would be if it could be introduced in video format, with seven changing to eight eating nine. Students would get the joke and remember number order. Being able to tell stories creates rapport between instructors and students. By sharing personal stories, students get to know each other and feel better connected. This is especially important in online learning, where students never meet each other face to face. Students, regardless of age, enjoy being able to express themselves creatively. That is one of the biggest draws of using storytelling as a medium of expression – it provides a means for learning to truly become learner centred, permitting students to present their views to the world,( Anderson; 2003) in a means that is pressure free. Several of the Internet programs allow the reuse and mash-up of stories. Pixton is one of these. This is advantageous, because students can then reuse material, rather than spend too much time reinventing the wheel. It also allows students to tell multiple stories, using the same images – demonstrating the development of a theme, and highlight the plot building process.
Storytelling is a great way to teach the writing process and general plot development skills. Without planning their story using techniques like brainstorming and outlining, the stories won’t turn out well. Therefore, students will be more likely to use this process in their story creation, and later be able to apply it in their writing. Like most Web 2.0 technologies, digital storytelling programs are open to the public, allowing for easier peer review and interaction with the world outside the classroom for feedback and ideas. (Siemens; 2003)
That being said, the storytelling approach does have several limitations for learning. As a stand-a-lone activity, storytelling does not allow for much interaction with classmates, or full development and application of learned subject matter. Nor does it allow for personal reflection on what a student has learned. In fact, as a stand-a-lone it could be a very passive form of learning, like most visually based forms (Siemens; 2003). Stories have to be incorporated into a larger lesson for them to be effective. For example, how much would students’ get from Dawn’s Plight if they weren’t able to discuss it. I think much of the point of the story would have been lost. Also storytelling needs to be a planned activity. There is little room for conversation and spontaneity – key elements of everyday communication, and essential to teach EAL students. Another limitation of storytelling from an instructional point of view is that learning how to use digital media is time consuming and an instructor has to be conscientious of how much time they can afford to spend on developing a task. Also, if students have the opportunity to develop their own stories, they may get too focused on the mechanics of the program, and forget about developing the content, if the program is too complex. The other issue may be with using technology. For some students, learning how to use the basic features of a computer is challenging enough, never mind learning how to upload, copy, paste, and resize pictures, and record audio. This means that a storytelling assignment may be beyond a class’ present capabilities. EAL instructors need to be mindful of who they are teaching and what the students are capable of learning in the time frame allotted. Also, storytelling is a limited form of expression. It does not involve the detailed development of thought or argument that is demonstrated in an essay or oral presentation. This in fact is a common comment about using Web 2.0 technologies (Alexander, 2006).
Regarding telling personal stories, I noticed many of the programs rely on stock characters and photos, like Flickr or Office Clip Art. For students from non-western cultures, there are very few images that display their traditions, clothes and foods. You might find kimonos, but how many pictures of women wearing hijabs are out there for public use? I know with Pixton, I was very limited in the types of clothes and backgrounds I could choose for my students. Students might have difficulty finding pictures that are relevant to their own stories, unless they have collections of digital photos. (Which for many of my students is unlikely.) Finally, the stories that instructors choose need to be culturally relevant. Stories are a means of transmitting culture and if students do not understand the cultural context of a story, the meaning will be misinterpreted or have little meaning. For example, how relevant is a story about going hungry if you burn dinner to people in North America who can always get more food, if they don’t understand the concept of famine and extreme poverty? Therefore, instructors need to consider the availability of materials and concept comprehension when choosing their story, or it will not have the desired effect.
As I finish contemplating my experiences with the storytelling world, I have decided that it is a wonderful medium to teach students, when incorporated into a larger lesson. When instructors include storytelling in their plans, they must consider cultural relevance, how the story can be built upon, the time it will take to use storytelling and related mediums, and how it will benefit their students. If they do not do these things, the message and lesson will be lost.
References
Alexander, B. (2006) Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2), 34-44. Accessed online 2 March 2009. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0621.pdf
Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a Theory of Online Learning. In: T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Accessed online 3 March 2009 http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02_Anderson_2008_Anderson-Online_Learning.pdf
Chickering, A.W. & Gamson, Z.F. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 39 (7), 3-7. Accessed online 11 Mar 2009 http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/sevenprinciples1987.htm
National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm
Siemens, G. (2003). Evaluating Media Characteristics: Using multimedia to achieve learning outcomes. Elearnspace. Accessed online 11 October 2005. http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/mediacharacteristics.htm
“Where Did I Put … My Memory? – Doc Zone | CBC-TV.” http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2010/memory/ (Accessed November 21, 2010).
“CogDogRoo – StoryTools.” http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools (Accessed November 22, 2010).