Digital Storytelling

     After a quick breakfast with DEN director Scott Kinney, I headed down to a session by Tabula Digita (“Where there’s power in numbers”), the folks who make the multi-player math game whose finals were featured live in the concourse yesterday afternoon. The teachers this morning were just about as competitive and excited as the the students I saw playing yesterday. If DesCartes only knew how much fun people would have plotting lines on his plane… On a side note, girls apparently love the game because they can compete evenly with the boys.

      During the break, I headed down to the Discovery booth and another tour of the show floor. It never ceases to amaze me how many vendors and services there are available to schools. About 1200 exhibitors were set up in Atlanta.  It was also a chance to connect with many old friends who were either working a booth or walking the floor.
      On the way back to the next session , I thought I heard Hall Davidson’s voice over a P.A. After a little investigating, I found him at the video webcast set being interviewed along with closing keynoter, Tim Tyson. It was a stroke of genius on the part of host Chris Walsh to put Hall and Tim together. They understand the power of students being able to create their own media and are eloquent proponents of its use throughout the curriculum. You can see this interview and many more at the NECC Live site.

     On the way back from the interview, Hall and I peeked in on Tony Vincent’s "I Didn’t Know You Could Do That with an iPod!" session. All hype and fun music stuff aside, the iPod really is an inexpensive and powerful tool for collecting, storing and sharing a plethora of media (as Hall regularly testifies to). Now the iPhone on the other hand…
     Back to the Discovery booth, I sat in on a couple of sessions that Hall hosted. One Place looks like a very handy tool for gathering a school’s subscription resources under one log-in and search umbrella. Hall then packed the presentation area and the aisles with his take on the iPod. He very trustingly (never asked me how much time I’d take) invited me up to show a movie clip illustrating a special effect. We connected my video iPod and voilà my granddaughter and I magically reappeared from behind a tree. More on easy and free video special effects later.
     Caught one more session before the closing keynote. Old friend, Alan November, started his presentation about “Expanding the Boundaries of Learning” by polling the audience with several questions concerning the scope and ownership of a child’s education.  Fortunately, the vast majority was predisposed to his topic so he was able to challenge us to follow up on our opinions on how empowered students should be to collect, act on and share real world information. His example of how South Bronx middle schoolers were motivated to write and share their poetry by recording it onto an iPod was priceless.

     The closing session, comparing school 1.0 to school 2.0, brings me back to Tim Tyson and the great videos his school’s students produce. I was amazed when I first heard him say they had about a thousand people show up for their celebration of student work, but after seeing a few examples I can see why the whole community would be proud of what their kids can do. From the slavery involved with harvesting chocolate to just how special a special student is, make sure you take a look at some of the “Making Our World a Better Place” videos on their site.
     So another NECC is history. Since all of the Discovery team and most of the attendees took off soon after the closing, Hall and I found ourselves all alone to debrief and DIGEST before our dawn flights the next morning. If you’ve never attended a NECC, you should. Connecting with other educators, seeing presentations and exhibits on just about every aspect of using technology to teach and learn, and soaking up the ambience of another city and its people are all invigorating to the life-long learner.
     On to San Antonio next year.

     The day started with a great deal of nostalgia for me. Roger Wagner and his flagship program, HyperStudio, were the biggest reason I morphed from Spanish teacher into certifiable multimedia maniac. So when I bumped into him on Monday and he invited me to breakfast for the official announcement of HyperStudio, which he has reacquired, I had to be there. The Mac version will be out in August and the PC by January ‘08. What he had ready to show us looked good and very familiar. Stay tuned for  HyperStudio 5 official release review.

     I couldn’t get into Hall’s Staggeringly Good Things Integrating Media and Google Earth presentation. But you and I can catch it on Media Matters and off the NECC podcast page. Hall, I thought you were going to save me a seat!
     Later, I did get a chance to sit in on webcasts of the AFI’s Frank Guttler being interviewed about our favorite makin’ movies program and then Charlene Chausis discussing her ISTE Technology Leader of the Year award. You can catch those videos and an interview with Hall and closing keynoter Tim Tyson at NECC’s video on demand site.
     Visual Learning: An Accelerant by Cheryl Lemke of the Metiri Group touched on many topics near and dear to my visual storytelling heart. From graphing the dangers of launching a Space Shuttle in freezing weather to student created videos on making good choices, she talked about how cognitive science proves how learning is enhanced when text, sound, and pictures combine to deliver a memorable message.
     CNN makes the facts (science, history, etc.) behind the news relevant to students and the curriculum with features and streaming video.

     As for gaming, I did get a few different views of how this can fit into a school.
–http://www.mypopstudio.com gives girls a look at the world by creating their own rock stars, commercials, and music videos. Funded by Office on Women’s Health (OWH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
–There was a playoff going on between New York and Orlando students based on collecting spheres and plotting their coordinates on a graph. You can stun your opponents to buy yourself more time to “do the math” as you race around the virtual landscape: Evolver.
–There was a birds of a feather session on gaming at the end of the day. The participants ranged from those teaching programming to content teachers to WebQuest creator Bernie Dodge. Way to much to digest before I attempt to summarize. Stay tuned…

      My few minutes of fame got a couple of minutes’ boost yesterday when I attended Mitch Aiken and Frank Guttler’s American Film Institute presentation. During their "Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum" session, Carol Anne McGuire and I got some screen time in the form of interviews that were video’d when we were at AFI in Los Angeles last March.  I made my screen debut with Sean Astin during the interview clip, but you’ll have to look carefully (don’t blink!). The DEN and "Lights! Camera! Education!" program on unitedstreaming were also featured in an article by Mitch in the spring issue of "American Film" magazine.
     The day ended with an intimate celebration of the DEN’s second birthday with more than three hundred of our immediate DEN members and friends. After looking over the get-to-know-you game sheets, it seems to me that all but five or so states were represented. Go DEN!! 

     Along with fellow STAR Discovery Educator, Carol Anne McGuire, I will be attending and having a small part in the American Film Institute’s "Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum" presentation on Monday at 11:00. I’m looking forward to (re)connecting with many of you at the DEN events and/or the AFI session.

      Here we are at Discovery headquarters in Silver Spring, MD makin’ movies. This is just the beginning of a post that will be changing and growing over time. Check the comments on a regular basis for tips and sites from participants. So far we’ve had some green screen fun (and headaches) along with trying some other special effects in our door movies.
     I slipped out to the AFI Theatre and Cultural Center down the street and got a RED carpet tour. I was also reminded what real linear editing was like by the editing/splicing table they had on display in the lobby.

     And here’s a PDF of the opening slide presentation sans movies Download MakinMovies507.pd
     Check Marco Torres’ FlickSchool podcasts on Storyboarding and different shots. And don’t forget to look in at all of his students’ work from the iCan Festival.

     "Visual Grammar" is the topic of a conversation I had with the AFI’s Frank Gutler in mid-March. You can download that podcast from this link.

     The Mabry School in Georgia has some great examples of student work.

     How can one person make a difference? That’s just what the National School Board Association asked student film makers. You can see the winning answers at their T+L conference site.

     You are a very creative person and you are about to graduate college with a major in a field that is your hobby, if not your passion. But just hours before the commencement exercises, you and your classmates each set up a booth in trade show fashion to show prospective employers and your family and friends what you have done and what you can do. That’s graduation Illinois Institute of Art style.

     I had the pleasure of perusing portfolios and talking to all the different types of media grads along with potential employers on Thursday afternoon and it turned out to be quite an education for me. Each major had an entire row or more of booths representing Digital Media Production, Game and Art Design, Interactive Media Design, Media Arts & Animation, and Visual Effects & Motion Graphics. Every student perked right up when they saw “Discovery” on my name tag, but our conversations took a different turn when I told them I was more a reporter than potential employer. I’d like to say they were more relaxed as they explained their respective fields to me and how their talent and skills would fit into a team on various projects. I write about this because I see it as part of a basic that I am glad we are getting back to. We are all visual learners and team players. We have inherited brains that are wired to acquire and retain from seeing. “Show me!” and “Do you see what I mean?” are far more common and innate phrases than “Explain it to me in at least 500 words.”
     I got an even deeper insight during lunch when I shared a table with a couple of gentlemen from a transportation company. I entered the buffet line thinking that the soon to be former students I had talked with were destined for TV commercials, in house video production, video games, and web sites. The men’s business, on the other hand, was interested in showing companies and government agencies what the industrial park or downtown or five miles of road would look like after they redesigned and built it. On occasion, they might even need to virtually reconstruct an accident for a TV station or a court case, “and you’d better have your math and physics right to go with your pretty pictures in situations like that.” Then they mentioned the importance of storyboarding, regardless of the project, “You can’t communicate an effective message if you don’t know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there!”

     When I went back to take one more turn through the aisles now crowded with family and friends, I felt that I had graduated to a different view of digital storytelling.
     I did collect a few websites that show the grads’ demo reels and other portfolio pieces. I hope these are representative of the many talented digital artists/storytellers I visited with.

http://www.jasonesser.com
http://www.sarahehirsch.com
http://www.timconsdorf.com
http://www.sandythorpe.com
http://www.jorgeartworld.com
http://www.johnspicuzza.com
http://www.thisisvp.com
http://www.steves3.com
http://www.epoch-art.com
http://www.jonmosoff.com
http://www.danimalsdesigns.com

     That’s just one of the possible stories that came out of my trip up to Milwaukee yesterday to join the Wisconsin DEN for a day of Discovery. We went for a short sail out on Lake Michigan aboard the three masted schooner, S/V Denis Sullivan ("S/V" stands for sailing vessel, BTW). It’s modeled after the wooden cargo ships that were the “semi trucks” of their day and that made the economy of the Great Lakes so vibrant. But it wasn’t built to teach economics. It’s a floating classroom designed to put students of all ages in touch with the life and the resources of Lake Michigan. For extended learning trips, it can even sleep twenty-two. And those three masts are a story unto themselves. Refusing to sell trees that big because they bear witness to the spirits of their ancestors,
the Menominee nation gifted them to the shipbuilders as a way to honor those ancestors and a way of life that respects and cares for our natural resources. We also all got a good picture of just what a “slacker” is as we tried to work in unison hauling on the lines to raise the sails.
     Our hostess, Jeanine Brennan (no relation and all n’s properly accounted for) made sure we were all equipped to document our day by lending out her media bags (just $1 at the Dollar Store): each containing a digital camera, voice recorder and a GPS unit. She shared how similar learning trips had started with students recording their first impressions and expectations and then finishing with a PhotoStory record of the day. Perhaps the students’ cleverest use of the GPS device was monitoring the speed of the school bus. We also got to use it for a little geocaching exercise that took my team to a very unique kite shop and kite flying area right on the lake.

     P.S. On a personal note, I was born and raised in Chicago. I was just marginally aware of the schooner trade that laid the foundation for our port cities of Milwaukee and Chicago to become great industrial centers. I am the fourth generation of a family that was more familiar with and dependent on the railroad and the steel mills. Just a little over a decade ago, my knowledge of the ships and people who sailed them was expanded when we saw the debut of “The Christmas Schooner” written by a friend that our son had acted with. I don’t know if there are ever any productions outside of our area of the Midwest, but I heartily recommend it as a way to celebrate the season by learning about the people who made that old German tradition of the Christmas tree a possibility for every home by sailing them down from one end of Lake Michigan to the other.

     My wife and I had a very traditional Saturday night date last weekend. We ordered in for dinner and then headed down to a local high school auditorium for the premiere of a “home made” movie celebrating the life of our township’s first community high school. It’s a very nice coincidence that this comes just after my “Memory Days” post last week. We once had eight large high schools in our district and now we’re down to six. The first to close its doors was the first one built. Arlington Heights H.S. was opened in 1922 and graduated its last class in 1984. A member of one of the last classes felt “The Lady in Red” deserved to have her story told, so he spent three years interviewing and assembling photos and old footage to put together a great story available on DVD. Since the first showing was sold out, we went to the second of the night and there were still very few of the 1500 seats open.

    Just in case you’re seeing a big white space below, I have been reminded that many schools block YouTube and that’s where the video streams from. So scroll down to the conclusion and try again from home to see the "Lady in Red" trailer.

     The community appreciated having an important part of its history recorded and its story shared by and for generations. The story is structured by decade, based on alumni (going back to the class of ‘32) sharing their memories of the building and society, local and national, that they were growing into. He did a great job of showing the symbiotic relationship between the actual building as it grew and changed, and the staff and students who grew and changed with it. Especially touching was a recording of the principal’s closing words at the final assembly on the very last day. He spoke as if he were the building, “sad that my halls will no longer echo with the sounds…” yet proud of the almost three full generations that passed through the doors. “Class to the Last” was the motto the students and teachers adopted for the last few years and after more than an hour of watching the decades race by on the auditorium’s big screen, we could see why.
     You don’t have to spend years interviewing and researching to record bits and pieces of your school’s or community’s history (or your own family for that matter). Start a website or a DVD with 1 to 3 minute pieces, one little story at time.

     Just in case you don’t read Hall’s "Media Matters" blog, click this link and check out the range of projects that were entered in the 41st California Student Media & Multimedia Festival.