The Earthquake Blog Oct. 29th

ITEC 800 Blog: October 30, 2007
Prepared as a Collaboration using Google Docs

Everyone one has their own authentic story and each one of us went through an individualized process to express our experiences. This process is congruent with the constructive learning theory. We develop a personalized and authentic learning experience through trial and error. The Digital Storytelling project exemplifies this individualistic learning process. While watching the videos we need to keep in mind the constructivist theory. Where do we find our voices?

Professor Foreman asked us to upload our digital stories to her iLearn forum. She also explained that each SFSU student has our own account that can hold up to 200 MB of data.

What did we use to produce our videos?
iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Soundtrack, MovieMaker and PowerPoint.

All the people here went through different processes and we all created unique projects.

The Videos

Ken
Video without words just music. All imagery, his friends all had different thoughts on it. Chose to use only music and imagery. No narration. Letting Go. Split shot of Ken as homeless person and business man. Shots in Japantown. Paper crane in a cage. Coins scattered on the floor, the cage empties, the homeless man is dead and movie switches to color. The last shot is black and white and of seagull flying off. Return to innocence by Enigma.

Chris
Story that meant a lot to him. Personalized this story about him - found his voice in the story. The story was of an abused Jewish woman. She was adopted by peasants and charged with taking care of the cow. She found comfort and solace with the cow. She felt sheltered in the dark nights and rescued from the nightmares of the daytime. Chris shares this story with everyone and has a collection of cows, which shows how this story has affected many people. Hopefully if many people hear her story, it will never happen again. He heard this story while working for the Oral History department in Washington DC at the Holocaust Museum. Professor Foreman asked about the process. Chris enjoyed paring down the story. The limited time forced him to pare down to the essence of the story.

Genovefa
Genovefa used a historical subtext in her story. Art pieces and abstract images gave emotional pull to the story. A look at how Genovefa’s life brought her to the program. She chose not to include any personal photos, but to only use images of objects such as David, trees, La Pieta, churches with Arabic designs, ancient ruins, relics and empty arches. She shows a series of empty arches as she narrates, “a marriage of emptiness and silence." She uses fades to whites for transitions.
She expressed difficulty working in iMovie 8, but gained a great deal from the input from Leslie. She liked the idea of using white fade outs for the transitions, taking images from dreams, and the use of marble and stone. Professor Foreman thought the movie was too fast, sometimes when you have said the story so many times to yourself, you may have tendency to go too fast. You need to keep in mind that the audience is hearing your story for the first time. Josh recommended adding some personal photos. Professor Foreman added that personal photos can help to personalize the technology.

Marcus
Have you Eaten Yet? Combination of maps, family photos, objects. Very personal but still light. Touching. His grandmother always asked, “have you eaten yet.” She prepared many delicious and nutritious meals..always with rice. He captures how his grandmother’s love and care was poured into each meal she served to her family. Brian observed the changed from Marcus’s initial reading, which was humorous, to today’s movie, which was more touching.

Josh
Humorous outlook on birthdays. Different kind of story - very alive. Josh admitted that he tried to consolidate thoughts from last week, but was still having trouble coming to a resolution about birthdays. Professor Foreman thought the movie made the story come alive as compared from the initial reading he made 2 weeks ago. At first, Josh recalls his birthdays in terms of material possessions. But with each successive year, his birthdays are more about time with family and friends. His birthdays are times for reflection.

Erica
Very visually engaging and entertaining. A personal story without being too emotionally serious. Dim Sum brings her diverse family together because everyone orders what they want.

Zack
Personal story about he and his sister. Zack played his movie for his sister and removed all the things she thought was stupid. He made excellent use of music and images. He knew when to let them do the talking.

Sarah
Funny visual story that reads like a children's book. She used Photoshop to do the slides. My Weird Beard. It is an Ugly Duckling story using her dog and about appreciating differences. Sarah already made an autobiography for another class, so she adapted a story to the digital story form. Included text with pictures because this movie is also meant to be an instructional piece to help children read.

Brian
Faded Reality. Friends helped him to make a video for a film festival. Although mocked in their mime make-up, his friends remain true professionals and give their best performances to support Brian’s dream of making the movie. Brian realizes the importance of his friends and the sacrifices they made to support his dream. Professor Foreman remarked that with visuals the story came alive. Brian said it was a very personal project for him.

Angie
Mischief Pays Off. Despite her parents’ warnings and repeated “no’s,” Angie and her cousin attempt to climb up to her cousin’s tree house. While climbing, Angie falls to the ground. Later that night, when her mother sees the bruise, she does not lecture Angie, but kisses her bruise and comforts her daughter.

Juliana
A bridge between two cultures. "I call myself Chinese-American" was a really strong statement. A twist on the Chinese-American assimilation story. Juliana was born in America, yet doesn’t feel completely American amongst all her golden hair and blue eyed friends. Her mother’s stories of China gives her hope that she will find her place in a land where everyone looks like her. She goes over to teach in China. However, she can’t fit in America or China. She comes back and teaches in America. She is a bridge between 2 worlds China and America. She is Chinese-American. It was Juliana’s first time using MovieMaker. She struggled with the software.

We had an EARTHQUAKE during class!
-5.6 Center Near San Jose

back to the videos

Yu-Fen
How to stop global warming from the advice of a cat. Yu-Fen inserts herself as a third person in the story. We get to see a very personal part of Yu-Fen’s life, even though she is not the protagonist.

Yu-Fen decided to make a totally different than before because Lesley told her to focus on one topic.

Craig
The tortuous experience of trying to find a place to live in the Bay Area. The experience causes Craig to question his choices and the anxiety nearly suffocates him."I can't breathe." Craigs’ story ends on a happy note…he found a place to live.

Todd
Who would I become? I felt like a kid again. Todd's movie focused on his independence and moving out on his own. He used PowerPoint to make the video. Todd shares his experience about letting go of his past and the person he had been.

Professor Foreman asked for 3-5 things that we learned from the Digital Story Experience:

Genovefa felt that Lesley was very intuitive, and she liked the feedback given during that class. She learned how to coordinate music with fade ins and outs and transitions. She Didn’t like voiceover speed or flatness of voice. She doesn't like iMovie 08 and wants to learn Final Cut Pro.
Todd said let pics tell story, the words emphasize pictures. Powerpoint is a superior photo album.
Ken Learned about a lot about self. Set a high standard for his film
Craig He had a hard time getting past the frustration of the time restraint. He had to realize that he could only do so much in a allowed time.
Kim said that artist generally sets their own standards and it's internal (intrinsic) motivation, not external
Marcus thought it was a right brain activity, Took the opportunity to make it his own. He used a lot of different software. he wants to do something next
Juliana Difficulty with technology.
Josh said he learned to "create a rough draft", and then fine tune it
Sarah learned that she needs to proof read things. She doesn't know how to edit audio.
Zach got bogged down in technical content, and lost sight of his content
Erica learned a lot of the technology tools. she relied on her classmates
Brian learned about compression, learned about different codecs. he also learned about time management. He said he's really bad about writing about himself
Angie had trouble finding the words to put it all together. Try not to get focused in the detail.
Yu-Fen said she was not creative, class disagreed with her. Her research on Internet helped her to create story.
Laurie felt stifled by the technology
Sterling was trying to find peace by mac and pc
Carlos learned that he's familiar with these program except powerpoint

Professor Foreman explained that in the constructivist theory, the process is just as important as the product. It focuses on the importance of creation and process. Very important to make learner their own judge and seft evaluator because they will set up higher standard and goals for themselves

Net Gen

How do you create lesson plan for the net generation?
www.downes.ca

Steve Downes brought high school students (all Gifted and Talented- all want to be doctors not teachers ) to conference to ask and share desires. How they wanted to be taught. These net gen students were Amazingly ambitious and very focused. They knew the steps they needed to take and the steps needed to get to next step.

Helicopter parents: Parents are managing their lives. Even though they might be in college, the net generation will still rely heavily on their parents’ choices/advice when making decisions about their future.

Even Oblinger’s article was written about high income level students.

Laurie thinks the net generation can do a lot of things, but they are not systematic problem solvers. Not learning from their mistakes. They can’t do an analysis of what was done wrong. Laurie can’t figure out architecture. Manuals don’t explain why you make a choice or implications of the choice. Reading is frustrating and time consuming.

Josh points out that Instant Messaging is not just for chatting. He views it as a 24-hour help desk.
net generation there different characteristics between the different generations
How do you deal with the different learning styles
you want to motivate them in an intrinsic way
how would you think about creating your own training material
Steven Downes knows a lot about web 2.0
www.downes.ca
brought youndg students to conference to show their wishes and desires on how to be taught. It was very alligned with the net gen reading material
they are very ambitious and focus. They know excatly what they want to do.
Erica thought it was odd of the concept of playdates. That net gen need so much structure, when she was young she just went to go play. How do you create a place that has structure but doesn't stop them from creating their own learning path.
Professor Foreman Helicopter parents are managing their times, they are very achievement oriented. Kids want to consult their parents. Tutoring places, SAT prep places
Erica, said this sounds more like a socio economic issue.
Chris said that people don't think of technology. Seperation of technology and content. Why did Lauries stories have to be digitized, he liked it the way it was when she read it in class.
Laurie thinks that the Net Gen aren't systematic problem solvers. She said that help menus have changed. Now they don't tell you why you would want to do something, only a description of the tools.


Constructivist assessment focuses on the ability to demonstrate, not just recall.

Homework:
Read Chapter 10. Prepare a lesson plan utilizing Gagne’s 9 events of instruction.

A classic model of instruction. It is often asked during interviews and is a good model for corporate training as well as classroom instruction.




Behaviorist
Change in learning. They teach the same process, so everyone arrives at x in the same way.

Cognitive
Change in mind structure.


Constructivist
Change in behavior and structure. The learner also adds his/her own piece to the experience. Authentic learning

How can you use technology to create a constructivist instruction?

End of Class - See you on 11-06-07!
-Erica, Josh and Zack