[web 2.0 + storytelling = education]

Creating Lifelong Learners has an interesting post on a "Digital Storytelling Blog Carnival" featuring links to everything educators might like to know about digital storytelling. A link from his (Matthew Needleman's) post leads to an EduCause Connect conversation featuring Bryan Alexander, Director for Research at the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) and Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Associate Director for Academic Technology at Simmons College.

A blurb about the discussion:

"Digital storytelling merges leading-edge technology with age-old storytelling processes. Digital stories are typically in video format but can also include Web pages, digital maps, and other emerging technology mashups. With the addition of a Web 2.0 focus, audience also becomes co-author. How do these concepts apply to pedagogy and how can instructors evaluate and assess the process and final product?"

The discussion begins with the question: "What is Web 2.0 storytelling and how is it different from multi-media?" Bryn responds: "Web 2.0 storytelling is the combination of web 2.0 platforms and practises with storytelling, the desire to tell a story and narrative structure." He also add that web 2.0 is based on the social and micro content, both these ideas have a big impact on how students can use the web.

Gail: "With the 2.0 experience there is a much lower barrier to use..."

Bryn also makes the point that educators shouldn't try to stop students from using wikipedia or googling for answers but should encourage students how to "search more broadly."

"How do you access digital story telling production?"

Gail: "I'm a very big fan of the process...the power of story as this kind of conversational iterative process is the power of assessment (formative assessment)...I give them a rubric and they give feedback according to the rubric."

Bryan: "This is the problem with the audio, you can't tell if I'm agreeing or disagreeing...it's important to recognise that we've been composing in multimedia for a long time...it's hard for us to recognise the history of technology, we tend to define tech. as the most recent thing. We can draw on how people were asssessing hypertext in the 80s and how people were assessing web pages in the 90s. You have to select evidence and materials and assess them and that process (of selection) can be assessed."

Gail: "I would add to this that there is a context, what I'd have a first year, first semester student do would be very different for a final year communication student...Sometimes it's useful to have two rubrics, one for the subject matter and one for the media literacies."

I like Gail's idea of having two rubrics...that would certainly make it clear to students exactly how their work was being assessed...but, for transliteracy or digital literacy or new media literacy etc...should we be working towards rubrics (and other strategies) that can more fully *intertwingle* form (process) and content?

Listen to the entire podcast here but I've tried to embed it below:

This discussion took place at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas where Gail Matthews-DeNatale presented a session at ELI 2008 called "Digital Story Making: Understanding the Learner's Perspective" and Bryan Alexander presented a workship at ELI 2008 on "Web 2.0 Storytelling".