Digital Storytelling Video
(See Reflection Below)
Script:
"I've spent much of my life interested in the past. I can remember temperate summer afternoons
riding in my father's pick-up. The
windows were rolled down and either a Tigers game or Paul Harvey were humming
on the AM radio. I would listen with
wonder as he regaled me with stories about his childhood. The fights, the pranks, the gravel pit, the
aunts and the uncles, the holidays and the more somber moments were woven into
a tapestry that enveloped me. Over time,
history and family history became a passion.
I study and teach history not because I love names, dates and facts but
rather because I'm enthralled with the common man and the individual stories
that have built our country brick-by-brick.
My family is but a microcosm of the vast American story: a rogue redcoat
desserts and joins up with George Washington, an Irish immigrant that worked
the rails in Chicago, a tavern-keep in Carbon County, a garage owner in Sand
Creek, milk maids in West Virginia, a 49er, a victim of the Spanish Influenza
epidemic, World War One doughboys, bootleggers, preachers and USO workers. The more I learn about American history the
more I can connect to my own family's story.
Our story.
The family history has taken me to many hidden hamlets and
villages, hillsides and grave sites.
Along the way I've developed a sincere fascination with small town
America. The types of places with
American legion halls, Friday night fish fries, a town hall and a greasy spoon
mom-and-pop breakfast joint. I'm a
sucker for Norman Rockwell-like towns resplendent with firemen sipping cold
beers on the steps of the engine house, mailmen that walk the route, ice creameries
and corner bars. Places like Weatherly,
Pennsylvania, a place that seemed like it had somehow found a ripple in the
space time continuum and existed in a fog halfway between 1945 and 2005. And blue collar nooks like Parsons, West
Virginia, a town that is nestled in the Appalachian foothills and serves fried
pickles as a local delicacy.
I've chased down ghosts-specters that have no
photographs just names on my family tree.
Names like Webster and Hezekiah, Nason and McGowan.
Family history is more than old photos and clippings, though. It is our past and as
they say, "past is prologue". History is the process of assigning meaning to the past. Soldering together the scraps of days long past and molding them into something we can understand, something we can grasp. Someday, somewhere, someone will recall with fondness our names and tell our stories and attempt to pass on our history with fading accuracy with each succeeding generation.
I wonder what they will say?"
REFLECTION:
1. In at least two paragraphs, describe which of the theories of multimedia from the Swisher article (week 1) apply to your digital storytelling projects (may be more than one). You must clearly connect the work this week to Swisher's ideas, and indicate how your knowledge of the theoretical foundations of multimedia helped you better create a digital story that will enhance what you do in your classroom. Upon reflection, you may also indicate what you might do differently with future use of digital stories based on your re-reading of the Swisher article.
Of Swisher's theories of multimedia used in this digital storytelling, both the "Coherence Principle" and the "Redundancy Principle" are illustrated. According to the Coherence Principle, "“students learn better
when extraneous material is excluded rather than included"--furthermore--"the
coherence principle involves eliminating irrelevant words and pictures, interesting but irrelevant sounds, and
unnecessary words." In the case of this digital storytelling about my own family history there is no text save the title and credits. Students will listen to my narrative and hopefully be inspired to feel the same. The idea was to paint a picture and "set the mood". Extraneous words, material and information was stripped away and all you get is the haunting family images, the mellow soundtrack and my narration.
Insofar as the redundancy principle goes,“students learn better from animation and narration than from animation, narration, and text”. My video exemplifies this principle. The images speak for themselves while the narration couples nicely with the background music. It is meant to create a "haunting" mood and inspirational tone that will hopefully strike a nostalgic chord with sixteen-year-olds.
2. In at least one paragraph, discuss the copyright and creative commons implications for your work this week. Did you use copyrighted or CC images, if so, did you use them properly? Also, how might the ideas about copyright and CC inform how your share your work? Upon reflection, you may also indicate what you might do differently with future use of digital stories based on your re-reading of the copyright and CC articles.
All of the photographs used in this digital story are owned by me. They are family heirlooms that I have collected the last several years as the family genealogist. I have a pretty extensive collection of photographs from 1960-2013, but have really worked hard to collect photos pre-WWII. Many of the photographs used in this story are taken before 1945. In regards to Creative Commons, I first looked for generic pictures to illustrate my script but opted to use something more intimate and connected to my own experiences. In the end, I wish to inspire my American History students to do the same.
Conclusion: I enjoyed the digital storytelling assignment and will definitely incorporate this methodology into my classroom for advanced organizers, online tutorials, review and classroom assignments.
