Chapter 9 Blog:

Chapter 9 Blog: Visualizing With Technologies

          Kate Kemker’s “digital storytelling” focuses on the procedures of making a film rather than the digital recording and editing technology. The pre-production part requires most of the student’s attention. This lays the foundation for the entire project (the order in which the intended story will unfold and in what form), and gives the students the necessary tools to form their story. With pre-production being the foundation of the project, it requires most of the students’ attention and, if neglected, may negatively affect the overall quality of the project.

          Next is the production stage of “digital storytelling.” This is the point in the process that students record the video portion of the project.  If the steps outlined in the pre-production stage are followed, and depending on the length of the production, this stage shouldn’t take too long to complete. This process allows the students to assign roles to each of their group members; such as film director, actor, photographer/videographer, and editor so that each student can specialize in certain important roles for the completion of the project.

          The final stage, postproduction, is the process the students will go through in order to edit the video. This is the point when the student assigned the position of the editor will be most active. Though each student should be involved in the entire project of creating the film, there are points within the project that each member will be more active than usual. Once all the students are pleased with the overall production of the film, it is ready for premiere for the entire class.

          I think this could be a major project in my classroom. This project places a ton of responsibility on each of the class members both individually and as a group. If my students are mature enough to handle such a high level of responsibility, this project would be fun to facilitate in my classroom. Once again, if more class time needs to be spent teaching elements of the English language such as grammar, usage, and other department required material, I may not have the time needed to incorporate this into my classroom.

          Math was a subject I always struggled with. That is why I am an English major; science and math were always my weakest links in school. I never really struggled with English or writing courses the way I did with math and science courses. It is always helpful for students who are struggling with math to visualize what numbers can do. A graphing calculator was something that helped me in college algebra. When I could see on a graph what happened to points on a four quadrant plane when I adjusted the value of ‘x’, I was able to understand how it worked out. It did take time, however. It didn’t happen overnight, but once I had an “Ah-ha” moment, that information stuck with me. For students in high school the book mentions “Fathom Dynamic Statistics Software” as a way to understand large sets of data. The one I found to be most helpful was “Geometric Supposer” in dealing with Geometry. The book describes well the reason students struggle with this subject; Crismond explains geometry “requires analytic reasoning, which a majority of students find difficult” (203). Much of what is learned is through the visual production of it. If a student can visualize the capability of numbers, they can have a better chance of understanding them.

          It is possible to learn how to do something by watching television. One of the great debates is the quality of information young people learn from watching television. Sometimes young people have the opportunity to learn a set of values and behaviors that are not welcome in society nor the classroom. It is possible to learn by watching television but it is not possible to get better at what is being learned. One has to continuously perform what has been visually learned in order to get better at it.

References:

Crismond, D., Howland, J., Jonassens, D., Marra, R. M. (2008).  Meaningful

learning with technology. Columbus: Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.