Activity 14: Conceptualise

Case studies

I reviewed:-

(1) A digital storytelling project in a multicultural education class for pre-service teachers (Kobayashi, 2012)

(2) Life Planning by Digital Storytelling in a Primary School in Rural Tanzania (Duveskog et al, 2010)

Patterns and principles I derived

(1) Avatar – enable learners to create avatars / wear masks if they are shy about expressing themselves of talking about sensitive issues.

(2) Glass Half Full – focus on aspirations / strengths / hopes/ dreams  - don’t focus on problems directly (this can be deenergising and disempowering)- focus on them indirectly. In the immigrant/refugee context, focus on what they want to achieve in their new lives, and how they can overcome any issues that are blocking them.

(3) Phasing and scaffolding – the need to structure the course to be highly scaffolded initially, and becoming much freer over time. As scaffolding reduces, empowerment increases. We move from a behaviourist pedagogy to a constructivist one.

Links with my team mates’ work

I reviewed

(1) ‘Reusing Peer Artefacts’ (design pattern – David);

(2) ‘The Immigrant and Refugee Voice’ (design pattern – John);

(3) ‘Empowerment’ (theoretical framework – David);

(4) ‘Learning Design’ (theoretical framework – David);

(5) ‘Participation’ (theoretical framework – David)

(6) ‘Design Pattern 1 DMcD’ (design pattern, David McDade)

(7) ‘Case study on digital storytelling for participation’ (case study – John)

(8) ‘Project-based community language learning in Canada’ (case study – John)

Links identified – and how they will affect our solution

Learning outcomes	·       We need to be clear on these in advance (7) ·       1 outcome could be ‘learning basic ICT skills’ (7) ·       I think one outcome could be to ‘create awareness of inherent power relationships’ – I read this phrase in David’s note on ‘empowerment’ (3) and I found it quite inspiring. By making ourselves aware of power relationships we may be unaware of, we can make better choices. E.g. in a teaching context, teachers may underestimate the influence that their subconscious biases have on their learners – assuming that boys want to discuss sports and girls want to discuss feelings for example, can unwittingly reinforce gender biases.
Teachers need to have sufficient digital literacy	·       as part of the course, and early on, we’ll need the teachers to be trained in some of the digital skills required for digital storytelling (7)
Coping with low-tech environments	·       We can incorporate oral and written storytelling activities too (8)
We need to decide how the stories will be shared once they have been created	·       Some of the topics will be very sensitive and personal (‘Avatar’ may help here) ·       A lot of learning opportunities will come from reflection on the stories – sharing them after they have been created (1), (3) ·       Note that publishing the stories may be very motivating to the learners ·       Note that younger learners may also be motivated if they can express some of their parents’ stories – involving parents in some way could be motivating (8) ·       There is a conflicting force at work here that we need to be careful of – we don’t want people to modify their stories to fit the expected audience. This will remove some of the benefit of truly empowering them and letting them express themselves. E.g. if a young learner knows that her story will be watched by her teacher or parents, she may repress a lot of the things she needs to say.
Assessment – how?	·       John commented in one case study there were no measures of success (7) ·       David (Appel) wrote of the possibility of using Peer Reviews / Reflective Dialogues (3) ·       David (McD) wrote of the possibility of using ePortfolios (6) ·       Also to focus on process, not just focus on the end-product when assessing (6)
Flexibility required – flexible approach to pedagogy, flexible approach to course design Broadly, we can design the course to start in a structured, directive way, and then relax and empower the learners over time. There will need to be a lot of initial scaffolding, and carefully phased activities (phased from directive to empowering, prescriptive to participative) – links to my ‘phasing and scaffolding’ principle.	·       We can design to accommodate different pedagogical backgrounds (3) ·       Some people will come from a rote learning/behaviourist background; some will be more comfortable with a constructivist approach ·       We can start with a highly directive, behaviourist approach, and gradually empower learners over time to take more control over their own learning ·       This links with David’s principle of ‘Empowerment’ – learners will be increasingly empowered ·       It also links with David’s principle of ‘participation’ – learners will be increasingly able to participate, and will therefore be increasingly engaging in constructivist learning. ·       It also links with John’s ideas that we can use known narratives as initial scaffolds (8) ·       Also links to John’s ideas in ‘the Immigrant and Refugee Voice’ (1) that we can use immigrants’ rich language resources as initial inputs – let them tell stories/sing songs in their own language first, to boost confidence. ·       Teachers may be surprised to see the different energy their learners have when they can use their own language and display some of their cultural folklore. ·       This in turn links with David’s principle of ‘reusing peer artefacts’ (1) – we can use stories produced by earlier cohorts, including some re-tellings of traditional folk stories, as initial scaffolding on our course. ·       It also helps address a common theme of learners needing to learn key digital literacies first (7) – they can be given the tools in a behaviourist way, and then as they get more comfortable with them the activities can become more constructivist in nature. ·       There is a link to the idea in ‘the Immigrant and Refugee Voice’ (2) that immigrants’ problems are universal – so we could structure the course to have some of these universal problems shared first and then narrow down to local issues. This would provide a larger pool of initial resources to draw on (immigrant stories from around the world), and also be reassuring to local refugees and immigrants, who would realise that other people all around the world share some of the same problems.
Don’t be dependent on technology	·       Patrick’s concerns about low-tech environments link up with John’s view that we can incorporate written and oral activities (8); this also links with David’s empowerment principle – he doesn’t think the learners should be dependent on the technology.
Ways to boost learner motivation	·       Let them know from the start that the stories they produce will be published and shared (subject to ensuring sufficient confidentiality) ·       With younger learners, involve parents in the sharing of the outputs
Avoiding negativity	·       Have a ‘glass half full’ approach – focus on aspirations and dreams, and elicit problems and dilemmas indirectly – how are the learners blocked from achieving their dreams, and what can they do about it. ·       My ‘glass half full’ principle links with David’s ‘empowerment’ framework. ·       Also links with my ‘avatar’ principle – that we consider allowing learners to use avatars so that they can de-link themselves directly from sensitive/personal isssues, and make meaning of them in a more objective way.