Calling ALL Stories…
Educators as StoryKeepers: Capturing the History-Making Journey of Education Technology for NECC '09
In the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or its statistics, but by the stories it tells. Flannery O'Connor
NECC 2009 in Washington D.C. will mark thirty years of ISTE history . . . and the journey of education technology is longer still. Please join us in creating a worldwide collection of the many images, podcasts, voicethreads and digital stories that detail our successes, challenges, and celebrations of using education technology to make a difference for our kids. ISTE is collecting this visual history along with current snapshots and imagined futures to remind, inspire, and begin to gather the human history of education technology. *For more information and access to posting your own stories --> www.ISTE.org/30
WHY
Tell your tales; make them true. If they endure, so will you. James Keller
Gathering the stories that need to be told far and wide enables us to build our own collective “story fields” of influence in the world. Storytellers are extremely powerful. They have the personal power to guide, motivate, inspire, and influence.Who we are as a people are the stories we tell ourselves. Digital storytelling leaves a legacy - a storyfield of influence - urgently needed as decision-makers prioritize resources. We can use our stories of how technology can make a difference for students to influence their decisions.
Without all of us, education technology could not have expanded to have the impact it has already made! Without each of you, we wouldn’t be able to continue the essential work ahead. In these chaotic economic times – it is urgent that each of us claims our personal legacy as a “StoryKeeper” in the journey of using technology to make a difference for students.
What
The power of our work is much greater than the numbers found in evaluations. Where passion meets practice, thereby lies a story that needs to be told. Bernajean Porter
Calling all affiliates – SIG groups - and educators everywhere - round up your colleagues and make an occasion to help each other craft that ONE story! Lean on each other as you learn the elements of good storytelling in a digital medium to contribute a legacy story focused on students – a story that needs to be told. These stories will serve as inspiration and influence locally while also being organized to distribute to US state and international decision makers during and after NECC 2009!
First Steps: Finding Your Story
Learning from one’s own experiences depends upon being able to communicate our experiences as stories to others. Roger Shanks
Remember a very important storytelling quality is the lesson learned along the way!
It becomes the spine of your story, guiding economy and the content embellished - what to share and what is not essential. A lesson learned reveals the point of sharing this ONE story. What did you learn? And what do you think? What insight(s) did the experience give you? What do you now know or understand?
Detail ONE student as a representative example of this experience (showing NOT telling). These need to be no longer than 3-5 minute vignettes - there isn’t time to include everything that happened so find the story in the story (a defining moment) that will quickly represent the essence of your experience.
All storytelling will be clustered into three categories: Honoring, Celebrating, and Envisioning. Storytelling prompts are meant to inspire you to search, prioritize, and find that ONE story that YOU need to tell.
Honoring the Past
There are many pioneers and current teachers who have endured many constraints to work to bring the power of technology to their students.
Here is the story prompt for Honoring the Past:
Share your first "aha" of how technology:
- unlocks learning for students.
- motivates students.
- breaks down the classroom walls.
- deepens learning for students.
- [you add the verb] [you add the aspect] for students
Celebrating the Present
It boggles the mind how many, many classrooms are now resourced and supported across the world developing unique experiences for our students everyday – let the celebrations be documented and pervasively shared!
Here is the story prompt for Celebrating the Present:
Share your deepening understanding of how technology:
- unlocks learning for students.
- motivates students.
- breaks down the classroom walls.
- deepens learning for students.
- [you add the verb] [you add the aspect] for students
Envisioning the Future**
These future stories are the NEW stories we will tell. They are scenarios or vignettes that we imagine and grow into in ways that create a new morphogenic field of influence leading by us intention into the next generation of impact for students. Where do we go from here – what will be possible for students – what NEW history will we be making. Avoid embellishing about the STUFF – DO find the new stories that represent the learning and student success that we even now carry in our hearts. Scenarios are most powerful when first person, present tense and positively about the actions and values experienced by students NOT hardware and NOT the school itself. Here is the story prompt for Envisioning the Future:
Share a day in the life of a student as he to she interacts with future technologies and experiences an improved and transformed learning environment.
Crafting the Storyline of Project Stories
The personal narrative of these project stories is organized around three main plot points: context, experience, and impact. See example movies at
Examples of Project Stories About Kids
• The first plot point identifies the context of the project for the viewer. What was the title and purpose(s)? What results, and outcomes were expected? For whom? Do not take up too much story space telling project information or implementation logistics – this is not directly about knowing the project. We need to know only enough to give the context for your story. Consider context as similar to a story’s setting.
• The second plot point describes your personal experience. Where did you start in your beliefs, skills, or attitudes? What were the key highlights or learning experiences? There isn’t time to include everything that happened – find the story in the story that will quickly represent the essence of your experience. Consider experience similar to a story’s plot.
• The third plot point reveals the impact or difference that was made – the lesson(s) learned for ONE student. This is the key message that makes up a major portion of the emotional space if not story space. Understanding “impact” should not be an afterthought or post script – it is the heart of the story for the author as well as the viewers. The Itza Wrap story is organized around sharing the impact of one student to deeply connect with viewers – showing not telling. Design visual representations, sound, the use of “guest voice(s)” and other digital compositions to evoke understanding, inspiration and appreciation for lessons learned – the differences that were made. Consider impact as similar to a story’s dénouement
ISTE Storytelling Corps
