For my Sandanona presentation I could use the Venn diagram as the framework for much of the discussion, introducing a circle at a time. Explain the meat of my research, interested in the intersection of my pasts and my present.
My degree in fine arts and photography. Then producer for public radio from the early 80s to the mid-90s when Newt Gingrich made NPR no fun any more. From mid-90s to now, work in Web, doing some work with interactive features and digital stories as well as more prosaic matters.
Do a brief intro to the three circles, one at a time.
Once done: they all drive each other: language objectives drive stories, but stories could also shape language objectives.
I’ll explain that we’ll look at each of the circles first, and then explore the middle: how they might all come together.
I’m going to wait to talk about who our students will be till the end, when we have a fuller picture of the possibilities.
Overview of each circle:
Digital Stories. In radio my focus was on people’s stories (mostly everyday people), oral history and folklore. Just for fun, I’ll play you a tiny bit of one. [which??]
Then, elicit audience ideas about where they could get digi stories.
One tried and true method is a prompt. At UMBC, they use ______. Michael used, “When did you decide to become a language teacher.” Time frame. Let’s think of some:
Free choice topic, too.
What other ways could we get stories about a student, where the S shapes the outcome but it’s not his/her own words?
- S1 interviews another S2 (using questions supplied by S2?), and then S2 uses segment as the audio track.
- Interview your ma or friend about yourself. Select a chunk.
Play Death Valley Queen segment of Molly video: a letter.
Then talk about Online Tools: What to do with the stories. We put all this effort into creating these masterpieces, and then they die on the vine. We can use online tools as a showcase. But they can do more than that.
- Blog: writing and feedback
- Podcast
- Social network e.g. Facebook
- Tweets
- Document sharing
- Chat
- Profile
- Flickr
- Wikis
- Google Docs
“Language Learning“: What can we learn about a language by producing and sharing stories in it?
The center: Where these three pieces come together into a community that is an extension of the classroom. I want to explore to what extent online community is a viable concept. It exists in many places. Facebook, DailyKos, and a lot of other venues. In this project I’m not seeking to create a vast network. To the contrary, I want it small and safe: everyone is physically known to the other, and this is an extension of the classroom: a place to build connections. Can you think of some things that social community can do for a small group of, say, 10-20 adults?
Students
What kind of students and settings might be compatible
Unresolved
- Figure out how to include Mexico stuff: blog and presentation
- Show them some story organizing tools I made up (storyboards).