For my storyboard script for the home page video I tried to follow the advice in the article by Nancy Duarte called “Structuring Your Presentation Like a Story”. I tried to follow the general pattern of her recommended path for a persuasive story that convinces the audience to adopt new ways of thinking or new behavior. “By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved.” I began with a common status quo, reading from a book. Most language arts teachers, especially teachers who have been in the trenches for many years and who might be the ones who might need to hear about my capstone project, will connect to reading from the good ole fashioned print book. Hopefully, this makes a connection to the viewer and sets up a rapport to hearing the conflict, or problem to be solved. Then I set up the conflict of reading and reading instruction being changed by modern technology tools and the digital age mindset. There is a bit of scare tactic at use here. What if reading actually became obsolete? What if in the future books became historical curiosities under glass cases in a museum? Most language arts teachers will not want this to happen. Now that the potential problem is presented, the “what could be” is given next. The final part of the storyline is to imagine a best case scenario where digital tools are used to enhance and bolster reading. This is an invitation to explore the resources of the latest technology and incorporate them into the teaching and learning of reading. It is a call to action, but as Duarte says, it isn’t too burdensome. It is the “hook” into making the audience curious enough to want to explore the notion of transliteracy with me by continuing to read the rest of my Learning Innovation Lab website. My challenge during the storyboard process was imagining video and images to match the script. I have glorious ideas about what could be, but I know I do not have the experience in shooting video to actually accomplish the fabulous ideas of my imagination. I know I have to be realistic about what I can produce. I have basically no experience shooting video. I’ll need a partner to shoot the video if I try to accomplish what I’m envisioning. I know I want to bookend my video with a close up shot of a book (pun intended). I also want the second and second-to-last shot to be of me in the shelves of a library. Following the recommendation that we, the teacher-researchers, be visibly present in some fashion in the video, I want to do the live portion of the video (the narration) from the library. Hmmmm - not sure the library staff will be cool with that! My idea is that the video will cut back and forth from live video of me speaking directly to the audience to still images, screen shots, or action shots of my students. I want the overall effect to be a montage of live & still, playful & serious.
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When I first approached designing a logo, I took to good ole paper and pencil. I needed to get the important symbols down to capture my idea. My desire was to capture the idea that reading is changing. The traditional notion of reading from a book is being modified by digital technology. Perhaps, someday, reading as I know it will be obsolete. Already, a vast amount of people already read, still rather traditionally, from a digital device. We already listen to audio books on a variety of media. The part of me that loves to curl up on the couch and lose myself in a good book for hours is scared and sad to see traditional reading change. The part of me that wants to embrace the benefits of innovative learning and teaching knows that I need to explore how these changes will revolutionalize literacy and, hopefully, bring literacy to more people. My first drawings for my logo included a book as the symbol of literacy as we know it now. The eye, ear, mouth, hand with a pencil, computer screen are meant to capture the ideas that we now “read” by watching media, listening to text, communicate it orally, by drawing and abbreviated versions such as texting and infographics. In one drawing I included people holding hands to show the communicative nature of reading and the collaborative nature that is being heightened and enhanced by transliterative media. For my first digital draft I used Logojoy.com. (Click here to get a $20 coupon https://logojoy.com?referral=SJOC65b6b if you want to give it a try.) Logojoy first asks you to enter your company name, which I luckily figured out should be the basic topic of my web pages and capstone project. Next you enter a slogan. Then it asks you to pick at least 5 sample logos that you like. Next you can search an image library for up to five symbols/images. I chose simple line drawings of a book, an eye, ear, person speaking, and a computer screen. Then Logjoy generates sample logos for you. You scroll through and pick a favorite as a springboard. You then get to play with fonts, color, backgrounds, arrangements, and symbols. I knew from our discussions on graphic design that I wanted a sans serif font. I chose a blue color because it represents loyalty, dependability, trustworthiness. I toyed with the idea of using a purple color for creativity and innovation, but decided after seeing my logo drafts that seeing “reading” portrayed as people at a computer would be “new” enough. This is not a traditional idea for teachers to accept, so I needed the safety of the blue color! The hardest part was letting go of the multiple symbols I had created in my initial brainstorm. My first few drafts on Logojoy had only a book or a computer screen, but I wasn’t satisfied with that. I needed one image that captured the multiple learning modalities that transliteracy invokes: listening, watching media, speaking, communicating. I also kept remembering how our 792 Capstone professor kept reminding us that above all we should keep in mind that this is an educational logo. I needed a student in my logo. I found a single cartoon character person at a computer with headphones. Something was still missing. I just kept scrolling through more images until I found this one, which captures the idea that transliteracy involves more than one person. I am still not 100% satisfied. I am still wanting the image of book pages on here somehow. Perhaps framing the entire logo in book pages? Perhaps a small line drawing of a book right before the words “Reading For All”? Perhaps a book image between Trans & Literacy? In the end I know that a logo should be clean and can’t capture the entirety of an idea, so I would let go of this monkey on my back.
My school site does not have its own technology mission statement. On our website, we are described as a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) school. A link to the NVUSD BYOD policy is provided. NVUSD BYOD policy We follow the District’s technology mission statement, one would assume. This is the first year that we have been given enough Chromebooks to sign out to students who do not have their own devices for the school year. We do not have Smartboards, our projectors are wired, and even then, each classroom has one projector shared among 4 teachers. Last school year we each received laptops in December. As a small site with a small budget, we face challenges to upgrade our technology.
As I consider how I can influence the 21st century use of technology at my site, I think the biggest role I can play is to share personally with my fellow teachers how I have learned to use the few resources that I have. If a teacher and a student have internet access, the world is literally at your fingertips. Teachers have choices how they plan their lessons and deliver content. In the Innovative Learning program, I’ve explored many new tools and resources. One tool that I think would be very useful for the Independent Studies setting is the flipped classroom approach with the use of mini lessons delivered by teacher-created videos with interactive features added with the use of EdPuzzle. Screencastomatic and Nearpod would also be simple, effective tools for our teachers. I’ve always loved the notion that enthusiasm is contagious, and I’m a big believer that teachers get most of their best ideas by begging, borrowing, and stealing them from other teachers. In our PLC meetings, I could share my newfound strategies and hope that others benefit. |
Nancy JaminetArchives
December 2017
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