I was able to share some of these things today; but not all of them.  Actually, I did not get to show some of the very best resources.

DIGITAL WRITING RETREAT:

Day FOUR begins with finishing the rough draft of your movie and having a peer review it. 

I.                  Day FOUR requires that you have a finished moving by 100pm.

If time allows, search internet for best practices example of digital storytelling for your subject area.

Day FOUR ends with what was to have been the end of DAY TWO:

II.               One hour of digital storytelling pedagogy with best practices/examples

Pedagogy 101: 

1.      Marc Prensky’s 2001 Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives article is attached to an e mail sent to you earlier.

2.     A Vision of K – 12 Students Today

3.     Fifth-grade teacher Nicole Dalesio keeps her class motivated to learn by encouraging them to create multimedia presentations and projects using technology tools on the web. For more articles and videos about integrating technology in the classroom, visit our Tech2Learn resource page.

Free Online Resources Engage Elementary Kids (Tech2Learn Series)

4.      ISTE NETS - T

5.     Troy Hicks's PREZI on Digital Writing

6.     http://digitalwritingworkshop.wikispaces.com/Digital_Storytelling

7.     http://chippewariverwp.wikispaces.com/Digital_Storytelling

Show a best example or two.

1.       Blooming   Student story from Scott County Schools

2.      Long Vowel

3.      OTHER EXAMPLES: http://www.dtc.scott.k12.ky.us/technology/digitalstorytelling/studentstories.html

4.     http://storybird.com/books/how-much-mail-could-a-mailbox-box/?token=n3v9bb

5.     The University of Houston’s Educational Uses for Digital Storytelling:

This is an amazing resource.  Open it and mark the page.   Specifically, open the LINKs area on the toolbar.  Think of the possibilities!!!

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

Participants.  If you are still thinking about all of the steps we have been going through to create your digital story, watch this five minute video about some really creative 5th graders and how they work through their iMovie project. http://www.edutopia.org/tech-to-learn-free-online-resources-video

What a day.   I am so exhausted but quite proud of all of us.  We had tens of technical problems and we found ways to deal with most of them.  Many participants performed digital tasks using digital tools that they had never before even attempted.  Many participants have gained a new respect for building digital content for the Internet.  I think all of us learned at least two or three things that will help us make a better digital story next time.  Inevitably that will help us become better teachers. 

Hopefully all the participants are starting to explore ways that digital storytelling and digital writing projects can be used to improve teaching and learning in her specific content area and grade level.

Tomorrow will be our biggest challenge yet.  Everyone must render a final movie and everyone must move forward in the workshop and begin thinking about the ways digital storytelling can be tailored to meet classroom needs.  We will also have to look at the national standards for writing and technology, which are reason enough for us to get excited about using digital storytelling.

If you read this blog post tonight, look at what Jennifer New has to say about using digital storytelling in the classroom.  How to use Digital Storytelling Classroom

Today, which was really yesterday, went well.  The environment (classroom itself) is really not very nice or accommodating.  The participants helped each other and did not get overly frustrated learning Google + and Blogger.  There were only a few minor issues with scheduling our time and a few additional issues with technology that were manageable.

Everyone had fun reducing their narratives to scripts, storyboarding went well for most, although I could tell that many of the participants would have rather skipped that step.  I hope after reading our Digitales and Make Me a Movie books they will change their mind about the hard work of storyboarding.We created image/shot lists and sound lists as a part of our pre-production phase.

We began gathering images and sound files.  Participants seem eager to get involved in the actual digital creation of their Windows Movie Maker project/Digital Story.

We begin the production phase in about 8 hours.  

I need to get some rest.  This is going to be an interesting day.  I am excited to see the particpants' ideas take a digital shape.

Today was wonderful and a little scary.  It was full of little fires that needed to be put out.  Everyone was willing to help thwart the fires and press forward.  When the going gets tough, or interesting, you can always rely on educators to be the tough ones that "get going."

I learned a few more planning things:  non-Armstrong students cannot use our computer labs and this makes taking a digitally-based pre survey quite difficult.  We managed to take our pre surveys in the one hour allotted using laptops that were not yet configured as lab-only devices.

I also learned that many digital immigrants, who hold a wealth of knowledge on literacy and ESL, really do lack confidence to grasp ahold of todays digital tools in ways that can improve teaching and learning.  Now, I am excited to help them build their confidence in a few of the many digital tools available today:  digital storytelling software, blogging, screencasting, Googgle +, etc.  I am sure when they see all of the quirky things that can happen when building digital things with digital tools, they will realize that digital writing is manageable. 

This is going to be fun and probably challenging.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to successfully lead everyone through Day 2's agenda which involves an intro to digital storytelling, rules for story circle, sharing story ideas, positive peer critiques and the finally writing our storyboards. 

I have one more day to get those techno-reluctant participants comfortable with their story ideas and their ideas on creating a digital story.  Wednesday, we will do the hard work of creating digital files and beginning to create our digital stories.

It is almost tomorrow. 

This whole experience should be good.  

If anyone is reading this tonight 1) it is late and you should rest and 2) wear a coat and scarf because it is freezing in UH 125!

I am exhausted, but, I think we are ready for Day 1.  I am still creating the sample learning module for creating a digital story in Windows Movie Maker 2.6, but, know that will be a quick task.

I have learned quite a lot today about the limitations of Windows Movie Maker 2.6 and have adjusted my teaching strategies accordingly.

Tomorrow, I hope to accomplish some data collection and last minute planning for the technology integration that should begin Tuesday.

Today's reflection mostly involves more should have's and could have's and darn why didn't I's.  This has been a learning process.  I am sure it will continue to be one throughout the week.

I continue to be worried that participants may not arrive with the digital files they need to adequately tell their narratives in a digital format.

We will all soon find out and adjust accordingly.

Today I have been reflecting on all of the ways we can improve the registration process if we offer the Digital Writing Retreat again in the future.  For example, I think it would be much more seamless if the registration was done online via an online open-source registration tool.  In that way, participant information would be archived digitally in one area and all of the facilitators involved in the set up and organization of the retreat would have easy access to vital information such as housing needs, vehicle information, the school district and specific school and grade level and subject taught by each participant.   E mail is old-school, as they say.  It is too hard to extract the vital data needed to organize simple things.  We use Gmail and things tend to get lost in Gmail because of the threading of conversations and the presentation of those conversations in a staggered overlapping view. 

Tonight, I find myself very frustrated by communcation failures that have resulted in a lot of extra work and worry.

I also find myself frustrated at the number of cancellations we have had.  We set a goal of fifteen participants and I believe we will have ten or fewer.  I had a cancellation as recently as twenty minutes ago.  I am beginning to think that this type of workshop/retreat should require some financial vesting of the particpants.  I do not have any research to quote, but I do know that studies have shown that people, in general, do not value "free" things.   Perhpas if the registration process involved a refundable deposit, we would have fewer cancellations.

This is a very utilitarian blog post tonight, but, I mentioned to the participants that these blogs will serve as a space for archiving our experiences and reflecting upon them.  At this point, my experience with the workshop has been very administrative.  I have also done hours of research and have spent a good deal of time organizing a wiki page to help keep our resources organized for next week.

Hopefuly, tomorrow's blog will be a bit more energetic and full of anticipation for Monday morning.  However, tonight has been a night to reflect upon areas that definitely need to be improved upon to make the set up go smoothly.