iPad Storytelling to Foster Perspective

Click Using Picturebooks to Expand Perception by Hayley McEwing, or click on the title on the right hand side under "Youth Services Programs and Resources."

Digital Storytelling link

http://cogdogblog.com/2007/11/15/50-ways-slidecast/

I worked at our "downtown" branch recently.  After helping a middle-aged woman find some books on "recovery" and some religious music, she shared with me a personal story as well as the Cherokee tale about "the two wolves inside of me."  ... another commonality of humanity -- the fight within us all ... 

Here's a Youtube telling:

Story Sharing Techniques and Resources for Preschoolers

Take a look at this updated document:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByZSJgcQD22tX1o2b05zVl96cm8

Also available to the right under "Youth Services Programs and Resources."

Digital (Wiki) Storytelling

Ready for an oxymoron? --> Here's some old news.

Did you know that Penguin launched an online storytelling experience using the wiki format in 2007?
http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2007/02/a_million_pengu.html

Here's an interesting report of that experience:
http://www.ioct.dmu.ac.uk/documents/amillionpenguinsreport.pdf

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the actual, online finished story. However, this does recall a program activity I read about when CSLP was doing the "Creative" summer reading theme a few years ago.  While sitting in a circle, kids were invited to contribute to an improvised story.  Perhaps this experience could be continued on a library website, though much monitoring would have to occur.  At the very least, it's an interesting social experiment.

Has anyone ever tried something like this in a library setting?

Digital Storytelling (websites)

Pulled from AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning:

http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx
http://www.zooburst.com/zb_about.php
http://myths.e2bn.org/index.php

Digital Pop Up Book No. 3 (Video)

The last augmented reality feature in Tony DiTerlizzi's Search for Wondla.

Once Wondla Vision started, I pointed the webcam at the computer screen.  This creates a mirrored effect of the map of Orbona, particularly noticeable are the doubles of the clouds.

Digital Pop Up Book No. 2 (Video)

Page 277 of Tony DiTerlizzi's Search for Wondla in augmented reality. 
I tried to capture the whole computer set up this time and let myself be in the background.

DiTerlizzi for Caldecott

If Brian Selznick's distinction as the first illustrator to skew the norm of a 32 page picturebook with his Caldecott Award Winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Word and Pictures in 2008, then surely the distinguishing first attempt at a digital pop-up book exemplified in Tony DiTerlizzi's The Search for Wondla (the first installment in the Wondla trilogy) would be considered in 2011.

Digital Pop-Up Book No. 1 (Video)

Page 123 of Tony DiTerlizzi's Search for Wondla in augmented reality. 

I'm in WondLa indeed ...

Stories + Technology = Interactive Games

I'm an official gamer at http://wondla.com/game1/ !

Asperger's Syndrome and StoryCorps

At ALA Annual of this year, I caught the end of Dave Isay's presentation.  Dave Isay is the founder of StoryCorps.

I've found that I'm still thinking about this particular story in which a twelve year old boy (who has Asperger's syndrome) interviews his mother.  Here is the animated short.

I think about the questions he asks like, "Have you ever lied to me?" and "Was I the child you hoped I would be?"

I think about how his mother calmly responds, never skipping a beat: "You've exceeded my expectations ... You have made me grow so much as a parent. [I've had to learn to think outside the box, and I thank you for that.]"

In my personal life, I think about the people that I'm close to that face such different challenges than myself.

In my professional life, I think about the challenge of sharing stories and information with a group of developmentally diverse children.

I think about how by knowing and interacting with all those who are different from me, I have had such opportunity to grow as an individual.

Illustration and Technology

Click here to view this photo book larger

I am thinking about treating myself to the Fall Weekend Conference at the Mazza Museum: International Art from Picture Books for my birthday on November 12! 

My Summer Conference experience was phenomenal, but I was not prepared for the opportunity to share my writing and illustration aspirations.  In addition to my Flickr photostream, above is the digital version of the physical portfolio I am now prepared to share with the Mazza conference goers and speakers.

Tony DiTerlizzi, one of the illustrators who inspires me, will be there, and I would love the chance to learn from him, show him my work, and get his innovative The Search for WondLa (to be releaseed September 21) signed.  I'm curious to see how he integrates written and visual storytelling with technology: "DiTerlizzi is pushing the envelope in his latest work, nearly creating a new format that combines a traditional novel with a graphic novel and with the interactivity of the computer." (Review by Connie Tyrrell Burns in School Library Journal.)

Look out Brian Selznick!  Questions for Caldecott?

Digital Storytelling Resources

While reading the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of OJELA: The Ohio Journal of English Language Arts (a publication of OCTELA, the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts), I came across an article by Jessica Fries-Gaither.  Here are the digital storytelling resources she lists:

Ohio State University's Digital Storytelling Program 
Berkeley, California's Center for Digital Storytelling.
Guide to Digital Storytelling from Scholastic
Integrating Digital Storytelling into Your Classroom

Here are some of Fries-Gaither's quotes that speak to illustration and story's ability to transfer learning:

"Image selection sets digital storytelling apart from the traditional writing process because illustration is often an afterthought or only part of the publishing step when writing traditionally." (11)

" 'Stories' in all content areas provide opportunities for students to make connections and synthesize information, two important thinking strategies for reading comprehension." (11)

Mo Accepts the Andy at ALA (Video)

Mo Willems at the American Library Association Annual Conference 2010. This is the introduction to his acceptance speech for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. (Yes, I took this video.)

Science Through Stories

Great news! My presentation proposal called "Science Through Stories" for the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (OCTELA ) was accepted.

This fifty minute presentation was inspired by the workshop I participated in for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County's Headstart teachers last February.

Here is a summary:

"Educators will be connected to literature that has been correlated to the Ohio Department of Education’s academic content standards, particularly the early learning/primary, science content standards. Sharing correlated literature using story reading and storytelling techniques (plus extension ideas) will be demonstrated. Science and storytelling resources (books and websites) also provided."

These correlations will also be posted to the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education (ILILE) website with the support of one of my former Kent State University mentors, Michelle Baldini.

I am also thinking of creating a professional wiki that will make such presentation handouts electronically accessible (save paper) and eventually, share and showcase my library program handouts.

Digital Storytelling

While preparing for the Storytelling Techniques for a Preschool Audience workshop last month, I came across Jason Ohler's resources, particularly his digital storytelling book.

When I was looking at his website, I found his interpretation of a story's core elements intriguing. His image (scroll up a tad) of the problem or tension ("the new you pushing to change") needing a solution or resolution (from the "old you resisting change") spoke to me.

Change makes the story of our lives.

More and more I am seeing life as "story" and the potential for sharing all kinds of stories to transform lives and learn.