Digital Story
My story script is told from a narrator point of view, documenting the transformation that a group of 5th graders has experienced through their partcipation in Juneau Alaska Music Matters for the last 5 years. It includes comments and interviews I have collected from the students themselves about the challenges they feel they've overcome during their time in JAMM.
No matter the subject, creating a Digital Story requires digging into fine details of a subject and open-mindedness to how the story is unfolded. When I decided to trace the story of the inaugural group of fifth graders who participated in Juneau Alaska Music Matters, I knew that J.A.M.M. was transformative, but I had no idea how complex the transformation was. As I interviewed students and researched the J.A.M.M. blog and Juneau Empire articles, it was clear that the program not only made a difference for students, but also for the community. I also found complexity in the ways students grew through the program: emotionally, socially, musically, and academically. Dealing with interviews meant I needed to honor students’ answers by incorporating them in a way that was honest but purposeful in sequence. While finding a meaningful sequence of video and photo clips is difficult, the result is a powerful representation that audience members will remember much better than a series of facts. Having spent time documenting the long-term transformations J.A.M.M offers in detail, I am more invested in the students I interviewed and the program we are a part of. Here is the link to my finished product!
Digital storytelling would be incredibly valuable to my music students, because it requires fine-tuning of audio and visual recordings. Musicians are always looking for ways to fine tune their performance, and digital recording and analyzing offer a powerful process for engaging in fine tuning while using technology that is relevant to them. Already, J.A.M.M does a miniature digital project, allowing students to research a piece of music history that provides the “hook” for online lessons (juneaumusicmatters.com). Since music history involves stories that are important for understanding the meaning behind music, J.A.M.M students will have more motivation for learning specific pieces of music they have researched and documented stories for. On a more personal level, in the past, J.A.M.M teachers have made paper stories of photos for students who struggle with seeing their progress in violin. Taking this to the new media level would add a layer of reflective learning to student musicians. Any student who is given an opportunity to record themselves at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year, will be forced to set goals and ask themselves what skills they gained or what hardships they overcame. I think this process would help students to stay motivated to play in moments when they aren’t feeling instant success or gratification. For a sample rubric of a digital storytelling project I might do with my students, click here.
In general, I think engaging students in new media projects brings a level of relevance and depth to their education that is vital to keeping them engaged and making learning last. The self-reflection and tedious editing involved in creating a professional digital product are skills teachers are constantly after to instill understanding in their students. If a music student has to watch their music history story 10 times to edit it properly, chances are they are going to remember that information. Learning to use technology well is also an essential life skill. The good news is students are constantly immersed in it and adapting to it.The bad news is students are often abusing it. Right now, many schools are focused on addressing cyber-bullying activity, and digital storytelling could be one way of giving students the tools to use technology productively and safely.
