This fall we worked with students from across campus on digital storytelling projects, but one concentration of this interest came from the department of Psychology.
Becca Kester
Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker and Cherisse Flanagan teach courses that welcome psychology majors into the program and then prepare them for careers after graduation. Both teachers integrated storytelling assignments this semester to help students articulate the commitments that drew them to the field.
After two successful workshops we hosted this summer with the Center for Digital Storytelling, we worked with our first groups of students this fall producing digital stories as a part of their courses. These student projects focused on three different areas:
• Two Cornerstone classes from the Honors College explored the potential of first-person narrative in first-year experiences.
• Two Psychology courses introduced first-person reflections on vocation into a capstone experience.
• Finally two other teachers looked at digital authoring as a way to communicate more traditional arguments (Proposing a Solution) or portfolio-type reflections on teacher training.
Thanks to the faculty and students in each of these courses for working with us to better understand the role digital stories play in the broader curriculum here at ACU.
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HONORS CORNERSTONE
All of the students produced remarkable stories. The following collection reflects the flexibility of the form to capture a wide range of experiences.
Media projects continue to gather strength across the curriculum, sometimes building on essential literacies of writing or speaking. This semester Dr. Laura Carroll’s English 111: Composition and Rhetoric students produced short video responses to the typical Proposing a Solution prompt. This is just a part of Dr. Carroll’s assignment:
Proposing a solution is a common writing task in personal and professional life. You call your audience’s attention to a problem, offer a solution, and urge the reader to act on your proposal. You will learn to analyze the problem, evaluate possible responses to the problem, select one solution, and argue the effectiveness of your solution to your audience.
Basic Features of Evaluation Essays
• A clearly defined problem, framed as a question in the early stages of writing
• An effective solution
• A convincing argument in support of the proposed solution
• Anticipation of reader’s objections and a response to those objections
• An evaluation of alternative solutions
• A call to action
The students came over to the Learning Studio for a training session in Camtasia for Mac which allowed them to bring together a variety of media types into their final projects. Here are a few examples.
One assignment in the English grad class Rhetorical Theory & Praxis (ENGL 652) focuses on student readings in the theory behind composition instruction and support in writing centers. This semester Dr. Bennett offered students the option of producing a promotional video that blended clear messaging with a connection with their audience. Read further to see his video assignment.
Thanks to Christina Johnson and Suzanne Shedd for sharing their project and for the Learning Studio’s own Ben Weaver for shooting it. Really nice work shot on one of our Canon 60Ds.
Video Assignment
Here is the final assignment along with grading criteria and ground rules that may be of interest to other faculty teaching with video for the first time. Thanks to Dr. Bennett for making this available.
OVERVIEW – You are to prepare a three- to five-minute advertising video for the ACU Writing Center that emphasizes your choice of best practices while providing standard publicity information—location, hours, etc. You may wish to highlight our tutoring hierarchy, our hospitality, our collaborative methods, or any other item that illustrates what we do. The goal is to provide boilerplate publicity information but also to demonstrate your understanding of at least one prong of best practices.”
CRITERIA – Grades will be based on overall quality of the video, workmanship, creativity, sound quality, and evidence of effort toward excellence.
GROUND RULES 1. The ACU Learning Studio, located in the Brown Library Learning Commons, is utterly prepared to assist you with this activity.
2. No unedited videos will receive credit. You must use Final Cut, iMovie, or other such program to assemble clips, arrange transitions, add soundtracks, etc.
3. Be careful as you capture video at the WC; many clients will be uncomfortable with being filmed. Consider using the space after hours with actors (I can give you a key).
4. Final products should be uploaded to YouTube with the URL then sent to me via email; I will then imbed them in the class blog.
5. Feel free to consult and share with other teams–ideas, strategies, editing techniques, and software capabilities. Collaboration is good and welcome!
6. Not all of your footage must be shot at the space itself; use texts, promo clips, etc.
7. I am not expecting technical perfection. I am expecting high quality.
8. Many students are excellent editors and videographers, but poor sound engineers. The most common problem I have found with such assignments is poor sound. Be ready to record and re-record your sounds and voiceovers.
REFLECTION ESSAY – After you have completed this assignment, write a short paper that explains the motivations, choices, strategies, and contexts that yielded your digital short. This paper should not merely capture “I made a movie” but, rather, “Here’s what I was trying to do in the movie, here’s why I chose this topic, and here’s how it connects to other readings (inside or outside our class reading list). Ultimately, a person watching the digital short should not need your paper to understand your argument, but it should substantially complement the movie in an explanatory manner.
