First Workshop Day!

Wow! - Came with my story idea - but still not written. I know this story - it is the "I" story for me to share at this time. The challenge is making it focused enough to be in 3 minutes and 250 words and still have meaning to me as well as perhaps those who will listen.

The group is great. 11 of us. All with some great stories. We worked today in the story circle. Listening to other's stories and asking questions. The workshop format of individuals coming from distances allows for sharing you may not do with those you are with everyday. It has allowed us all to let down the guards and take the risks. This is helpful in finding the voice needed to make an effective digital story.

I am still all over the place - too many words, the wrong words, the right words. Defining my message. As I narrow it down - I need to be ready to record by morning. You record your audio - your voice telling your story - then you move to the visuals and other things.

Many of us in the group are somehow connected to education and suffer from the academic voice. That is where the wordiness comes.

Day two - voice overs, pulling the visuals together. I will share more after the story is published as to the process.

3 days and counting! Need written story!

I have read the Digital Story Cookbook pages as assigned. I have picked my story. But I am now struggling with finding the story recipe to keep it in 3 minutes and actually take a listener through it.

I have gotten some great input - but now it is time to pull it together and thread the story. It doesn't help that I seldom have the luxury of being able to focus on one topic or thing for more than 15 minutes by my self. I have become so used to jumping from one thing to another and working with others to a common goal, that  independent work is difficult. This is good to remember for our K12 students. We need to build the collaboration skills and team work - but we have to make sure there is time for practicing independent work as well - it too is a skill.

Back to working on the story......

Some of the Contributors: Digital Story Workshop Prep

In no particular order, here are some of the contributors. There are some others work that I view daily and a few others who only publish in spurts and their sharing and photos add much enjoyment and interest to my life. It feels like the awards show - you don't want to forget someone, but you will! The individuals below are whom the connection has become a level above just an acquaintance or an appreciation of their photos. Something in our lives has found its way to a picture that has opened up a sharing and feeling of knowing each other in some way that if I was in a room of many people - these are the ones that would I gather with and have an immediate sense of comfort and conversation and also have the feeling of friendship and acceptance.

Dan Callahan http://www.flickr.com/photos/speaker4td/with/3160813372/
Alan Levine @cogdog http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/
Sia Vogel @siavogel http://www.flickr.com/photos/siavogel/
Michael Coghlan @mikecogh http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/
Karen Blumberg @specialkrb http://www.flickr.com/photos/specialkrb/
Susan van Gelder @susanvg http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanvg/
Melanie Hutchinson @melhutch http://www.flickr.com/photos/31003563@N04/
Carol Van Hook @vanhookc http://www.flickr.com/photos/librariesrock/
Marie Coleman @colemama http://www.flickr.com/photos/colemama/
Bob Cotter @gibonsgolfer http://www.flickr.com/photos/gibsonsgolfer/
Di Bedard @windsordi http://www.flickr.com/photos/windsordi/
Kate Ter Haar @katerha http://www.flickr.com/photos/katerha/
Carla Arena @carlaarena http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlaarena/
Diane Hammond @dibytes http://www.flickr.com/photos/dibytes/
Devon Adams @ noocar http://www.flickr.com/people/nooccar/
Alex Ragone @alexragone http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexragone/ 
Diane Hammond @dibytes http://www.flickr.com/photos/dibytes/

Thank you all - and to the others who are not listed.

Out pour of Responses!

Much support from my Flickr community for this project. So much so - that I may need to make the workshop project the "trailer" for the full feature. :-)
 That is a great possibility. So far I have collected more than triple the recommended visuals. It seems great in number according to the directions from the facilitators, but in essence is extremely controlled and concise from the photo group side. When you have a group who takes pictures daily, well, we have been very deliberate and controlled!

Now the writing - the first draft of the story needs to be completed. 300 words or less is recommended. this will be the challenge. I am already finding that even when you think you have focused on a specific topic and limited it, the tendency to drift off in the side stories is very easy.

Gathering the Material- 9 days out

You have to come prepared and have things sorted out in order to be productive in 3 days. Here is my start.

1. Sent a message to my most consistent contacts and connections in my Flickr community for assistance and permission to use their photos and our experiences together.
2. Received messages back with suggestions from their side of the connection as to what photos might be what brought us together and keep us connected.
3. Downloading and saving a few from each contact and re-named the file so that I can retrieve them easily without getting lost in viewing while at the workshop. Each photo file starts with the contacts user ID and then a short adjective that describes the photo. I will have more than I will be able to use - but with thoughts in mind the raw material necessary as I learn new presentation skills to make an effective digital story.

9 days and counting.

Determining the Story

Got the email about "prep" before attending. Doesn't anyone realize we are in the end of the school year and start of the new fiscal year? Take a breath - -this is good for me. I should have time for self and if I am doing my job correctly, I can trust others to carry some of the load and we will get done what needs to be done.

1.  Watch some already created digital stories from previous workshops. - Not a problem!
2.  Come with a rough draft of your story, written from the perspective of “I” (remember this is your story from YOUR experience, thus “I” is important! -a life change, an important event, an influential person, a funny anecdote, an angry rant, a first time, a scar, a memory). 
3. download the "cookbook" and read the first 30 pages. Sounds simple enough.
4. Begin to think of the story to tell.
5. Gather your raw items for illustrating your story - you won't have the time in 3 days to do this well and procrastination is a storytellers demise.

So - being proactive, and rather enjoying already the process.

What story should I tell? Family - loss of a parent in the last year?, the path of medical challenges for certain family and their strength in dealing?, the pride of being a mom of two wonderful young women?, my dogs?, my career path?

Too many things that involve deep reflection and personal exposure. While it may be healthy - to do so in a 3 minute story to be published and come to that product with strangers in public - ahhh - not without a therapist in the room. :-)

What else has made an impact on my life and is an "I" story? Bingo! My online communities! Immediately came to mind how reading about a group of educational technology professionals were starting continuing a group that would take a picture a day for 365 days and share. Sounded like a good idea and with January 1 2009 arriving a way to make a resolution. This will be my story - how this simple task has turned into the richness of friendship, support, and journey. You will have to wait until the digital story to see what it is all about.

Setting the Scene

Since this experience is going to be personal, yet work related, I will be chronicling as I can the path and journey. The opportunity is providing the impetus to practice what I preach and again try to get into the blogging world. The past 12 years have had me in a director level position which often creates a span of oversight that one has to advocate, understand, and move others along. It also puts one in a position in which your success is the success of others and how you bring the right talents together to meet vision and mission.

You don't get to do the fun stuff! You create the environments so others can do the fun stuff and make a difference. This is highly satisfying work. However, in order to maintain the level needed, one must make an effort to tend their own creativity and innovation levels. So here is my next fix on staying fueled.

Trying to be a positive learner in getting ready for a digital storytelling training workshop in Chicago that starts in 10 days. This stage of life and career has made me somewhat of a reluctant participant in learning organized and controlled by others in "time in seat" fashion. This is probably why my passion and work at this time is focused on proficiency based and personalized learning for all from crib to grave. This workshop was brought to me by two of our staff members. They thought it would be a positive experience and richer if the 3 of us went together. It was suggested that we would be able to take the skills and transfer them to telling the stories of our districts, our teachers, our students, our leaders, in their journey in transformation to personalized learning and a new public school delivery system. And, oh, by the way - something that would be enriching and positive personally. My team is innovative, dedicated, action oriented, and sometimes just plain practical. They make sense.

So we are registered and on our way. Ten days and counting.

Professional Development for Me

In my position as a Director  of the Institute @ CESA #1, I am often in the place of designing, facilitating, or directing professional development for educators in instructional technology and public school transformation.

However, there are times when I want to be the learner and soak it all in. I have my PLN's which provide an abundance of self directed learning and growth. I have found though it may be nice to be part of a more traditional experience in order to move it forward.

I am registered for a 3-day workshop at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Chicago. http://www.storycenter.org/

The prep work was sent out and along with readings-  well - a little more than I could figure out at the end of a school year and the start of a new fiscal year! The focus is on personal stories. The examples are moving and deep. The challenge is to make it through a workshop, produce a 3min or less story and have it mean something to you and others. WOW! In reading the cookbook - it is documemted that one can get into a War and Peace novel experience in doing this and that won't work. Also the exercises in reflecting can send you down a path in which there should be licensed therapists in the room. Could certainly go that route - but in public? Me? That is not who I am.

So after much consideration and practical application of which I like, I have decided that my story is going to be my wonderous adventure of online connectedness through my Flickr community. I sent a message to those who have been most important to me and whom I have been following and engaging with over the last 31 months. A message was composed to ask for assistance and permission to include them and their photos in my story.

Within a few hours I have had many responses! the richness and depth of help is energizing and at the same time scary - can I make the story reflect the feelings and the importance? Adding to this blog on the experience was suggested by @colemama. What a great thought! If she hadn't asked - I would have missed the opportunity to add more value to this experience. Thank you! One more layer to make this something I will always remember.

I am ready to fail forward! Thank you for walking along with me.