Recreational Items from Unfortunate Events

The Hammer Museum in Westwood hosted an exhibition titled Recreational Items from Unfortunate Events that ended today.  It was centered around a collection of piñatas that were made by Sarah Bay Williams and based on a number of "unfortunate events", and the piñatas were on display in the museum until today, when they were ceremoniously smashed apart.  The bashing symbolized a catharsis, or a sort of letting go of attachment to the event each piñata was connected to.

Given how we're looking at digital storytelling in #ETMOOC, I wanted to share this with the class.  Though it's not technically "digital" storytelling, I enjoyed this approach to telling a story and engaging with it and think that it could lend itself to digital stories in interesting ways.  It's given me some ideas to think about, as I continue to develop storytelling as a tool, including the potential value of cartharsis in a story (especially for Classical myth!).

Digital Storytelling and Narratology

We've been experimenting with digital storytelling in #ETMOOC over the past two weeks, so I've been thinking about ways to incorporate them into my Latin courses.  Some closing thoughts, before we move on to digital literacy:

Today, I introduced the Latin IBs to Project 3, our digital story.  They're asked form a group of 2 or 3 and record a video dialogue.  I've suggested that they use the Oxford Latin Course story as a point of departure and build a side story around some of the main characters.  Alternatively, they can build on some of the myths we've read together or even just make up an entirely new story.  First, they'll work through their script using a Google Doc, before beginning the video recording, which should also help me to keep tabs on their progress.  I've shared with them a few of the video tools I've been exploring, but I think that video may be easiest to record using YouTube Capture, given that most of our students have iPhones, but we've got cameras for loan in our library too.  All video editing can be accomplished within our GAFE YouTube account, though I think kids will default to iMovie or MovieMaker.  Finally, they'll share the video by uploading it to YouTube and submitting the link to me via a Google form.  Fortunately, they were really into it, and I'm looking forward to watching the finished products (they're due Wednesday, 3/13).  I'm holding out hopes, though, that a few groups will do Latin animations with GoAnimate.

In Latin III, we're currently reading through Apuleius' Cupid and Psyche myth, and I'd like to build a deeper understanding of the myth by thinking about story in a different way.  Earlier in the year when we were just getting started with CP, I introduced Vladimir Propp's conception of narratology and his 31 "narremes" to them, which is always fun.  And now that we're near finishing it, it's time for us to do more discussion of its structure.  They've been recording their nightly reading notes in a blog that's helped them to collaborate and interact with each other (more than I anticipated too, which is another post for another day), and I've asked them to blog some questions over this long weekend, including an option on narratology:

• Within in the list of 31 narremes, where are we in CP right now? 
• What do you expect will happen in the rest of the story, based on what has already happened?  
• How well does Propp's system work for CP and why or why not?

Later next week, I'll ask them to respond to each other and put their thoughts to the test, and when we finally finish the story, I'll have them look for parallels in modern stories.  While this exercise doesn't involve digital storytelling in and of itself, they're still engaging with the story in an active way, intuitively thinking about where the plot will take them.

I'll test out a smaller project to do with my Latin I class (Blabberize?  An animated GIF?) later this spring so I can start to imagine how they can do this kind of work during class, when our 1:1 program begins next fall.  These short stories should be perfect for in-class exercises.

To be honest, I thought students would enjoy these sorts of projects, but I've been surprised at just how enthusiastically they have embraced them.  Not only does the technology make it relatively do do digital storytelling projects, but they really help students to do things with the language in fun and engaging ways.  It's win-win for all of us.

#etmooc Six-Word Story

As part of the #etmooc topic on digital storytelling, we've been challenged to publish our own six-word story.  Because I plan on doing this sort of project with Latin students, I thought I'd offer my first story using a famous line from Vergil's Aeneid, where Aeneas needs to console his men and give them strength during their hardships:  forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit (Aen. 1.203), which translates to "perhaps someday it will be pleasing to remember even these things".

image credit

We're soon to begin the implementation of a 1:1 program at our school that's certain to create anxiety and headaches, while we take our time to work out the kinks.  One of our most immediate concerns is the need for printing, including the question of how to avoid printing altogether.  Perhaps in a few years, though, we too can look back at these printing issues with fond memories, in comparison to the alternative in the story.  I made his meme with Mozilla Thimble, but I welcome any comments on other meme tools.