When I gave my first iEARN webinar a couple of weeks ago, I hoped to motivate teachers to use digital storytelling in their classrooms and to inspire them to have their students show their videos to students in the 130-country iEARN network. Just as I was doing with my audience of teachers from eight countries.
My double-hope may succeed, according to 26 Pakistani teachers who took an online survey. These teachers, many from remote parts of the country, had participated in the webinar as part of a five-day iEARN-Pakistan workshop held in Karachi. Even though many had never before taught a lesson that involve collaboration or online interactions, 70% said that they will make a digital story and plan to hold a video conference with their classes this year.
What swayed the Pakistanis? The thrill of “being in touch with multi-ethnic people on the basis of common interests and goals,” said one teacher, voicing the responses of many. We came together from 11 time zones and included teachers from Siberian Russia, Pakistan, Bahrain, UAE, Senegal, Jamaica, Brazil and the United States, and it was as amazing for me as for them.
In fact, at least 54% who took the survey said that the webinar was one of their two favorite activities during the five days of training. Their enthusiasm came despite technological problems such as the slow Internet connection that caused video problems–which, as you can imagine, severely disrupts a talk that is all about videos and includes five examples.
To my surprise and delight, 100% said they would recommend the webinar to their friends if iEARN offers it again.
iEARN-Brasil has requested it, so the digital storytelling webinar will happen again, and thanks to the Pakistinis’ suggestions, it will be better.
Areas to Improve
Thank you, Pakistan!
One teacher complained that the narrative was too long. I agree. One and a half hours to sit and watch a PowerPoint, especially when you can’t even see the lecturer, is OTT, Over The Top.
Show us the speaker’s face, said 90% of the teachers. Yes, yes. That’s a problem we need to resolve. iEARN has an agreement with Elluminate for video conferencing, but Elluminate’s video window and my web cam show only the top of my head and my eyes looking down at the screen. I’m investigating some sort of inexpensive, Teleprompter-type device that might correct this problem.
Nearly everyone understood the point that is closest to my heart, which is how they can use iEARN audiences to teach students to understand others while learning to be analytical viewers. But…on the point that I struggle with — how digital storytelling can fit into a test-driven curriculum — one-third of the teachers didn’t understand either.
Next time I’ll emphasize that the videos can be simple and not take up too much class time. I’ll give examples showing that both creating video as well as writing-for-audiences will drive students to clarify their writing and that such an effort raises scores on standardized tests.
There are two other areas where I need to better explain my points:
- Basic definition: “Story” is one of those crazy English words that not only can mean opposite things (a lie or a factual news report) or something completely different, like: How many stories are in that building?”
- Learning Styles: How media production engages all of the learning styles — hearing seeing touching moving — and also can involve both individual and team work.
Enough Perfectionism
Okay. I’ve criticized, now it’s time to stand back now and enjoy what these generous Pakistani teachers said: “It’s a totally new experience to be in touch with the global world. We are trying to involve students to learn these things that could make society better.”
That’s the point of all of this effort.
And to frost the cake, one teacher praised my “comfortable style.” Now THAT was amazing, considering that I entered the Elluminate room at 4 a.m., had a cast on my newly broken left wrist (writing/mousing hand), and was nervous about moderating my first video conference.
