Cathy Healy

Cathy Healy works with K-12 classrooms worldwide as they make a difference in the world.

Cathy Healy

Advocate for K-12 Global Collaborations

Webinar Survey: 70% say will use digital storytelling and video conferences with their classes this year

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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:
  1. 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?”
  2. 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.

Presentations in Chile for the U.S State Department

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For one week in March, I will be traveling from the northern Atacama Desert to the Central Valley in Chile, showing English-language teachers how they can use digital storytelling in their curriculum. My message is simple: Visual and audio literacy have become essential language skills, now that we can hold the Internet in our hands to read.

I will travel  to Arica, Antofagasta, and Santiago for the  U.S. State Department’s English-Language Program from March 8-15. My four presentations will include some of the basic elements that I lectured on for the State Department last year in New Delhi, India and Kathmandu, Nepal. Researching those presentations persuaded me that the extra time and training required to add multimedia to language programs is worthwhile. I saw that a number of teachers worldwide are successfully combining language literacy with visual literacy.

Experience shows that digital storytelling motivates students  to write and revise, to perform, to analyze which words can be replaced with images for more impact, to develop audio and video editing skills, and to understand how reactions can be evoked by music, sounds, and images–for good and bad.

The reasons these pioneering teachers are doing this are the same reasons that I have been learning to create videos to accompany my written articles. Today we all need multiple literacies.

Steve Jobs’ presentation secrets boiled down to three

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The Wall Street Journal staff’s Speakeasy column asked Carmine Gallo to breakdown Steve Jobs’ presentation secrets for the rest of us. 
Gallo, author of “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience,” rated 4.5 stars on Amazon, culled three basic points from the 12 rules in his book:

 Rule #1: Create a Headline for Your Product, Service or Idea: “Apple always creates a one-sentence description for the product,” Gallo said. “I call it a Twitter-friendly headline because it’s always under 140 characters.: Example: In 2008, when Jobs introduced the MacBook Air, he did so with the line “The world’s thinnest notebook.” Said Gallo: “It positions it in your mind. It’s not a tagline. It’s an actual description.” If you can’t describe what your product is clearly and concisely, he added, “go back to drawing board.”

Rule #2: Introduce an Antagonist: “For every great novel, there’s a hero and a villain,” Gallo said. Example: before Jobs showed the world the iPhone, he spent several minutes going over the smart phone marketplace and noting what competitors lacked. Apple’s popular “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials do the same thing, setting up a supposedly inferior rival and demonstrating Apple’s superiority. “Sometimes,” Gallo noted, “the villain is a problem in need of a solution.”

Rule #3: Strive For Visual Simplicity: “There are no bullet points in a Steve Jobs presentation,” Gallo said. “That’s mediocre. It’s what everyone does.” Instead of relying on words, Gallo said, “think pictures, images.” Consider the way Jobs explained the iPhone touch screen –  with a picture of a finger on the screen. To illustrate the thin frame of the MacBook Air, Jobs used a picture of an office envelope with a notebook sticking out. “It’s visual simplicity,” Gallo said.”

Order on Amazon 

Note: I may, or may not buy this book, because the most critical reviewer said that Gallo offered about the same strategies as Presentation Zen,  Slide:ology and Brain Rules. I’ve learned and marveled at the first two books.