StoryChasers » announcements

Share a Backstory: Win an iPad3 and iRig Mic from Storychasers

Wesley Fryer — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:16:55 +0000

Would you like to win a new iPad3 and iRig microphone for yourself or your classroom? Through April 30, 2012, Storychasers is inviting any adult who has created and shared a digital story on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, Celebrate Kansas Voices, or Celebrate Texas Voices to submit a “backstory” about that video to enter a drawing for an iPad3 and iRig microphone. Everyone who enters must be 18 or older, so if you’re a student under 18 and have created/shared a video on one of our websites, ask your parent or teacher to submit your entry on your behalf.

Our website submission / contribution form includes a space to provide information about your video which you’d like others to read and know about concerning your video. Things you might consider including in your post are:

“Backstory” information about the video other people wouldn’t know or guess by just watching it.
Why did you create this video?
Who has seen this video since it’s been published and what kinds of good things have happened as a result?
Who should see this video?
What are some of the things you think other people will or should learn as a result of seeing this video?

To be valid and accepted for our drawing, entries must:

Be submitted and received online. NLT (no later than) midnight CST on April 30, 2012.
Be submitted by an adult 18 years or older.
Include at least THREE COMPLETE SENTENCES providing more information / backstories about the submitted video.
Be complete, with all required fields in the submission form filled appropriately.

Individuals MAY submit more than one video to enter this drawing, but may only submit one entry per video. For example, if you have submitted three different videos to one of our online learning communities, you can submit an entry for each video so you’ve entered three times. You may NOT submit more than one entry for the same video.

If you’d like to see an example submission, see the post, “72 Years of Free Barbecue: The XIT Rodeo and Reunion.”

The iPad3 and iRig microphone drawing will be held in early May 2012, and the winner will be announced here on our website.

If you have questions or comments, please share them here on this post. Please spread the word and tell others about this opportunity! We will be sharing submitted entries / posts on storychasers.org (this website) in upcoming weeks and months as a way to further amplify many of the GREAT stories shared on COV, CKV and CTV! If you’re interested in hosting a Storychasers workshop at your school or in your area, please see our frequently asked questions (FAQs) for more information.

Technorati Tags: video, contest, drawing, ipad3

Student Storychasers Begin Work at Skyview Elementary in Yukon, Oklahoma

Wesley Fryer — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:28:57 +0000

On February 15, 2012, the Yukon Review newspaper shared the following photograph and caption about the first student Storychasers group starting at Skyview Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma.

3rd grade students are working with their principal, Carla Smith, to write articles about school news and record their articles as a “radio show.” Radio WillowWeb from Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska, is an inspiration to these young Storychasers. Tony Vincent (original founder of Radio Willowweb and author of the “Learning in Hand” website) along with Maine educator Bob Sprankle (the creative genius behind the New York Times acclaimed “Room 208 Podcast”) are also major inspirations for the idea of a student Storychasers club.

A website for the group is being established and their first program will be published soon. The Storychaser student clubs in Yukon are pilot groups starting in Spring 2012. Hopefully, if things continue to go well, this is program which will expand to other schools in months to come. Learn more and sign up for updates on the Storychasers’ mailing list by visiting storychasers.org/clubs.

Technorati Tags: club, elementary, oklahoma, student, yukon, storychasers, storychaser, skyview, record

Teaching Creativity and Innovation to Inventive Minds: August 3-5, 2011 at OSU

Wesley Fryer — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:28:58 +0000

Are you an Oklahoma K-12 teacher interested in:

Helping your students become more creative?
Learning more about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers for your students?
Obtaining “digital backpack” equipment (including a new digital camera, digital audio recorder, headset with microphone, and more) you and your students can use to create videos for class assignments?
Learning how to successfully facilitate student video projects for class?
Learning how digital fabrication labs (FabLabs) can energize your students about STEM career fields?
Joining an educational community of digital storytellers in Oklahoma?
Obtaining a $500 scholarship to attend a three day workshop FOR FREE focused on these activities?

If so, you need to apply for the “Teaching Creativity and Innovation to Inventive Minds” workshop scheduled for Wednesday, August 3rd through Friday, August 5th on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. The application deadline is Friday, July 29th. This workshop is co-sponsored by the College of Education at OSU and Storychasers. Day one of the workshop will focus on ideas for student creativity, STEM careers, and “digital fabrication” labs which students use to design and create originally designed materials using special computer software and hardware. No prior experience with digital fabrication is required. Days 2 and 3 of the workshop are the “phase 1″ digital storytelling workshop offered by Storychasers for the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices oral history project. You will learn how to create a short, 3 to 5 minute video focusing on some aspect of creativity, STEM careers, or STEM themes discussed in our workshop and share it on the third day.

Please complete our online registration Google form to register and apply for a full scholarship to attend this workshop, or apply to pay with available professional development funds from your school district. Slots are limited, and a total of ten scholarships are available. A maximum of 25 participants will be selected for this workshop. Those interested in attending but NOT selected for a scholarship can participate for $499 or $249, depending if participants want to keep “digital backpack” equipment following the workshop. Selected participants are required to attend all three days of the workshop training, which will be held from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. Participants will also be expected to facilitate at least one student-created digital storytelling project in the six months following the workshop.

The online registration form link is:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHQxSlowZnhlSHBaQVItb1VuX1lIZmc6MA#gid=0
or
http://tinyurl.com/storychasers11

This workshop will be led by Dawn Danker, a certified Storychasers lead facilitator and the CIO of Yukon Public Schools, and Dr. Susan Stansberry of Oklahoma State University’s College of Education. If you have questions about the workshop, please contact Wesley Fryer, Executive Director of Storychasers by phone, email or Twitter.

(888) 384-5953
wesfryer@pobox.com
@wfryer

A 1 page PDF flyer about this workshop opportunity is also available. Please forward and share this information with other Oklahoma educators. Past participants in Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV) workshops are NOT eligible to attend this special workshop on scholarship, but may pay to attend. Anyone is welcome to join our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices online learning community, which now has over 900 videos created by Oklahoma teachers and students:
http://lc.celebrateoklahoma.us/video

Videos and membership on our learning community websites are moderated by Storychaser project facilitators. More information is also available about hosting a Storychasers digital storytelling workshop for your school or in your area, in Oklahoma or other locations:
http://storychasers.org/faq/

Kansas Educators: Become a Storychaser this summer in Haysville, Greenbush or Andover!

Wesley Fryer — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:54:38 +0000

Storychasers is hosting THREE two day digital storytelling workshops this summer in Kansas for teachers, librarians, administrators and others interested in technology integration, multimedia video production, oral history and preserving community voices. The three workshop dates and locations are:

June 28-29, 2011 in Haysville, Kansas
July 25-26, 2011 in Greenbush, Kansas
August 3-4, 2011 in Andover, Kansas

View Summer 2011: Celebrate Kansas Voices in a larger map

Be sure to check out some of the latest videos shared on our Celebrate Kansas Voices Ning website. We now have over 65 videos created by Kansas students and teachers!

Register to join us, and please forward this information to others you know who may be interested! A 1 page PDF marketing flyer about the workshop is available.

Why attend our 2 day workshop?

Digitally preserve history
Create and share a video
Develop digital literacy skills
Use MEDIA to meet curriculum standards
Join a community of innovative educators
Get cool technology gadgets

Workshop cost is $499 or $249 per person, depending on whether you want to KEEP ‘digital backpack’ equipment after the workshop. Submit the Storychasers Workshop Registration Inquiry and Storychasers will send you the official workshop registration link. Call or email Storychasers if you’d like more information.

If you have TitleIID professional development funds, or other professional development funds from grants or other sources, our two day workshop is a wonderful learning experience for educators that has direct, measurable impacts on classroom instruction through the videos students create with teachers afterwards. We hope to see you in a Storychasers’ workshop this summer!

Oklahoma Educators: Become a Storychaser at OSU June 23-24, 2011

Wesley Fryer — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:14:49 +0000

Storychasers is hosting a two day digital storytelling workshop June 23-24, 2011, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on the campus of Oklahoma State University. Register to join us, and please forward this information to others you know who may be interested! A 1 page PDF marketing flyer about the workshop is available.

Why attend our 2 day workshop?

Digitally preserve history
Create and share a video
Develop digital literacy skills
Use MEDIA to meet curriculum standards
Join a community of innovative educators
Get cool technology gadgets!

Technorati Tags:
digital, digitalstorytelling, history, oklahoma, oklahomastate, oralhistory, osu, storytelling, workshop

Register to attend June and July 2011 Storychaser Workshops

Wesley Fryer — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:48:06 +0000

Storychasers is pleased to announce registration is open for SEVEN digital storytelling workshops in Oklahoma and Kansas in June and July 2011. These workshops for Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV) and Celebrate Kansas Voices (CKV) will be held the following dates in different locations:

COV 1-2 Jun 2011 Muskogee, Oklahoma (2 sessions)
CKV 14-15 Jun 2011 Greenbush, Kansas
CKV 20-21 Jun 2011 Andover, Kansas
COV 23-24 Jun 2011 Stillwater, Oklahoma
CKV 28-29 Jun 2011 Haysville, Kansas
CKV 25-26 Jul 2011 Greenbush, Kansas

These dates are listed on our Storychasers’ Public Events Google Calendar:

A “digital backpack” of digital storytelling supplies is included in the registration cost. Our workshop lasts two days, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm each day, and costs $500 to attend. Participants learn to create a 3 to 5 minute digital story / video using a digital audio recorder, Audacity software and either PhotoStory3 or iMovie, depending on the computer platform used. (We teach both Windows and Macintosh users!) More details about our workshops and information about Storychasers is available in our FAQ.

To register for an upcoming Storychasers workshop, please fill out the “Storychasers Workshop Registration Inquiry” form online. After we receive your request, we will send you a Google Form registration link so you can enroll in your desired workshop. Our mailing address and W-9 form are available on our contact page if you need that information for your school purchasing department. Workshop payments can be submitted via school PO, check, or credit card. If you have professional development funds remaining in an existing grant or school technology bond initiative, we would love to work with you to provide Storychasers digital storytelling training for as many of your teachers as possible.

Remember ANYONE can “volunteer a site” to host a Storychaser workshop. More information and an online request form is available on our FAQ page. Storychasers now supports Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV,) Celebrate Kansas Voices (CKV) and Celebrate Texas Voices (CTV.) Over 880 videos created by teachers and students have been shared on our learning communities to date, and we look forward to many more this summer!

Please contact Storychasers if you have questions about our workshops. We’re serious about “empowering digital witnesses” to share their voices constructively on the global stage of the Internet! We hope you’ll join us in this important work in our communities.

Technorati Tags:
development, digital, digitalstorytelling, education, kansas, oklahoma, professional, school, storytelling, texas, workshop

Spots available for April 2011 Storychasers Workshops

Wesley Fryer — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:05:39 +0000

Spots are still available for teachers, librarians, and other educators to register for Storychaser workshops in April 2011. These opportunities include:

A “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” digital storytelling and oral history workshop April 7-8 in Midwest City, Oklahoma, to be held in MidDel Public Schools
A “Celebrate Texas Voices” digital storytelling and oral history workshop April 18-19 in Lubbock, Texas, to be held at ESC Region 17
A “Celebrate Kansas Voices” digital storytelling and oral history workshop April 21-22 in Manhattan, Kansas, to be held at Kansas State University

In this two day workshop, participants learn how to use free software (Audacity and PhotoStory3 or iMovie) along with a “digital backpack” of equipment to create short, 3-5 minute videos shared online in our moderated learning community. Participants can either pay $500 to keep equipment or $250 to borrow equipment for the duration of the workshop. People interested in registering should complete our online form available on:
http://storychasers.org/contact-us/sc-workshop-registration-inquiry/

More information about the workshop and Storychasers is available on our FAQ page:
http://storychasers.org/faq/

If you are interested in “volunteering your site” to host a summer 2011 Storychasers workshop in Oklahoma, Kansas or Texas, please contact Storychasers soon!

Technorati Tags:
development, digital, digitalstorytelling, education, history, kansas, learning, oklahoma, oral, pd, professional, storychasers, storytelling, texas, workshop, oralhistory

Volunteer Your Site to Host a Summer 2011 Storychasers’ Workshop

Wesley Fryer — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:51:31 +0000

Are you interested in providing an outstanding, two or 2.5 day opportunity for educators in your area to learn about digital storytelling and oral history? If so, please consider “volunteering your site” to host a summer 2011 Storychasers’ workshop! We are providing workshops in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas in 2011 to support the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, Celebrate Kansas Voices, and Celebrate Texas Voices statewide projects, and are putting together our summer workshop schedule now! We’d love to add your site to our calendar. After reviewing our workshop host site requirements, please complete our online workshop hosting inquiry form. Ideally we like organizations hosting one of our workshops to send several people to attend, but there is not a minimum number of participants you MUST send to a workshop in order to host one in your location. Some of the organizations eligible to host Storychaser workshops (as long as requirements can be met in the provided facility) include:

Schools
Education Service Centers / Educational Service Units
Regional Technology Centers
Libraries
Museums
Historical Societies
College and University Departments

Conference rooms can be used for BYOL (bring your own laptop) workshops if a computer lab is not available. Our workshops are cross-platform, meaning they are offered in both Windows-based and Apple/Macintosh-based computing environments.

photo © 2009 Wesley Fryer | more info (via: Wylio)
Storychaser phase 1 workshops are 2 or 2.5 day opportunities to learn the basics of creating a digital story using a “Digital Backpack” of supplies. Participants learn how to use portable audio recorders, microphones, audio editing software (Audacity) and video software (PhotoStory3 or iMovie) to create short, 3 – 5 minute videos using audio and still images. To get a better idea of the kinds of videos workshop participants create, check out some of the 850+ videos on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices and some of the 30+ videos on Celebrate Kansas Voices currently. Our project has been underway in Oklahoma since 2007, but just started in 2010 in Kansas. We’re starting this year (in 2011) in Texas.

If your school, school district, or organization currently has grant dollars for professional development / training which need to be encumbered by a specific date, we’ll be glad to work with you in scheduling a Storychasers workshop in your area for teachers to attend.

More information about our workshops and Storychasers is available on our website frequently asked questions (FAQ) page. If you have other questions don’t hesitate to contact us by phone or electronically!

Remember we have three upcoming Storychaser workshop opportunities on our calendar in April, and registration for these classes remains open!

Celebrate Oklahoma Voices 7-8 Apr 2011 (Midwest City, OK)
Celebrate Texas Voices 18-19 Apr 2011 (Lubbock, TX)
Celebrate Kansas Voices 21-22 Apr 2011 (Manhattan, KS)

Technorati Tags:
ckv, cov, ctv, development, history, kansas, oklahoma, oral, professional, storychasers, storytelling, texas, workshop

2011 Storychaser Facilitator Application Online

Wesley Fryer — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:49:27 +0000

An online application to become a facilitator in 2011 for Storychasers is now online. Please review information about facilitator roles and responsibilities before submitting the form, linked from the “Get Involved – Become a Facilitator” page of our informational wiki.

Technorati Tags:
application, history, kansas, oklahoma, texas, workshop, facilitator, apply, cov, ctv, ckv, oral

Open Registration for Storychaser Spring 2011 Workshops in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas

Wesley Fryer — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 07:33:36 +0000

Storychasers is pleased to announce registration is now open for Storychaser “phase 1″ workshops this spring for Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, Celebrate Kansas Voices and Celebrate Texas Voices. We are offering our workshops on a 2 day or 2.5 day model this year, depending on the preference of the hosting organization. Workshops now open for registration include:

7-8 April (Thu – Fri) Midwest City, OK
18-19 April (Mon – Tue) Lubbock, TX
21-22 April (Thu – Fri) Manhattan, KS

Our 4-5 March workshop has been rescheduled for 7-8 April. All our 2011 workshop dates are listed (and will be added) to our 2011 workshop page and to our unified Google calendar, which includes all our workshops in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.

Anyone interested in attending one of these upcoming Spring workshops should submit our online “Workshop Registration Inquiry” form. Seating is limited for each workshop!

We have simplified our workshop participant cost model for 2011. As our updated FAQs explain:

Generally, there are two pricing options for our workshops, depending on whether or not participants choose to keep provided “digital backback” equipment.

$499 per person, including “digital backpack” equipment to keep

$249 per person, borrowing during the workshop (but not keeping afterward) “digital backpack” equipment

Discounted pricing is available for workshop attendance in some cases when grant funds are available to offset participant fees, or when partnership agreements apply. Note this pricing has been updated for 2011. Costs are the same for the 2 day and 2.5 day workshop models. (The agenda meeting times are longer if a 2 day model is used.)

Please view our complete list of frequently asked questions and answers for more details about our workshops. If your organization in Oklahoma, Kansas or Texas is interested in becoming an official partner with Storychasers and offering discounted workshops for your members, please contact us!

Technorati Tags:
digital, edtech, learning, oklahoma, publish, school, storytelling, technology, texas, video, kansas