Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Contents
  1. Mission
  2. Digital Storytelling Workshops
  3. Attend a workshop
  4. Host a workshop
  5. Join a Learning Community
  6. Schedule
  7. Costs
  8. Digital Backpack Contents
  9. What to Bring
  10. Payment Procedures
  11. Equipment Ownership
  12. Required Software
  13. Personal Laptop
  14. Become a Workshop facilitator
  15. COV – CKV – CTV
  16. Content Guidelines
  17. Contact Information
  18. Workshop Goals
  19. Sole Source Letter
  20. History

These frequently asked questions (FAQs) complement our Storychasers informational wiki, available on info.storychasers.org.

Mission

Q: What is the mission of Story Chasers Inc.?

A: Storychasers provides workshops and moderated, online learning communities empowering learners to become digital witnesses, archiving local oral history and sharing that history safely on the global stage of the Internet. Learn more about us by viewing sample videos created by past workshop participants!

Digital Storytelling Workshops

Q: What do participants learn in digital storytelling workshops offered by Storychasers?

A: Our two day workshop focuses on the use of free software tools (Audacity, PhotoStory3 and iMovie) to create short, three to five minute videos including digital images and audio narration. Workshop objectives are aligned to the ISTE NETS. Participants learn the process of facilitating a digital storytelling project with students and create their own digital story, which is shared on a “learning community” website. In the six months following each workshop, participants are expected to facilitate at least ONE student-created digital story and share it online.

Attend a workshop

Q: Who can attend a Storychasers workshop and what is the process to register?

A: Anyone can attend one of our 2 day or 2.5 day digital storytelling phase one workshops, although they are designed specifically for K-20 educators. If you are interested in digital storytelling and oral history, you’ll love the opportunity to learn how to create short videos using still images, recorded audio narration, and music with free software tools. To attend a workshop:

  1. Read more about our phase 1 workshops
  2. Check our calendar for available workshops in your area
  3. Submit a workshop attendance inquiry form and we’ll provide you with additional information, including the direct registration link for your desired workshop if space is available

Host a workshop

Q: Who can host a Storychasers’ workshop and what is the process to volunteer a site?

A: Any organizational representative can volunteer to host a Storychasers’ workshop. A teacher, principal, librarian, professional development director, museum director, or an officer of a regional or state organization with access to a facility meeting our workshop requirements can offer to host a 2 or 2.5 day workshop. Our current projects are in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, but Storychaser workshops can be held anywhere throughout the contiguous 48 states of the United States. (Alternate pricing is required for other locations.) To volunteer your site, review our hosting site requirements. Then complete the electronic contact form below:

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Your contact phone number (required)

Your Organization and Location (required)

Available Dates You'd Like to Host a Workshop (required)

2 or 2.5 Day Workshop Preference? (required)

Details about your facility and available support (required)

Name and title of support person you will provide during the workshop (required)

Other information you'd like to share:

Join a Learning Community

Q: Who can join Storychasers’ online learning communities?

A: Storychasers currently maintains three learning communities. Membership as well as video posts in our learning communities are moderated by project facilitators. Anyone is free to join any of our learning communities, regardless of geographic location or whether someone has participated in one of our workshops. Our learning communities include:

  1. Celebrate Oklahoma Voices
  2. Celebrate Kansas Voices
  3. Celebrate Texas Voices

Schedule

Q: What is the schedule of upcoming workshops?

A: We maintain a unified, public Google calendar of all our workshops offered in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Our facilitators are available to lead workshops upon request, so if you are interested in hosting a workshop in your area please contact us.

Costs

Q: How much does it cost to attend a Storychasers phase 1 workshop?

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

  1. $499 per person, including “digital backpack” equipment to keep
  2. $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.)

Digital Backpack Contents

Q: What is included in the Storychasers’ phase 1 workshop “digital backpack” of equipment?

A: Our “digital backpacks” of equipment include:

  1. A digital camera (still camera, but also capable of shooting videos)
  2. Digital audio recorder
  3. USB headset (with microphone)
  4. 2GB USB flashdrive
  5. Digital camera memory card
  6. Backpack with supplies

As of May 2011, the following equipment is included in the participant digital backpack. This list IS subject to change.

  1. Canon PowerShot A490 – digital camera or Olympus VG-110 – digital camera
  2. Sony ICD PX820 – digital voice recorder or Sony ICD PX312 – digital voice recorder
  3. Plantronics Audio 655 USB Headset
  4. 2 GB USB Flashdrive
  5. Digital Camera SD Card (2 GB Kingston)
  6. A logo’ed backpack

What to Bring

Q: What should I bring to a Storychasers phase 1 workshop?

A: For most workshops, hosting organizations will provide you with a computer and required software, to use during our phase 1 workshop. If you want to bring your own wifi-capable laptop, generally you can do so but you’ll need to install required software in advance. Storychasers provides “digital backpack”  equipment for you to use during the workshop, and keep afterward if you choose that option.

We recommend participants bring a limited number of photos that could be used in a digital story you will created for our workshop. These can be scanned  into JPG format prior to the workshop and brought  on a USB flash drive or CD. It is generally NOT possible to scan images during a workshop, but the 10+ megapixel cameras included in our “digital backpack” equipment work well to take “photos of photos” to use in digital stories instead of scanning them. This generally proves to be a faster and simpler option than scanning.

For most workshops, hosting organizations will provide you with a computer and required software, to use during our phase 1 workshop. If you want to bring your own wifi-capable laptop, generally you can do so but you’ll need to install required software in advance. Storychasers provides “digital backpack”  equipment for you to use during the workshop, and keep afterward if you choose that option.

We recommend participants bring a limited number of photos that could be used in a digital story you will created for our workshop. These can be scanned  into JPG format prior to the workshop and brought  on a USB flash drive or CD. It is generally NOT possible to scan images during a workshop, but the 10+ megapixel cameras included in our “digital backpack” equipment work well to take “photos of photos” to use in digital stories instead of scanning them. This generally proves to be a faster and simpler option than scanning.

A list of pre-workshop preparations is available on our information wiki.

Payment Procedures

Q: What are the procedures for paying for a workshop?

A: Payments can be made for workshop attendance via school purchase orders, checks, and credit cards. Our IRS W-9 form is available if needed to process a school purchase order. Contact us directly to request an invoice for your workshop if needed. Checks and purchase orders should be made out to Story Chasers Inc. Our mailing address is available on our contact page.

Equipment Ownership

Q: If my school district pays for my registration fee, do I get to keep the “digital backpack” of equipment?

A: If your school or educational organization pays your workshop fee and the costs for your participation (travel, substitute costs if needed) your school district will own the equipment provided to you as part of your Storychasers’ workshop. Storychasers recommends school districts permit participating teachers to maintain control and use of provided equipment for the duration of their employment with the school district / educational organization. Ultimately, however, it is up to the school district to determine how provided equipment will be used and where it will be located. If you (as a participant) pay your own registration fee and other associated costs with this workshop event, YOU (as an individual) will have personal ownership over equipment provided to you as a participant.

Required Software

Q: What software is required for Storychasers’ phase 1 workshops?

A: The following software programs are required for all computers (personal participant laptops or hosting organzation computers) and should be installed PRIOR to each workshop. All these programs are FREE. Unless otherwise advised, we recommend downloading STABLE (instead of BETA) versions of Audacity.

Audacity (multi-track audio editor)

Video Creation Software (combine still images with audio)

Optional Software (all free)

Personal Laptop

Q: Can I bring my personal laptop to use at a workshop?

A: In most cases, yes, you can and are welcome to bring your own laptop to the workshop. Depending on the specific location of the workshop you are attending, however, outside laptop computers may not be permitted. In that event, your session facilitators will let you know in advance if personal laptops are not permitted. If you are planning to bring your own laptop (Windows or Macintosh) please install all required software programs on your computer prior to the workshop.

Become a Workshop facilitator

Q: Who can become workshop facilitators and what is the process?

A: Anyone completing one of our phase one workshops is eligible to apply to become a facilitator. Our workshops are led by lead facilitators, and larger workshops also include a co-facilitator. More details about becoming a Storychasers’ workshop facilitator are available on our informational wiki.

COV – CKV – CTV

Q: What do the acronyms COV, CKV and CTV stand for?

A: COV – Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, CKV = Celebrate Kansas Voices, and CTV = Celebrate Texas Voices.

Content Guidelines

Q: What are the content guidelines for videos submitted to learning communities maintained by Storychasers?

A: The following six guidelines apply to submitted videos.

  1. K-12 Appropriate: Contributed videos should be appropriate to show in K-12 classrooms. While not all content needs to be necessarily “appropriate” at an intellectual/cognitive level for primary age students, the words and language used should at all times be appropriate. (i.e. no profanity, derogatory language, racist language, etc.)
  2. Positive Themes: Themes of contributed videos should be generally positive and constructive. Issues can certainly be addressed as “Public Service Announcements” (PSAs) which are contentious and challenging to communities, but topics should be addressed in a way that is always appropriate. Use the “school board litmus test.” Is the video appropriate to show and share at a local school board meeting? If not, it is likely not appropriate to be shared here on our COV learning community.
  3. Professionally Representative: Remember the videos you create not only represent yourself and your school, but also your community and our state. We want to put our best foot forward. This does not mean we want to avoid all topics which could be controversial or difficult (addressing drug abuse, teen pregnancy, etc. in a PSA or service learning video can be VERY appropriate, for example) but it does mean we want to consider our audience and purpose. In general, most videos created and shared here should focus on some aspect of oral history, community history, school history, family history, or state geography.
  4. Audio Narration: Submitted videos should include some kind of audio narration. This can be interview audio, narrated audio by the author or another person, or a combination of these. Videos should NOT simply be images set to music, like a music video.
  5. Respectful of Copyright: Images, audio, music and video footage included in your video must comply with U.S. copyright law. To comply with copyright, COV project facilitators recommend participants use:
    1. Homegrown media: Media you create personally and either have the copyright to or obtain permission to copy and use
    2. Creative Commons media: Media created by others and licensed up-front for re-use and remixing
    3. Fair-Use media: Media which can be used under fair use provisions of US Copyright law
      1. Remember copyrighted works CAN be used in videos if they comply with fair use provisions of the law.
      2. For more information and guidance about copyright, Creative Commons and fair use guidelines, please refer to the Copyright and Fair Use Resources section of our project wiki. Those resources include three videos we show during our phase 1 workshop:
        1. Get Creative (Intro to Creative Commons)
        2. Copyright, What’s Copyright?
        3. Fair Use Explained via Disney – A Fair(y) Use Tale
  6. Attribution: Please include source citations for your video either in the video as end-credits or as a comment to your shared video posted in our online learning community. To do this, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT you copy image websites/URLs as you save them! We recommend doing this in a word processing document.

Contact Information

Q: How can I contact you?

A: Our contact information (phone, email, mailing address and an electronic contact form) is available on storychasers.org/contact-us.

Workshop Goals

Q: What are the primary goals of Storychasers’ phase 1 workshops?

A: Our technology integration workshops for teachers are designed and shared with the following philosophies and goals in mind:

  1. Get participants working on the computer as soon as possible.
  2. Get participants talking and collaborating as soon as possible.
  3. Try to include unexpected elements via challenges on a regular basis, to create a constructive sense of challenging immediacy.
  4. Present the agenda and workshop activities as being differentiated based on current participant knowledge, skills and needs. Then differentiate / customize activities as appropriate!
  5. Encourage fun, creativity, and laughter. Consider each workshop like a digital “ropes course,” designed with stations, challenges, partners, group work, and individual work. A key goal is learning to work together safely and effectively.
  6. Minimize direct instruction.
  7. Maximize experiential learning for maximum impact/benefits.
  8. If you break it or equipment gets lost, don’t contact us! (It’s yours or your school district’s)

Sole Source Letter

Q: Is a sole source letter available for Storychasers’ workshops?

A: A sole source letter for COV (Celebrate Oklahoma Voices) workshops is available. Sole source letters for CKV and CTV workshops can be provided if required. Please contact us if you need one.

History

Q: How can I learn more about the background and history of Storychasers?

A: The article “Empowering Oklahoma Educators to to Preserve and Share Oral History” provides a summary of our story through July 2008. We hope to write an updated version of this article for publication in 2011. If you’re interested in sharing Storychasers with your organization or reading audience, please contact us!

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