StoryChasers

OAESP Grant for Student Videography at Mustang, Elementary (Oklahoma)

Wesley Fryer — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:02:58 +0000

This video is a 73 second interview with Laquita Semmler, principal of Mustang Elementary in Mustang, Oklahoma. Mrs. Semmler won a $2000 technology grant from the Oklahoma Association of Elementary School Principals (OAESP) at the mid-winter conference on January 20, 2012, in Oklahoma City. She is planning to use the funds from the grant to purchase a new iMac computer and mobile cameras to provide students with tools to be videographers and journalists for their school website.

Instead of Flip cameras, which have been discontinued by Cisco and do not import video in a Mac-friendly format, Storychasers recommends student videography teams use iPod Touches or iPads for quick-edit videography. In addition, an external microphone is a MUST to improve audio quality. (A $60 iRig mic, available via the Apple Store, was used in the video above.)

Congrats to Mustang Elementary students and staff, and kudos to Mrs. Seemler for applying for and winning this student technology grant!

STEM-related videos on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices

Wesley Fryer — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:35:31 +0000

In advance of next week’s “Teaching Creativity and Innovation to Inventive Minds” workshop on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, it seems appropriate to share several videos on our Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV) learning community which are science-focused. These were created by teachers attending past COV workshops.

Forensic Science by Anita Cosby (An introduction to forensic science class)

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Starbase 2011 by Pamela Sue Gilder (Video about a fifth grade class during their six week adventure through Strarbase)

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Ben Franklin Science Academy’s Friendship Garden “The Green Patch” by Sandra Marie Riley (A story about the “Green Patch” that touched a community)

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

It will be great to see the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) related videos our workshop participants create next week at OSU! More information about hosting and requesting a Storychasers workshop is available on the frequently asked questions (FAQ) page of our website.

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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!

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Storychasing in the Heart of Oklahoma Cherokee Country

Wesley Fryer — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:43:07 +0000

Last week I had the privilege to lead a “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” workshop for Storychasers at Kenwood School, which is located about an hour northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma. 100 percent of the students attending Kenwood School are Cherokee. The school is small, with about 80 total students, and serves students in grades K-12. The teachers who participated in the two day digital storytelling workshop did a great job sharing aspects of their culture and community. I particularly loved how several used musical tracks of their students at Kenwood singing songs in the Cherokee language. I feel completely “centered” professionally when I facilitate workshops on oral history and digital storytelling for teachers like those in Kenwood. I was inspired by their stories and hard work! Here are five of the outstanding stories Kenwood teachers created last week. These are now featured on the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices learning community.

The Cherokee Language by Janice Ballou tells the story of family gatherings in ‘days gone by’ when stories were shared in Cherokee. According to Janice, “stories are always funnier and scarier when they are told in Cherokee!” Janice also interviewed kindergarten teacher Faye Ross, who explained how she teaches her students the Cherokee language to enhance their cultural literacy and pride in their Cherokee heritage.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Mom’s Pretty Boy Floyd Story by Tambra Dewey is an adorable interview with Tambra’s mother, who relates a story she was told as a child by her grandmother who used to cook and give shelter to Pretty Boy Floyd and his gang in the 1930s near Salina, Oklahoma.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Kenwood Cultural Day Presentation by Wanda Wilson McBride describes Kenwood School’s 2011 Cultural Day which celebrated Cherokee culture. Her retelling made me want to bring my own kids to this special event next year!

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Kenwood School Cherokee Choir by Faye Ross features an interview with music teacher Janice Ballou. The Kenwood Choir has traveled and shared the Cherokee language as well as songs in a remarkable number of places including Washington DC and Japan. “Through the music, kids can express themselves, and that is why I love sharing music in the Cherokee language.” I LOVE the music tracks Faye included in this video!

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Grandmother’s Story by Annetta M Bundy tells the remarkable tale of Annetta’s grandmother who “led a busy life with two husbands and twelve children (including a set of identical twin girls.” The hardships of the past can barely be comprehended by students today who are blessed with so many things as well as opportunities. Digital stories like this one can help us connect and remember.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

If you are trying to view these videos on an iOS device like an iPad or iPhone, I encourage you to use the Skyfire Web Browser ($3) to convert the Flash-format videos on the fly to a format readable on Apple mobile devices. We are in the process of working on a transcoding solution for our videos on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, as well as Celebrate Kansas Voices and Celebrate Texas Voices.

If you are in or near Oklahoma or Kansas, please register to attend one of our two day digital storytelling workshops this summer! Our opportunities to digitally create, learn and share continue!

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.

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Use a cell phone supporting 3 way calling to record audio interviews

Wesley Fryer — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:45:07 +0000

Today in our “Celebrate Texas Voices” workshop for Storychasers in Lubbock, Don Wilson and I showed teachers how they could use any cell phone supporting 3 way calling and the free website, iPadio.com, to record an audio interview with another person. Of course, as is the case with all audio recording, it’s important to get permission FIRST from the individual you’re interviewing to both record the interview AND share it online. This evening, Don helped me create a short, five minute screencast demonstrating the steps for using iPadio and a cell phone to:

record a phonecast
download it to your computer
import it into Audacity for editing

Because of some issues with a frayed iPhone USB cable, I ended up trying to record this screencast about ten times tonight. The end of this final screencast attempt was slightly cut off, but I decided to just go with it instead of trying to record this YET AGAIN! Please forgive the lack of professional closure on this screencast.

More information about hosting and “volunteering your site” to host a Storychasers’ workshop is available on the FAQ page of the Storychasers’ blog.

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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!

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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)

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