September 8, 2008
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Jason Ohler’s Green Screen Storytelling Project More than Mere Show & Tell
Scratch a “digital humanist” and what do you find? Probably a hyperactive educational technology instructor and dedicated artist/musician. Someone like Jason Ohler: pundit, professor, presenter, author, and activist.
Jason Ohler, Ph.D., is President’s Professor of Educational Technology and Distance Learning at the University of Alaska. His work as an IT/distance learning specialist has evolved to the level of digital humanist, often taking him far afield from his home in Juneau, physically and technologically. More specifically, Dr. Ohler has devised a multidisciplinary project for elementary students that combines what he calls the 4th R with what he has dubbed DEOST: Digitally-Enhanced Oral StoryTelling.
- But enough about Jason…or, if you want to know more, visit his Web site. He has multiple projects in the works, and he presents around the world. Luckily, Jason is also big on sharing information, and you’ll find a wealth of it online at his Web site.
The University of Alaska’s Geography Program sponsors Stories of Culture and Place, which in turn sponsors the Green Screen Storytelling Projects in Alaskan schools. One of these projects recently took place in the Nome (Alaska) Elementary School. (See this month’s Featured Interviews for more.) Kids are encouraged to write stories, plan their oral presentations, and carry out the digital recording of their stories. The technology, a DVD of their presentations, is the end product—but it’s the process of telling stories that is emphasized.
Dr. Ohler and his colleagues insist that students be trained in the DAOW of Literacy: Digital, Art, Oral and Written literacies. Jason believes that it isn’t enough for students just to tell stories; he believes that students should plan, write, illustrate, and present stories—and he knows this is fun, too! He teaches kids a process for planning their narratives and then executing their presentations in a digital form that can be shared. Jason cautions: “No matter how sophisticated our technology becomes, the future of digital storytelling will involve writing and conventional forms of literacy.”
In the Nome Green Screen Storytelling Project, 4th-grade students planned, created, performed, and video recorded original stories before an audience in front of a wall that was painted green, which allowed for “chroma-key green-screen editing” during the editing process. How did this work? Students created original artwork using paper and crayon, which they then “slid behind” their video-recorded performances using chroma editing, and collected all of their chroma-edited performances on a DVD. The kids did all of the video recording, computer work, and DVD mastering themselves, with teacher supervision.
Read about the step-by-step process that was used in the Nome Digital Storytelling Project.
- For more information about digital and traditional storytelling, go to Dr. Ohler’s Web page, where he shares his workshop information as a public resource.
- For more information about digital storytelling in general, check out the Center for Digital Storytelling.
- Dr. Jason Ohler can be reached at jason.ohler@uas.alaska.edu.