<\/p>\n
Digital storytelling is emerging as a way to shape narrative. Banaszewski (2000) described how his elementary students tell digital stories by \u201cscanning photographed hand-drawn images into the computer, using a digital camcorder, importing music, recording voices, composing and editing their stories using Apple\u2019s iMovie program\u201d (p. 6).<\/p>\n
Although some are starting to write about its classroom use, digital storytelling is being written about in many places outside of the educational community. In Business Week, <\/i>Daniel Pink (1999) profiled the \u201cfounder\u201d of digital storytelling.<\/p>\n Dana Atchley…uses modern tools \u2014 computers, scanners, video \u2014 \u00a0to update the ancient craft of telling tales….Using QuickTime, Adobe Premiere, and Macromedia Director, he devised a system that allows him to tell stories through film, video, music, and photography. (p. 15)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Artists and businesspeople are examining the effects of digital storytelling on their practices, \u00a0yet teacher educators have not made as many inquiries into the possible effects of digital storytelling.<\/p>\n Like Atchley, I am one of these people who happened into digital storytelling through working with my Macintosh computer. Unlike Atchley, I am not confident with technology. My friends characterize me as \u201ctechno-shy.\u201d Yet, I am overcoming my \u201ctechno-shyness\u201d through seeing the potential impact of digital storytelling technology in my work in English education. With the ability to choose what becomes part of the story, as opposed to fast-forwarding past videotape of students writing quietly at their desks or throwing spitwads at a neighbor, digital storytelling can offer teacher educators a new way to shape narratives about classrooms. Control over what is viewed in the video is placed in the hands of the videotaped teacher. Examining this control is a major catalyst for this research.<\/p>\n Digital storytelling efficiently facilitates efforts to capture classroom moments for preservice teachers to reflect upon and revise practice, as well as to develop a teaching consciousness. What I have experienced is not just videotaping and critiquing one\u2019s attempts at teaching. What I have experienced is a chance for preservice teachers to view, reflect, compose, and imagine versions of the teaching \u201cself.\u201d\u00a0These discoveries are focused on some new possibilities for creating narratives about one\u2019s own practice.\u00a0As a teacher educator, I am attempting to use this technology primarily through camcorder work, voice recording, composing, and editing.\u00a0Telling the story of a case study from my class is my attempt to represent what I have begun to learn about the effects of digital storytelling on one preservice English teacher\u2019s development.\u00a0My purpose is not to prove that all teacher educators should be using digital technology, but rather to describe what happened in my classroom as a way to further a careful inquiry into the use of technology in English education.<\/p>\n Through using a screenplay to represent my research findings, I will attend to what Geertz (1990) called the \u201chow\u201d of research writing.\u00a0Much like Baff\u2019s (1997) work to represent discussion in her research poetically, it is my hope that the screenplay might evoke responses from readers involving a change in seeing and thinking similar to the one I have experienced in researching my own practice.\u00a0 Representational form has been explored in recent books (e.g., Ellis & Bochner, 1996; Van Maanen, 1995) and articles (e.g., Denzin, 1996; \u00a0Richardson, 1994) as a way to deepen and extend research findings.\u00a0Representing what I have found in screenplay form has enabled me to get quickly to the core issues of the data.<\/p>\n Narrative, English Education, and the Technological Opening<\/p>\n As an English educator, I privilege narrative.\u00a0Yet, I am coming to believe that technology, specifically digital storytelling, can support my narrative commitments. Significant work from recent years focuses on the narratives that preservice and in-service teachers tell to make sense of, as well as facilitate their development (e.g., Draper, Puidokas, Schoafsma, Tendero, & Widmer, 2001; Fleischer, 1996; Vinz, 1996; ).\u00a0Too often, preservice teachers face idealized examples in their teacher training, examples that seem unattainable.\u00a0I want to examine what happens when preservice teachers face less idealized versions of their teaching \u201cselves.\u201d<\/p>\n In her foundational work on student teaching, Britzman(1992) \u00a0asked, \u00a0\u201cWhat does learning to teach do and mean to student teachers and those involved in the practice of teaching?\u201d (p. 2)\u00a0 Britzman’s discussion of why she likes the question is persuasive to me. \u201cWe are able to shift the discourse of teacher education from an instrumentalist belief in controlling and manipulating variables…to a dialogic discourse\u201d (p. 1).<\/p>\n I appropriate this for my digital storytelling research: \u201cWhat does producing a digital story of one’s teaching do and mean to teacher assistants and those involved in the practice of teaching?\u201d\u00a0 <\/i>I want to better understand the dialogic discourse that occurs as the teacher assistants shape the digital storytelling process, as well as how the digital storytelling process shapes who these teacher assistants became through their reflection on their practice teaching.<\/p>\n During the teacher assisting seminar at State University, students spend a semester in the field, working with individuals, small groups, and whole English classes. They lead classes for extended periods of time.\u00a0 In their accompanying teacher-assisting seminar, the students write stories about their teaching to be shared on the class Blackboard, and compose digital stories about their teaching.\u00a0 I privilege narrative as a teaching strategy, hoping to provide an experience similar to the one that Vinz (1996) documented in her work that explores the value of reflective practice for preservice, new, and experienced teachers: \u201cThese teachers made observations about their individual experiences that led them to tacit understandings about themselves as teachers.\u00a0 Their shared inquiry helped them bring what they were learning about teaching to a conscious level\u201d (p. 238).<\/p>\n Developing a \u201cteaching consciousness\u201d through narrative is a priority for me.\u00a0 In addition to this consciousness, I want to help these teacher assistants improve as teachers.\u00a0 I know from my own experience as a middle school English teacher that I cannot simply tell them what to do, though often they ask me to do exactly that.\u00a0 I have to help them first be able to tell\/write\/produce their stories, primarily for the storyteller’s benefit, much in the same way that Draper, Puidokas, Schaafsma, Tendoero, and Widmer (2001) described their new teacher group in California English Journal:<\/i><\/p>\n The storyteller distills his or her own experience, for his or her own use.\u00a0 Curiously, while listening to the story, the others sometimes find that an altered perspective on their own experience is a sweet by-product of the distillation process.\u00a0 (p. 7)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Having teachers tell stories is an established method in English education.\u00a0 My research speculation is that asking them to tell stories digitally adds dimensions to the distillation process described by Draper and his colleagues.<\/p>\n At the same time, digital stories can help the other teacher assistants who view the digital story during the seminar.\u00a0 Fleischer (1996) described the effects of narratives as she examined the role of teacher research in her work as an educator: \u201cFull-fledged portrayals of individual classrooms become valuable to other teachers as they insert their own experience into the reading of another description, raising questions and creating connections across classrooms, and ultimately helping to effect change\u201d\u00a0 (pp. 38-39). I wondered whether the teacher assistants\u2014as they saw each other\u2019s digital stories\u2014would begin to do this same type of translation.<\/p>\n With all of my narrative commitment, I knew that something was missing from the written narrative.\u00a0 With the privileging of the written narrative, my students were not able to examine fully the actual performance of their teaching.\u00a0Lamm Pineau\u2019s (1994) theoretical focus on performance in teacher development helps me consider possibilities particular to the digital narratives:<\/p>\n Performance privileges the fluid, ongoing, often contradictory features of human experience that resist reification and closure.\u00a0It acknowledges that identities are always multiple, overlapping ensembles of real and possible selves who enact themselves in direct relation to the context and communities in which they perform. (p. 15)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Digital storytelling provides the possibility of seeing and hearing the teaching performance, rather than simply reading about it. Lamm Pineau\u2019s work suggests that the possibility of attending to the broader performance represented in the digital story might evoke more of the fluid performance of English teaching, rather than simply the written story of the teaching.\u00a0Too often English teachers are inculcated with triumphant teacher narratives that are static and singular.\u00a0Video of even one class period might start to provide the teacher assistant and the viewers a sense of the multiple and simultaneous events that English teachers acknowledge and sometimes celebrate in their own practice.<\/p>\n In addition to multiplicity, preservice teachers need to realize the complexity of actual classroom practice.\u00a0 Unlike representations of teaching in films, <\/i>teacher assistants realize quickly that uncertainty is a consistent feature of the teaching day.\u00a0Prioritizing uncertainty in his work, Dudley-Marling(1997) provided a way of understanding how uncertainty informs the development of preservice and in-service teachers in his story of return to the elementary classroom\u2014after years in teacher education.\u00a0He wrote,<\/p>\n The challenge for teachers and teacher educators is to find ways to confront idealized models of the good teacher who succeeds with every student….For the sake of teachers and the students they serve we need an alternative that acknowledges the messy reality of life in classrooms. (p. 188)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Digital storytelling allows teacher assistants to face more of this valuable uncertainty as they view and edit footage from their practice teaching.<\/p>\n Up to this point, I have described how narrative and performance in teacher education can provide a logical launching point for the exploration of digital storytelling.\u00a0Now an examination of research on video and teacher education will help identify the need for both classroom and largerscale inquiries into digital storytelling.<\/p>\n Videotape and Teacher Education<\/p>\n Looking back at examples of research on videotape use in teacher education, Ajayi-Dopemu and Talabi (1986) noted that groups using videotaping made significantly more progress in their mastery of specified teaching skills.\u00a0 Lonoff\u2019s (1997) research focused on her work at Harvard\u2019s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, videotaping teachers since 1976.\u00a0 The following interview excerpt with a young instructor shows one reason behind Lonoff\u2019s commitment to videotape: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like being a third person seeing yourself teach….Viewing the class gave me space in my head to follow the dynamics, and now when I teach it\u2019s like I have a mental videotape going\u201d (p. 14).\u00a0 Tempering this advocacy, Smith (1996) found that teachers will need to be helped over their initial discomfort of sharing their teaching with others and they must control what is made public about their videotapes.<\/p>\n Offering the easy ability to choose what becomes part of the story, as opposed to fast-forwarding, digital storytelling offers teacher educators a new way to shape narrative.\u00a0In this composing process teachers can decide what to include and what to edit out, making digital storytelling an important opportunity.\u00a0Composing a narrative of one\u2019s teaching includes reflection but is not limited to reflection. In a similar way, composing a digital story is much more than simple digital reflection.\u00a0It involves a conscious process of choice and intention to represent.\u00a0The field of English education needs to pay attention to this process.<\/p>\n While Mellon (1999) and McLellan (1999) developed theoretical considerations for classroom applications of technology like digital storytelling, Banaszewski (2002) offered one of the few classroom-based examinations of digital storytelling with elementary students.\u00a0He told the story of how his students blossomed as storytellers as a result of his work with iMovie.\u00a0He cautioned at the end, \u201cIt\u2019s vital to note, of course, that the technology was always secondary to the storytelling.\u201d (Banaszewski, 2002, p. 6) His prioritizing of the narrative is vital as our field examines the implications of digital technology.\u00a0Although this elementary classroom research is important, more attention needs to be paid to the qualitative effects of digital storytelling upon English education. New dimensions of seeing and composing can be synthesized into our narratives of experience.\u00a0In this complex synthesis, we have much to learn.<\/p>\n Teacher Researcher Methodology<\/p>\n Through this research I describe what happened in one classroom.\u00a0 I have conducted this teacher-researcher case study to push our field to take another step of theorizing and describing in response.\u00a0 I expect that others will follow and offer their descriptive and eventual larger comparative research.\u00a0 Teacher research can be useful for the larger field of English education if care is taken to develop the context for a particularized study such as mine.\u00a0 Fecho (2001) described how teacher research can be both rigorous and valid:<\/p>\n Most often being descriptive research, teacher research derives understandings that are often situated in a specific place and time, but the teacher researcher has ample potential to juxtapose a range of studies that expand that sense of place and time.\u00a0Therefore, rigor can be derived from ongoing and systematic inquiry within a single study….Simultaneously, validity can be derived from the immediacy, contextuality, and historical framework of the study.\u00a0 (p. 3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This article provides a detailed a picture of what happened in one teacher assistant\u2019s work situated in my classroom, \u00a0during a semester.\u00a0Through our class Blackboard and my teacher journal, the primary data was collected in an ongoing and systematic way.\u00a0Through my subsequent reading into video and digital storytelling, I developed the necessary context and history for a valid case study focusing on one student, Heather.<\/p>\n The data set, collected during the winter semester, consists of the following: critical incidents composed by students on Blackboard (CI), responses to critical incidents composed on Blackboard (RE), my teacher journal (TJ), students\u2019 digital stories (DS), and two student interviews embedded in the digital storytelling process (SI).\u00a0 This screenplay will focus on the scenes created from the teacher journal, the students\u2019 critical incidents, the digital stories, and the interviews. These are the tools that were most conducive to representing the data that pertained to effects of digital storytelling.<\/p>\n I have read and reread the data set to identify emerging themes and to track them in Heather\u2019s work.\u00a0 The theme of representation emerged as the critical incidents (e.g., pencil lead breaking) were analyzed and compared to the digital story (e.g., Billy turning around) composed.\u00a0 It emerged in the discussion of the video by other teacher assistants (e.g., Carmen\u2019s observation of the finger to the lips).<\/p>\n The theme of consciousness emerged in data such as Heather\u2019s written and digital reflections (e.g., \u201cThis is not who I want to be\u201d; \u00a0\u201cI was amazed.\u201d)\u00a0 The theme of dialogic practice particularly emerged in the Blackboard conversations about the digital stories (e.g., \u201cI wondered, \u2018Can I do that?\u2019\u201d).<\/p>\n In keeping with suggested qualitative practice (MacLean & Mohr, 1999), I analyzed the data set for both congruent and incongruent examples of emerging themes and categories.\u00a0 In an attempt to draw upon multiple perspectives, I have shared the data set with and asked for interpretations from class participants, consultants to the class\u2019s video work, and colleagues in teacher education.\u00a0 With these themes, I hope the following screenplay can push forward our field\u2019s conversation on digital storytelling, contributing a description of the potential this work with digital storytelling might hold for English educators.<\/p>\n Scene 1\u2014Context for Case Study<\/p>\n Cast<\/b><\/p>\n T<\/b>\u2014teacher educator at State University.<\/p>\n Heather<\/b>\u2014student in T\u2019s teacher assisting class.\u00a0 Teacher assisting is the first semester of teacher education fieldwork at State University.\u00a0 The second semester of fieldwork is named student teaching.\u00a0\u00a0 State University\u2019s conception of teacher assisting is similar to preservice teaching or student teaching found at other institutions.<\/p>\n Tim\u2014<\/b>film and video undergraduate who assists in digital editing.<\/p>\n Jolynn\u2014<\/b> student in T\u2019s teacher assisting class.<\/p>\n Carmen\u2014<\/b> student in T\u2019s teacher assisting class.<\/p>\n Dave\u2014<\/b> student in T\u2019s teacher assisting class.<\/p>\n All other student\/teacher\/school names are pseudonyms.<\/p>\n [The camera pans over different shots of State University campus. A growing regional university located outside of an urban center, State University\u2019s English Education program trains approximately 150 secondary English teachers in a given year.\u00a0 Students are primarily in-state.\u00a0 Eighty-five percent are Caucasian.\u00a0 Fifty percent live on-campus and most are working their way through school.\u00a0 The camera pans to Mack Hall where the Teacher Assistant Seminar is located.]<\/p>\n T voiceover<\/b>:\u00a0 The seminar meets once a week for 2 hours.\u00a0 We spend time discussing texts like Ruth Vinz\u2019s, Composing a Teaching Life, <\/i>and Greg Michie\u2019s, Holler if You Hear Me:\u00a0 The Education of a Teacher and His Students,<\/i> as well as telling stories\u2014oral, written and digital\u2014about the seven teacher assistants\u2019 experiences in classrooms.\u00a0 The assistants are placed all over the metropolitan area in a range of rural, suburban, and urban schools.\u00a0As their seminar leader, I observe them in their classrooms.<\/p>\n During the second half of the semester, two teacher assistants are taped per week.\u00a0The next week, they receive a VHS copy of the videotape and are instructed to make their time codes and notes.\u00a0 Later in the week, they meet with Tim, my research assistant to edit the tape and post the Quicktime video on the class Blackboard for previewing by the rest of the class.\u00a0As they edit, I tape the next two teacher assistants.\u00a0The following week, we review the digital stories and use them as a focus for class, spending 45 minutes on each story and discussion.<\/p>\n [still shot of Heather walking out of Mack Hall]<\/p>\n In considering how to talk about the effects of digital storytelling, I wanted to develop more of what Vinz (1996) calls \u201cfullness\u201d and what Geertz calls (1990) \u201ca thickness.\u201d\u00a0 My aim was to provide an in-depth and nuanced study.\u00a0 To understand the qualitative effects of digital storytelling, I chose to focus on Heather\u2019s work from the semester.\u00a0 Heather\u2019s work offers an opportunity to examine the stories of a teacher assistant who enjoyed, struggled over, and eventually grew through her experiences in the classroom.\u00a0 This sense of complexity made her a compelling choice for a case study.\u00a0 Heather was in her fourth year at State.\u00a0 As an English major, she had progressed through the program like many of her peers, poised to finish in 4 1\/2 years.\u00a0 Earlier in the semester, reflecting on her placement in an urban middle school, she expressed an interest in how her Catholic schooling and white middle class upbringing would inform her entry into an urban middle school.\u00a0 Her uncertainty about the placement did not overwhelm her, though it maintained a consistent presence in her stories of her experience.<\/p>\n Some of the teacher assistants had triumphant teacher success stories to tell all semester.\u00a0 Other teacher assistants struggled mightily all semester.\u00a0 Heather put forth consistent effort all semester and found successes and challenges throughout.\u00a0 With the rich narrative tensions found in Heather\u2019s work, I selected the story of her semester as the appropriate place to start documenting responses to my research question, \u201cWhat does producing a digital story of one’s teaching do and mean to teacher assistants and those involved in the practice of teaching?\u201d<\/p>\n Scene 2\u2014Analyzing the Data:\u00a0 Heather\u2019s First Critical Incident<\/p>\n [Silent Shot of T\u2019s Teacher Assisting Seminar]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 On the first day, I framed the course as storytelling about teaching and learning.\u00a0 Drawing from Vinz’s work (1996) with critical incidents, students identify one key moment from their week of teacher-assisting and compose a present-tense narrative focused on description.\u00a0 Students post these incidents on Blackboard and other class members respond.\u00a0 To gain some sense of how Heather uses narrative to make sense of her teaching, it is important to look at her first written story of the semester.<\/p>\n [\u201cHeather’s First Critical Incident\u201d fades in and out.\u00a0Cut to silent shots of Heather teaching in her classroom.]<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:\u00a0 <\/b>Breaking Me In-Critical Incident #1<\/p>\n Mrs. Smith told me that she wanted me to work in small groups with some of the students who are quite behind on their assignments. In fourth hour, the most unruly class of the day, she said she was going to challenge me a bit. She asked if it was okay, and I was then given the four biggest behavioral problems in the class.<\/p>\n [shots of Heather\u2019s classroom continue]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 Heather focuses on her work with the most difficult students.\u00a0 Her title, \u201cBreaking Me In,\u201d builds on this image of newness.\u00a0 As the story emerges, the title serves to focus the reader on her student\u2019s act of breaking the pencil.<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:\u00a0 <\/b>Jairod is wandering around the room, taking the most indirect route to the table as possible. Tony sits down with his back towards me. Then he asks if he can sharpen his pencil, which I just saw him purposely break out of the corner of my eye. Luckily, Curtis is ready to work. One out of four. I call their names and tell them to hurry up.<\/p>\n [Classroom scene continues]<\/p>\n T voiceover:\u00a0 <\/b>Her narrative represents a growing consciousness as she notices the indirect route and the actions happening at the edges of her vision.\u00a0 She even has an ongoing tally, \u201cone out of four\u201d that inserts itself as she narrates.<\/p>\n [Classroom scene continues]<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:\u00a0 <\/b>I want all of them to get extra practice with these words because they\u2019re really tricky. I don\u2019t want them to think that they\u2019re the \u201cdumb ones\u201d but it\u2019s kind of hard when they mostly all have that mentality already. Kevin crumples his paper into his folder, and I feel bad that he\u2019s feeling as though he wasted his time by actually doing the assignment.<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 In the face of her move to put a positive spin on the activity, Heather’s story displays the added awareness of history.\u00a0 She identifies how feelings of failure in English can create recurring struggles.<\/p>\n [Classroom scene continues]<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:<\/b><\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 Repeatedly, Heather inserts moments of struggle into her overall story.\u00a0 Much like the experience that teachers have in a difficult classroom, her story carries on despite these struggles.\u00a0 Yet this initial story seems noteworthy for these interruptions.\u00a0 Knowing that her classmates will read this critical incident on the classroom Blackboard, Heather makes the choice as a storyteller to consistently insert these moments where she was uncertain and struggling as a teacher.\u00a0 Interestingly, she does stay optimistic in her conclusion to this first critical incident of the semester.<\/p>\n [Classroom scene continues]<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:\u00a0 <\/b>Today has been a really cool day; the four students finished their assignments and did a great job, and I felt like I learned from them and about them at the same time.<\/p>\n [Camera returns to a still portrait of Heather in front of her class.]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 In looking at Heather’s first story, there is a halting quality to the progression of the narrative.\u00a0 As a storyteller, she works to push in the seemingly small moments of pencil lead into the larger work with tough kids.\u00a0 Heather wants to get to the last sentence of the story, \u201cI felt like I learned from them and about them at the same time,\u201d yet in order to get there she needs to attend to the interruptions and all the uncertainty that accompanies them.<\/p>\n Scene 3\u2014Analyzing the Data:\u00a0 Heather\u2019s Digital Story<\/p>\n \u00a0[Silent shots of T entering school and videotaping Heather teaching]<\/p>\n T Voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 In late February, I went to tape Heather.\u00a0 She was one of the first ones to be taped.\u00a0 She seemed to be pretty calm about the whole thing.\u00a0 Afterwards, we debriefed about the observation and made plans to do the editing of the video.<\/p>\n [cut to Portrait shot of Tim]<\/p>\n Tim:<\/b>\u00a0 Working with Heather was one of the better experiences. She came with more than enough material to work with, including about 10 minutes worth of video clips from her observation, and 8 minutes of relevant interview footage. To keep her video as intact as possible, we gave her video a voiceover effect, keeping her interview dialogue and playing that over the video clips of her classroom observation. This was a good way to focus and show exactly what she was talking about.<\/p>\n [Cut to Heather in front of her class]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 Eventually Heather\u2019s video came in at just under 10 minutes.\u00a0 In order to undertake some of the analysis, I\u2019ll give a brief outline of the actual final video to set up a closer look at a number of illuminating sections (see Video 1<\/a>).<\/p>\n [T explains the video as the outline scrolls on the screen.]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 In this digital story, there is a distinct way of opening.\u00a0 \u201cWhat you\u2019re about to see . . .\u201d indicates a level of presentation not found in Heather\u2019s written critical incident.\u00a0\u00a0 In her opening paragraph of the critical incident, Heather\u2019s tone evokes a sense of control.<\/p>\n \u00a0[Heather\u2019s critical incident scrolls down and remains as Heather reads it aloud.]<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:\u00a0 <\/b>Mrs. Smith told me that she wanted me to work in small groups with some of the students who are quite behind on their assignments. In fourth hour, the most unruly class of the day, she said she was going to challenge me a bit. She asked if it was okay, and I was then given the four biggest behavioral problems in the class.<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 It seems important that she selects this critical incident and frames the written narrative as her work with the \u201cfour biggest behavioral problems in the class.\u201d\u00a0 She makes choices about what to tell and how to tell it.<\/p>\n In contrast to this control of choices, digital storytelling has a third entity, the actual videotape of the teaching.\u00a0 This entity represents a version of the story that must be acknowledged and mediated.<\/p>\n In her narration, Heather begins with a tone of amazement, recognizing a reality different from her expectations.\u00a0 Unlike her work in her first critical incident, her digital story takes on a more self-critical tone.\u00a0 Her feelings of discomfort, regret at a lack of contextualization and regret with being overly structured were privileged in the opening comments.<\/p>\n With my first viewing of the video, I was surprised by this tone.\u00a0 In my observation debriefing, I shared my thoughts on a successful lesson.\u00a0 Students seemed to understand the explanation of the bio-poem.<\/p>\n \u00a0[Bio-poem form scrolls down screen.]<\/p>\n Line 1: First Name<\/p>\n Line 2: Four descriptive traits<\/p>\n Line 3: Sibling of…<\/p>\n Line 4: Lover of<\/p>\n Line 5: Who fears…<\/p>\n Line 6: Who needs…<\/p>\n Line 7: Who gives…<\/p>\n Line 8: Who would like to see…<\/p>\n Line 9: Resident of…<\/p>\n Line 10: Last Name<\/p>\n \u00a0[Return to shot of Heather in front of class.]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 In watching the video, the introduction did seem less sculpted than the written narrative, where she identifies quickly how she is up to the challenge of four resistant boys who in turn \u201cbreak her in.\u201d\u00a0 The digital opening privileges what Lamm Pineau (1994) \u00a0called\u00a0 \u201cfluid, ongoing . . . features.\u201d (p. 15)\u00a0 With these features, this story seems to allow Heather to reflect more deeply on her performance (see Video 2<\/a>).<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 Heather\u2019s digital story seemed to be an opportunity for her to bring \u201cteaching to a conscious level\u201d as Vinz (1996) described.\u00a0 The digital storytelling helped her to think about silent resistance as well as how engagement might happen in the midst of resistance.\u00a0 A \u201cteacher consciousness\u201d seemed to be prioritized in the digital narrative; one that highlights discovery.\u00a0 As Dudley-Marling (1997) urged, Heather\u2019s digital story provides an opportunity for uncertainty and what Vinz (1996) called \u201cnot knowing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 For Heather and others, this uncertainty is not as easily accessed in other narrative forms.\u00a0 To be clear, her critical incident does make room for uncertainty, yet the uncertainty is clearly managed by Heather.<\/p>\n \u00a0[Heather\u2019s critical incident appears and she reads it]<\/p>\n Heather voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to keep them quiet enough to where I can assume that they\u2019re listening to me, because they have a tendency to interrupt me midway through anything I\u2019m saying. But it actually isn\u2019t bothering me as much as I would think, because they\u2019re trying to give me answers and that shows me how eager they are.<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 The piece where she struggles \u201cto keep them quiet enough\u201d is ameliorated by the insertion of \u201cthey\u2019re trying to give me answers and that shows me how eager they are.\u201d\u00a0 The sense of control distinguishes this particular storytelling enterprise.\u00a0 Issues of control in the digital realm emerge in other distinct ways as she discusses students.\u00a0 The video creates a version of Heather and the classroom that can exceed her attempts to frame and represent the meanings (Felman & Laub, 1992).\u00a0 Hence, surprise can be one of the added dimensions that digital storytelling brings to the teacher education classroom.<\/p>\n [Cut to shot of Heather]<\/p>\n Heather:<\/b>\u00a0 Latoya is one of the brightest students.\u00a0 But the past couple weeks, she has gone boy crazy.\u00a0 I knew that she was just asking me silly questions… (See Video 3<\/a>)<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 A new tone emerges as she continues with this digital story;\u00a0 a tone that was held in check throughout her written critical incidents.\u00a0Annoyance surfaces.\u00a0 Heather uses the term \u201cmean.\u201d\u00a0 Though she had the choice not to include Latoya in her digital story, she did.\u00a0 Whereas with the critical incident, Heather attempted to balance the boys\u2019 disruption with their eagerness, here she allows Latoya to stand on her own.\u00a0In allowing Latoya to stand on her own, Heather needs to grapple with the Latoya\u2019s presence in the story.\u00a0And this grappling does not allow itself to be muted as with the critical incident.<\/p>\n One particular line seems to highlight this important finding.\u00a0 \u201cThat might sound kind of mean but she really just wanted me to hold her hand through the entire activity and goof around.\u201d\u00a0 In this digital story, Heather starts to present sides of her teacher persona that are honest, but that could also be misinterpreted.\u00a0 She is taking risks with this story.\u00a0 The first risk is that of a teacher who is uncertain and making mistakes.\u00a0 The second risk is that of a teacher who is openly critical of kids.\u00a0 In the common discourse of teacher education classes, a warmth for children is privileged (e.g., Atwell, 1998;\u00a0 Calkins, 1986;\u00a0 Michie, 1999).\u00a0 Heather\u2019s honesty seemed to challenge this discourse.\u00a0 The digital story seemed to create the space for multiple and possibly contradictory views of the classroom.<\/p>\n Eventually, Heather includes some places where she felt like she was effective during this teaching hour.\u00a0 Her self-identified effective teaching came in her interactions with two of the numerous English language learners in the sixth-grade classroom (see Video 4<\/a>).<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b> I would agree that this was the moment that stood out for me as an observer.\u00a0 I actually didn\u2019t understand the scope of their conversation until we debriefed.\u00a0 At that point, I noticed that she had been talking with Crystal and Ramon.\u00a0 I asked her to tell me about it.\u00a0 When she was done with the story, I remarked that she did a nice job with redirecting the student.\u00a0 She agreed.<\/p>\n Two things seem important here.\u00a0 First of all, Heather picked up on my comments as an observer and decided to insert that moment in the video. I start to wonder about what the relationship might be for the observer and the video editor.\u00a0 In subsequent semesters, I have taken on all roles.\u00a0 Playing all these roles, I would reserve my comments about the teaching until we were actually watching the video together and discussing the choices about the video.\u00a0 Lonoff (1997) highlights the importance of watching the video with an experienced observer.\u00a0 My experience starts me thinking that the same type of Vygotskian (1986) scaffolding will be important for composing digital stories.<\/p>\n The second finding is the technological challenge that this work presents.\u00a0 This important scene occurred across the class and had no audio component.\u00a0 Two options were available to me.\u00a0 I could have hurried across the room to get close to the conversation.\u00a0 I also could have had a wireless microphone for Heather.\u00a0 Scurrying around the room will certainly limit spontaneous conversation and the wireless microphone may overemphasize the teacher talk in the video.\u00a0\u00a0 Sound quality will continue to be one of the most challenging parts of distinctly and discretely documenting classroom interaction with 20 or more energetic adolescents .<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b> \u00a0[See Video 5.<\/a>] Two dimensions of her conclusion seem to carry over from her written narrative.\u00a0 One move consistent in Heather\u2019s storytelling is her attention to the revealing and minute descriptive details.\u00a0 Whereas in the critical incident she picks up on the small things like the broken pencil, her digital story is focused on all the little things that she had not noticed in the act of teaching.\u00a0 The digital medium also seems to be well suited to her rhetorical tendency to interrupt.\u00a0 The interruptions seem more natural in the genre of digital story, which can jump from subject to subject more quickly.<\/p>\n Yet with these similarities, digital storytelling starts to create new opportunities for teacher educators and preservice teachers.\u00a0 Ndebele (1994), the South African essayist and novelist, claimed that the revolution is to be found in the everyday.\u00a0 In order to better understand the changes in South Africa, he advocated for close attention to the seemingly mundane.\u00a0In ways, the act of composing the digital story helps Heather recognize the significance of the everyday with Billy and with Latoya.<\/p>\n To begin the process, she watches the entire class period.\u00a0 This initial experience of the whole period shapes her attention to the overwhelming amount of details from each class period.\u00a0 She starts out with how she was \u201camazed\u201d in reviewing the tape and ends with the benefits of reviewing.\u00a0 I start to wonder whether we need to attend to the everyday and the boring in hopes of coming to a fuller understanding about teaching.\u00a0 I want to ask the question of what does \u201cboring\u201d mean?\u00a0 Heather\u2019s experience of boring confirms Vinz\u2019s (1996) look at popular culture\u2019s misrepresentation of teachers.<\/p>\n Perhaps the notion prevails that if we do not have a \u201cseize the day\u201d moment each time we teach, we have not taught.\u00a0 From my experience, teaching is a much slower, more patiently developing relationship, like we see in Heather\u2019s work with Crystal and Ramon.\u00a0 Perhaps the digital story medium is the technology most appropriately suited for documenting these slow stories.\u00a0 Perhaps we need to seek more of the everyday and the boring in our teaching.<\/p>\n Another distinction seems to be found in the tone of the narratives.\u00a0 Her opening story does pay attention to some of the struggles with the \u201ctough boys.\u201d\u00a0 Yet it makes a point of ending with, \u201cToday has been a really cool day.\u201d\u00a0 In contrast, her tone in the digital story is consistently critical from her opening that identified things she \u201cfelt bad about,\u201d to the conclusion where she reasserts her \u201cboring\u201d demeanor.\u00a0 This tone of critique is amplified by her uncertainty in working with Billy and Latoya.\u00a0 Her only positive interaction that she inserted in the video was with Crystal and Ramon.<\/p>\n A third appealing dimension of the digital realm for teacher educators is a ready translation into teaching practice.\u00a0 The process of watching, talking about the observation, and then composing the video gives seems to give Heather some percolation time.\u00a0 She uses this to her advantage. \u201cThere were a bunch of things that I picked up on that I hadn’t noticed, like the thing with Billy, and I try not to have Latoya occupy my time, so I thought that doing this tape was more beneficial than I thought it would be. \u201cWhereas her critical incident shared her experience, she did not seem able to find explicit implications for practice.\u00a0 Yet with the digital story, she moved out the realm of commiserating with fellow teacher assistants about struggles and successes and into a practice based story that had implications for her and her classmates.<\/p>\n One of my concerns with the teacher assistant seminar is an obsession with classroom management techniques.\u00a0 I realize that this is one of the new parts of teaching for these apprenticing teachers and time needs to be spent on it.\u00a0 Yet, I will resist reducing teaching English to teaching kids how to be quiet.\u00a0 I make space for students to write critical incidents about these issues of management, yet I try to always link it to issues of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.<\/p>\n Heather\u2019s digital story does this linking in some specific ways.\u00a0 She worries about the perceived lack of student engagement and connects this to her work with the bio-poem.\u00a0 She thinks through notions of structure and teaching throughout.\u00a0 She thinks about how Billy and Latoya are engaging with the bio-poem assignment.\u00a0 She helps Crystal to revise her letter based on her understanding of the student.\u00a0 Whereas, the critical incident focused on the rowdy boys, the digital story works to represent the richness of the teaching experience in connection with subject matter.<\/p>\n Scene 4\u2014Analyzing the Data:\u00a0 Blackboard Responses from other students<\/p>\n [Shots of Jolynn, Carmen, and Dave typing at the compute.r]<\/p>\n T Voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 Drawing upon Blackboard\u2019s ability to post the videos before the class, I asked students to preview the videos and post responses.\u00a0 With all the difficulty of computer compatibility and download speed, three of the students did not engage in the previews.\u00a0 However, Heather\u2019s particular video sparked a number of comments, which were echoed during the in-class discussion.<\/p>\n [Camera shot of computer screen with Jolynn\u2019s response to Heather\u2019s video.]<\/p>\n Jolynn voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 I took notes, let me see…I think the thing that I noticed absolutely the most (like I said in my response to your CI) is how much it shows that you know your students. You were ratteling [sic] off information about each of them…\u201cshe does this, he does that…\u201d It really made me stop and think, can I do that?\u00a0 You sounded too hard on yourself when you talked about \u201cfeeling bad about not doing this or that…\u201d Cut yourself some slack, the first time you teach something is never going to be the \u201cperfect\u201d thing.<\/p>\n I liked it when you talked about the things you notice afterwards. Too bad we can’t always have a camera to see those little things we wish we would have noticed at the time. I’m sure there will always be times when we say, \u201cif I would have seen that…\u201d Something else I noticed was the way you got down to the level of the students when you were helping them. You didn’t just stand leaning over them, you took the time to stop, stoop down, and talk. You did great. I hope my video looks that good!<\/p>\n [Camera shot of computer screen with Carmen\u2019s response to Heather\u2019s video.]<\/p>\n Carmen voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 Heather, there are a couple things that really stand out in your video. I like how you did the voice-over. Also, there’s one point that you’re down at the student’s level and talking to him about his poetry. Your body language says it all….I can’t remember what you did exactly, but between getting down to his level and something with your finger over your mouth or something… whatever it was, sent the visual message of \u201cI’m really thinking about this poem of yours…you matter…\u201d It was a nice, teacherly move.<\/p>\n [Camera shot of computer screen with Dave\u2019s response to Heather\u2019s video.]<\/p>\n Dave voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 I think you are probably too hard on yourself. I think you taught the lesson very well. Prepare them? There’s a limit to teaching them EVERYthing they need to know to complete it, including capitalization. I’ll cover major instructions and then go back and revise and focus on what I see as the major needs. (Maybe you’ll see this in my video? Maybe you’ll see that your idea is better?) I like your remark about how it doesn’t count if you WISH you were an only child.\u00a0 Sounds like Billy has a hard time with his esteem. He could do well but doesn’t expect to so he doesn’t expend an effort that might dash his expectations?<\/p>\n [Camera shot of computer screen with all the responses to Heather\u2019s video.]<\/p>\n T voiceover<\/b>:\u00a0 The online conversation about the video had three striking dimensions that did not emerge in the discussions about critical incidents.\u00a0 The visual element for the story emerged for Jolynn and Carmen.\u00a0 They both noticed the crouching and the look.\u00a0 Carmen even translated the pose into a teaching disposition. \u201cI’m really thinking about this poem of yours…you matter…\u201d Paying attention to how Heather\u2019s performance conveyed commitments she held is an important awareness that these teacher assistants developed.<\/p>\n At the beginning of the semester, they all could parrot the \u2018student centered\u2019 commitments of the English education program at our university.\u00a0 Yet now, Carmen was using the digital story to consider how these commitments could manifest themselves, even be incarnated into, the classroom.\u00a0 This dimension of the digital story holds much promise for those becoming teachers.\u00a0 The everyday detail that can change classrooms, practice, and teacher consciousness is available when viewed through the digital lens.<\/p>\n In terms of teaching implications, Jolynn and Dave develop particular pedagogical approaches in response to Heather\u2019s story.\u00a0 With the opportunity to \u201cbe there,\u201d it seems like they are better able to think about what \u201cteacherly moves\u201d make sense, all the while avoiding the form of advice.\u00a0 Jolynn is prompted by the digital story to reflect on her own teaching.\u00a0 \u201cI think the thing that I noticed absolutely the most (like I said in my response to your CI), is how much it shows that you know your students. You were ratteling[sic] off information about each of them….\u2018she does this, he does that…\u2019\u00a0 It really made me stop and think, can I do that.\u201d\u00a0 Jolynn begins to explore the role of relationship and knowing in her own teaching.\u00a0 Jolynn\u2019s attention to \u201cknowing her students\u201d seems grounded in the digital story\u2019s ability to capture the detail of the everyday.\u00a0\u00a0 She identifies this as an important part of becoming a teacher.<\/p>\n Dave, reflects on the move of preparing the class.\u00a0 \u201cThere’s a limit to teaching them EVERYthing they need to know to complete it, including capitalization. I’ll cover major instructions and then go back and revise and focus on what I see as the major needs.\u201d\u00a0 He identifies and articulates a teaching approach with a responsive dimension.\u00a0 Heather\u2019s digital story provides Dave with a specific teaching move, \u201cpreparing a class,\u201d that he is able to flesh out his own response to this teaching question.<\/p>\n In his parenthesis, I find one of Dave\u2019s most important moves.\u00a0 He links the digital stories together and then suggests some implications for practice through comparing and contrasting stories.\u00a0 He also pays attention to the everyday humor that Heather injects with her remark about the only child;\u00a0 humor that seems easier to document in the digital story than in the written story.\u00a0 Finally, Dave continues his dialogic interaction with Heather through extending her thoughts on how to revise her practice with Billy.<\/p>\n This data amplifies some of the findings from the actual digital story.\u00a0 Despite the current technological difficulties of the genre, these responses suggest some of the dialogic possibilities inherent in the use of digital stories in teacher education.<\/p>\n [Cross-dissolve to Tim, T\u2019s digital editor, in front of the computer.]<\/p>\n Tim:\u00a0 <\/b>Looking back, I tried to look at how the teacher assistants developed their own personality on video and juxtaposed that with what I knew of them in the classroom and working with them on their videos.\u00a0 Heather\u2019s personality in the classroom didn\u2019t seem to be too far from her \u201creal-world\u201d persona, but there was definitely a sense in her video that she was \u201con\u201d when she was teaching.<\/p>\n [Still shot of Tim.]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 With this final piece of data, the effects of digital storytelling gain other dimensions.\u00a0 Tim highlights \u201cpersonality\u201d and the proximity of different versions of self.\u00a0 Future research might investigate how the availability of one\u2019s classroom presence creates the need to navigate between selves in ways that help the development of teachers\u00a0 (Pineau, 1994).<\/p>\n Scene 5\u2014Heather\u2019s Final Critical Incident<\/p>\n [Still shot of Heather.]<\/p>\n T voiceover:<\/b>\u00a0 In attempting to represent the effects of trying to tell one\u2019s story, it makes sense to include Heather\u2019s final written reflection on who she is becoming as a teacher. In this, she seems to capture the mixture of consciousness, uncertainty, a widening repertoire of tones that seems to point to an uncomfortable and useful appropriation of her teacher identities that have emerged in the course of her storytelling and teacher assisting.<\/p>\n [Cut to Heather speaking to camera.]<\/p>\n Heather:<\/b>\u00a0 At this point, I don’t think I’ve ever been so confused about who I am as a teacher. I know who I want to be\u2014someone who the students enjoy learning with, who enjoy coming to the class, who will learn how to be better thinkers and better people (not just facts that they will forget tomorrow), and who will hopefully have some sort of appreciation for English when leaving my class. I never thought this would be so hard, because it seemed simple to me before this semester.<\/p>\n But now who have I become? Yes, there are some students who have begun to enjoy coming to class when I’m teaching or who have found something to like about English because of my help….Kelly has begun writing me all sorts of poetry in the past few days because I took an interest in what she was writing.\u00a0 Steve was writing about a poem he found today and when I asked him if he actually liked it or was just writing about it to get it over with, he said that he didn’t like it or understand it. I was able to point him in the direction of something that he ended up getting really excited about, and he later thanked me for \u201cknowing\u201d him enough to know when he was bs-ing me.\u00a0 Billy completed his first assignment without my prodding, just because I bothered to seek him out and give him a book I knew he’d enjoy reading (which he kept reading for the whole hour and didn’t mess around at all!!!).\u00a0 I gave poetry from Latino authors to Ramon, Roberto, and Rita, who are some of our ESL students, and they enjoyed the special attention and me telling them how envious I was that they could speak two (useful\u2014I speak French) languages. So there have been many mini-triumphs for me in terms of becoming who I want to be as a teacher.<\/p>\n But what about the actual activity that was scheduled for today?\u00a0 Mrs. Smith was gone and I had explicit instructions to be as structured as possible. So the students were to look through poetry journals, books, and their textbooks to find something that they liked and then answer questions about it. The questions were more than just surface-level, so that was okay, but there was to be no talking, period. Yesterday was one of my worst days ever, so I walked into the room this morning with the idea that they were going to basically be on lock-down, especially since Mrs. Smith wasn’t there to back me up. Pretty soon, much to my surprise, the kids were so into it that I was floored. The poetry in the journals was student-written so it really appealed to them. And they wanted to share it with their friends. which was supposed to be against the rules today. In general, I let them get away with it, even with the sub giving me dirty looks from across the room. But when there was too much talking they were back to complete silence. I have a hunch that most of the talking was actually about the poetry, but it was my job today to keep them quiet and working, much like a drill sergeant.<\/p>\n This isn’t what enjoying poetry, or learning, for that matter, is all about. It should be shared and it is something to talk about and something to get excited about. But there I was, quieting them down. This is NOT who I want to be as a teacher. Today and most days, I am an extension of Mrs. Smith, afraid that things will get out of hand and I won’t be able to take care of it. That’s my biggest fear and I haven’t been able to get over it.\u00a0 In terms of becoming who I want to be as a teacher, I’m miles from there. I still have the same goals for myself, but I’ve realized that it’s intensely more complex than I ever could have imagined. There are little things almost every day that make me feel a sense of accomplishment, like the few who have started to find something they like about poetry, or the hugs I get in the halls. But there is nothing to make me think that I’ve even half mastered any one of my goals for myself. I’m not saying that to be pessimistic, but it’s all the more reason for me to keep working at it. Those few things that give me a lift every day are the things that make me work towards my goal and give me hope that I must be doing something right so far.<\/p>\n Implications for Our Practice as Teacher Educators<\/p>\n Reflecting on my research, I see both possibility and challenge for the use of digital storytelling in English education.\u00a0 <\/b>Heather taught me how reflection and performance are shifted when attention is given not only to the written story but also the visual narrative.\u00a0 Consistently, Heather was aware of the struggles and successes that she was experiencing throughout the semester.\u00a0 In the digital storytelling medium, she acknowledges and mediates her various \u201cselves\u201d seen on the screen.\u00a0 While Heather found this process usefully uncomfortable, other students worried that this would freeze them forever in this moment of \u201cteacher struggle\u201d with no opportunity to change.\u00a0 Any move towards \u201cfinalizing\u201d in the digital screening might not be useful for developing student teachers.<\/p>\n I do wonder whether the camera offers enough encouragement.\u00a0 \u201cA dark night of the teaching soul\u201d can point out that one\u2019s performance is not what is desired.\u00a0 Should this \u201cface-off\u201d happen in the first semester of field placement?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 But I do think that this \u201cface-off\u201d helps teachers to confront idealized models that Dudley-Marling (1997) has attempted to challenge.<\/p>\n In our work with teacher assistants and student teachers, we need to do more than help them figure out who they do not want to become.\u00a0 Through these digital stories, we have the negation in Jolynn\u2019s comment \u201cI don\u2019t want to be my cooperating teacher.\u201d\u00a0 We have Heather\u2019s comment, \u201cWho I am now, is not who I want to be.\u201d\u00a0 What we now need is to be able to look more at other examples of teachers on video.\u00a0 Having students notice the positive examples of Heather crouching down to student level is of vital importance.\u00a0 The next step of this work will be to accumulate a range of positive examples of digital stories for developing teachers.<\/p>\n Heather\u2019s reflective awareness seems to develop through the medium of digital storytelling.\u00a0 She sees Billy\u2019s complicated behaviors, recognizes Latoya\u2019s actions, and even identifies the lack of her interaction through the act of viewing herself.\u00a0 As Jolynn stated on Blackboard, \u201cToo bad we can’t always have a camera to see those little things we wish we would have noticed at the time.\u00a0 I’m sure there will always be times when we say, \u2018If I would have seen that . . .\u2019\u201d Digital storytelling afforded Heather moments of \u201csurprise.\u201d\u00a0 We need to provide opportunities for all teachers to experience these moments of \u201csurprise\u201d when our sense of the classrooms, our students and our selves is challenged by digital documentations.\u00a0 These surprises are the source for our continuing growth as educators.<\/p>\n At the end of the semester, Heather expressed a wish for the opportunity to see herself at various points during her teaching.\u00a0 Dave said, \u201cNow after this video, I\u2019ve got an imaginary camera on my shoulder while I\u2019m teaching.\u201d\u00a0 This act of viewing oneself seems to shift the reflection itself, bifurcating it as the teacher and the viewer.\u00a0 This bifurcation seems to parallel what Mohr and MacLean (1999) described as being teacher and researcher at the same time.\u00a0 This dual consciousness intuitively seems like a goal.\u00a0 But the effects of this duality need further study.\u00a0 One caution will be to examine the possible development of some kind of panoptic surveillance instinct (Foucault, 1995) for developing teachers.\u00a0 We will need to be consistent in the interrogation of our practices as teacher educators, no matter how \u201cappealing\u201d the technology is.<\/p>\n Heather\u2019s reflections highlight the question of \u201cwhat is boring?\u201d\u00a0 Digital storytelling seems to amplify this aspect of performance.\u00a0 It remains to be seen whether the use of digital storytelling privileges the \u201cteacher as performer.\u201d\u00a0 Heather does seem to be concerned about this absence in her teaching story.\u00a0 She thoughtfully links interaction to the idea of excitement.\u00a0 She may be closer to what Skilton-Slyvester (1999) positively described as \u201cteaching without charisma\u201d rather than a Robin Williams\u2019 teacher-as-entertainer standard.\u00a0 What is important for me as a teacher educator is that digital storytelling raised a question that I would have a hard time posing as an observer\u2014 \u201cAm I a boring teacher?\u201d \u00a0Digital storytelling allows for reflection on performance that leads to questions stemming from authentic teaching that might not otherwise be asked in the context of simply talking about teaching in a methods class or a seminar.\u00a0 It allows for all the viewers to ask performance questions.<\/p>\n In Heather\u2019s case, digital stories also offered her a chance to have a different teacher-self emerge.\u00a0 In her criticism of Latoya, another part of Heather as teacher emerged, the part of her teaching identity that draws boundaries with students.\u00a0 In the course of the video, this self mixed with the Heather who explained the bio-poem, the Heather who was surprised by Billy and the Heather, who connected with Crystal and Ramon.\u00a0 In the written narratives, there seemed to be one self.\u00a0 In the digital narrative, multiple selves emerged and required acknowledgement and mediation.<\/p>\n Implicated in this process is my own teacher preparation work.\u00a0 I have been changed significantly as I consider the effects of digital storytelling.\u00a0 I have begun to consider Heather\u2019s suggestion for semester-long viewing.\u00a0 It starts me thinking about how to provide shorter opportunities for students to view themselves earlier in the semester.\u00a0 I also think students need more access to video editing.\u00a0 It would be nice to have students do at least some of the initial editing to speed up our final editing sessions, though I wonder how self-as-editor would change the final product.\u00a0 I start to imagine how they can keep an updated DVD of themselves as teachers for their own use and for their interviews.<\/p>\n The most important effect that my teacher research has had on my teaching is the realization now that I will be doing some intensive teaching in the editing session for their digital story.\u00a0 Since, Heather\u2019s class, I have worked without Tim.\u00a0 I am finding the teaching that takes place during these editing sessions is very rich.<\/p>\n I am starting to view this as a conference with a student writer.\u00a0 I want them to be able to see things on their own, to create their own meanings, to make selections for their stories based on what seems most relevant to their development.\u00a0 At the same time, I want to figure out how to offer my more experienced viewing of their processes along with their self-reflections.\u00a0 This will be the next step to examine in this process. How I talk with students about the sections they select will be just as important as the responses that I give them during the actual observation.\u00a0It is clear that this conference will be the key to helping preservice teachers face their selves.<\/p>\n I have become convinced that this is the kind of technological improvement that teacher education needs.\u00a0 Our work needs to acknowledge the \u201cmessy reality of classrooms\u201d (Dudley-Marling, 1997).\u00a0 Teacher education cannot be improved solely with bottom-line mandates to leave no children or teachers behind<\/i>.\u00a0 Becoming a teacher is a process that is inherently complex.\u00a0 It demands a narrative that honestly represents this complexity as well as the incremental changes that occur in the classroom.\u00a0 Digital stories\u2014with their ability to document the surprising everyday qualities of the classroom\u2014afford teacher educators the opportunity to linger over the important story of learning to teach.<\/p>\n References<\/p>\n Atwell, N.\u00a0 (1998).\u00a0 In the middle: New understandings of writing, reading and learning with adolescents.<\/i>\u00a0 Portsmouth:\u00a0 NH:\u00a0 Boynton\/Cook.<\/p>\n Baff, S.\u00a0 (1997)\u00a0 Realism and naturalism and dead dudes:\u00a0 Talking about literature in 11th grade English.\u00a0 Qualitative Inquiry,\u00a0 3<\/i>(4), 468-490.<\/p>\n Ajayi-Dopemu, Y., Talabi, J. K. (1986).\u00a0 The effects of videotape recording on microteaching training techniques for education students.\u00a0 Journal of Educational Television<\/i>, 13<\/em>(4),\u00a0 86-92.<\/p>\n Banaszewski, T. (2002)\u00a0 Digital storytelling finds its place in the classroom.\u00a0 Information Today<\/i>, 4<\/em>(2), 3-5.<\/p>\n Britzman, D.\u00a0 (1992).\u00a0 Practice makes practice:\u00a0 A critical study of learning to teach.\u00a0 <\/i>Albany:\u00a0 SUNY Press.<\/p>\n Calkins, L.\u00a0 (1986)\u00a0 The art of teaching writing.<\/i>\u00a0 Portsmouth:\u00a0 NH:\u00a0 Heinemann.<\/p>\n Denzin, N.K. (1996).\u00a0 Punishing poets.\u00a0 Qualitative Sociology, <\/i>45<\/em>(1), 25-40.<\/p>\n Draper, A., Puidokas, C., Schaafsma, D., Tendero, T., & Widmer, K.\u00a0 (2001)\u00a0 Telling teaching stories:\u00a0 The importance of shared inquiry in beginning to teach.\u00a0 California English,<\/i> 15<\/em>(3), 6-8.<\/p>\n Dudley-Marling, C.\u00a0 (1997).\u00a0 Living with uncertainty: The messy reality of classroom practice.<\/i>\u00a0 Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English.<\/p>\n Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. P.\u00a0 (Eds.).(1996).\u00a0 Composing ethnograpy:\u00a0 Alternative forms of qualitative writing.\u00a0 <\/i>Walnut Creek, CA:\u00a0 AltaMira.<\/p>\n Fecho, B.\u00a0 (2001) \u201cWhy are you doing this?\u201d:\u00a0 Acknowledging and transcending threat in a critical inquiry classroom.\u00a0 Research in the Teaching of English, <\/i>36<\/em>(3),\u00a0 9-37.<\/p>\n Felman, S., & Laub, D.\u00a0 (1992).\u00a0 Testimony: Crises of witnessing in literature, psychoanalysis, and history.<\/i>\u00a0 New York: Routledge.<\/p>\n Fleischer, C.\u00a0 (1996).\u00a0 Composing teacher research: A prosaic history.<\/i>\u00a0 Albany: SUNY Press.<\/p>\n Foucault, Michel.\u00a0 (1995).\u00a0 Discipline and \u00a0punish: The birth of the prison<\/i>.\u00a0 New York: Vintage Books.<\/p>\n Geertz, C.\u00a0 (1990).\u00a0 Works and lives:\u00a0 The anthropologist as author.\u00a0 <\/i>Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press.<\/p>\n Lonoff, S.\u00a0 (1997).\u00a0 Using videotape to talk about teaching.\u00a0 ADE Bulletin, <\/i>35<\/em>(1),\u00a0 22-30.<\/p>\n MacLean, M. & Mohr, M.\u00a0 (1999)\u00a0 Teacher-researchers at work.<\/i>\u00a0 Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project.<\/p>\n McLellan, H.\u00a0 (1999)\u00a0 Online education as interactive experience:\u00a0 Some guiding models.\u00a0 Educational Technology,<\/i> 21<\/em>(2), 34-37.<\/p>\n Mellon, C.\u00a0 (1999)\u00a0 Digital storytelling:\u00a0 Effective learning through the Internet.\u00a0 Educational Technology, <\/i>21<\/em>(2), 38-42.<\/p>\n Michie, G.\u00a0 (1999) Holler if you hear me:\u00a0 The education of a teacher and his students <\/i>New York: <\/i>TC Press.<\/p>\n Ndebele, N.(1994) South African literature and culture: Rediscovery of the ordinary.<\/i> Manchester, UK:\u00a0 Manchester University Press.<\/p>\n Pineau, E. L. (1994).\u00a0 Teaching is performance: Reconfiguring a problematic metaphor.\u00a0 American Educational Research Journal,<\/i>\u00a0 23<\/em>(4), 54-61.<\/p>\n Pink,. (1999) \u00a0What’s your story? Business Week<\/i>, 21<\/em>(1),\u00a0 32.<\/p>\n Richardson, L.\u00a0 (1994).\u00a0 Nine poems:\u00a0 Marriage and the family.\u00a0 Journal of Contemporary Ethnography,\u00a0 23<\/i>(1),\u00a0 3-14.<\/p>\n Skilton-Sylvester, P. (1999).\u00a0 Teaching without charisma: Using questions to guide students\u2019 inquiry into their urban neighborhood.\u00a0 In C. Edelsky (Ed.), Making justice our project<\/i> (pp. 323-330) New York: National Council of Teachers of English.<\/p>\n Smith, D.\u00a0 (1996).\u00a0 Peer coaches’ problems with videotape recording for teacher observation.\u00a0 Action in Teacher Education, 17<\/i>(4), 18-27.<\/p>\n Van Maanen, J. (Ed.). (1995).\u00a0 Representation in ethnography.\u00a0 <\/i>Thousand Oaks, CA:\u00a0 Sage.<\/p>\n Vinz, R.\u00a0 (1996). Composing a teaching life.<\/i>\u00a0 Portsmouth, NH: Boynton\/Cook.<\/p>\n Vygotsky, L.\u00a0 (1986).\u00a0 Thought and language.<\/i>\u00a0 Cambridge: MIT Press.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Author Note:<\/p>\n Antonio Tendero <\/p>\n\n
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\nGrand Valley State University
\ntenderoa@gvsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n