Story of Us: Courage, Collaboration, and Connection

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects. – Herman Melville

 
WEEK TEN: Share the STORY OF US as we explored our identities through multimodal content (i.e., images, video, audio, and text). Throughout the 2016 #WalkMyWorld Project we weaved a thousand different fibers that now connect us as digital learners. Individually you shared your daily walk so others could "walk in your world." In this final learning event, examine the STORY OF US by asking: What did you learn about yourself as a multimodal meaning maker? What new insights do you have about your digital identity as a #WalkMyWorld collaborator? What connections will you take with you into your future?

PAST: The STORY OF US began with courage. Many of us were creating a public Twitter account for the first time (see screenshots of my Twitter conversation below). The #WalkMyWorld Project provided a safe and supportive space to consider personal and socially constructed digital identities. While some participants embraced the thrill of sharing their daily walk, others were afraid to blend their personal and professional identities. Together #WalkMyWorld discovered it takes courage to create and share multimodal content in public spaces.
 

PRESENT: The STORY OF US sparked collaboration. Each learning event provided opportunities for educators and students to collaborate through new mediums and digital tools. Those with experience in creating digital content served as mentors, providing examples and answering questions. Novice multimodal makers began to recognize the power of communicating through remixing images, text, video, and audio content. Even though I have experience creating multimodal content, I am a novice when it comes to researching multimodal meaning making. One of my favorite researchers, Dr. Donna Alvermann, served as a mentor for my work when she responded to my post about student-created documentaries (see screenshot below). Together #WalkMyWorld collaborated as a community and inquired about the various processes of multimodal meaning making.

FUTURE: The STORY OF US inspired connections. As educators engaged their students in hybrid learning spaces, it was important to explore the blurred lines between face-to-face and online interactions. This year #WalkMyWorld connected with #HearMyHome to learn more about how soundscapes (i.e., daily sounds and rhythms) define cultures and communities. This connection introduced us to new digital tools like Soundcloud and Radio Aporee. #HearMyHome also helped us gain a deeper understanding about the power of creating audio content (See screenshot of our conversation below). Together #WalkMyWorld has transformed our daily walks from individual explorations into a connected community that now walks together on this nomadic multimodal journey.

Invitation: REFLECT on your engagement with the 2016 #WalkMyWorld Project. This could include your courage, collaborations, or connections you made throughout the ten learning events. DESCRIBE how your daily walk shaped the STORY OF US. SHARE your creation on Twitter using the hashtag #WalkMyWorld #LE10. It’s time. What will you share? Explore.Play.Create.Learn.

Interested in learning more about #WalkMyWorld, visit: walkmy.world

Digital Storytelling: Synthesizing My Multimodal Journey with #WalkMyWorld 2016

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. – Maya Angelou

WEEK NINE: Collect and curate how you used different modes (i.e., images, text, video, and audio content) to reflect on your past, present, and future identities. This week, #WalkMyWorld invites you to produce a digital story that synthesizes your journey over the past eight learning events.

Digital storytelling weaves multiple media sources into a compelling narrative that moves beyond stating a sequence of events by inviting the audience to think about what they believe and challenges them to consider a different point of view. When you have time, watch Emily Bailin's 17 minute TED talk as she explains her research with the power of digital storytelling.


Notice how Emily Bailin starts with a question,"Where am I from?," and then applies the inquiry process to examine her life's journey as an educator, until the finished digital story has a captivating beginning, a compelling middle, and a convincing end. Using the same mentor poem, Where I’m From, by George Ella Lyon, I synthesize my digital story using three different mediums. How does your engagement with my story change when you engage through different mediums:
1. I used Storify to collect and curate a few tweets from each learning event, click HERE.
2. I used Google Docs, to write my poem using words, click HERE.
3. I used Animoto and Soundcloud to create my digital story, click below.

Invitation: COLLECT your multimodal content from the past eight learning events. CURATE your digital story using digital tools like Storify or Diigo Outliner. SHARE your creation on Twitter using the hashtag #WalkMyWorld #LE9. It’s time. What will you share? Explore.Play.Create.Learn.

Interested in learning more about #WalkMyWorld, visit: walkmy.world

Where I'm Going, I Am Ready

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. ― Søren Kierkegaard
WEEK EIGHT: Express your #soulselfie by exploring your future identity. Over the past seven weeks, #WalkMyWorld invited us to examine our PAST and PRESENT identities through images, words, sounds, gestures, and memories. Learning event eight asks us to shift our focus to the FUTURE: How do you see your future unfolding and how willing are you to take detours along the way?

I used two different mentor texts from poet and storyteller Sekou Andrews to help me capture my future identity: The Awesome Anthem and I Am Ready.

Notice how Sekou uses his past experiences to cultivate a future of inspiration. For my reflection, I remixed the phrase, "a little extra cup," from the The Awesome Anthem and "I am ready," from I Am Ready. Check out my #soulselfie:


To My Future, I AM READY
by Julie B. Wise

I will cultivate a passion for a literate society.
Where people are curious about each other and seek to understand.
I AM READY to give back a little extra cup of service...
To educators who empower.
To parents who encourage.
To students who engage.

I will research the needs of that literate society.
Where people are divergent and desire fresh solutions.
I AM READY to give back a little extra cup of inspiration...
To those who learn differently.
To those who read uniquely.
To those who write rarely.

To my future, I AM READY!  

Invitation: ASK: Where will you be in 5 years? Where will you be in 10 years? CAPTURE the opportunities surrounding you and how you plan to interact and connect with your future identity. DESCRIBE your future identity through any mode (i.e., text, image, audio, video) and medium (i.e., digital, online, paper, radio). SHARE your #soulselfie on Twitter using the hashtag #WalkMyWorld and #LE8. It’s time. What will you share? Explore.Play.Create.Learn.

Interested in learning more about #WalkMyWorld, visit: walkmy.world

  

Hear My Home: Sharing Sounds that Signify Home

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. – Ansel Adams
 

The silent sounds of my home surround me throughout the day, with my dog's rhythmic breathing in the background.

WEEK SEVEN: Recognize and share the soul, spirit, and sounds of your home. #WalkMyWorld's learning event seven challenges you to dig deeper into the sounds that make your living space feel like HOME. This week I used a mentor poem, I Am The Book by Tom Robert Shields to help me recognize the daily sounds that fill my home throughout the week. READ my poem, pausing after each stanza, to notice the meaning your mind makes. Does your mind create a mental image? Does your mind change the words into sounds? At the end of the poem I list the specific sounds I was attempting to describe.

I AM THE SOUNDS 
by Julie B. Wise

I'll be your guide,
Proving a wake-up call,
Early arrival,
Setting up for success,
On a crisp Monday morning.

I'll motivate you,
To dream possibilities,
Moving forward,
With an open mind,
On a Tuesday afternoon.

I'll entertain you,
Making you burst with laughter,
Overflowing tears,
Exploring with curiosity,
On a Wednesday at dusk.

I'll relax you,
With consistent white noise,
Abrupt rolling breaths,
Stilling dark silence,
On a Thursday evening.

I'll humble you,
With sharp, quick barks,
Nudging and whining,
Hungry for the day to start,
On a Friday at dawn.

I am the sounds
that make this house a HOME. 

Specific Sounds described in the poem above:
I'll be your guide - cell phone alarm named, "By the seaside"
I'll motivate you -  music (Indigo Girls) and podcasts (Tim Ferriss and Lewis Howes)
I'll entertain you -  daughters' practice (soccer, basketball, dance, voice, and acting lessons)
I'll relax you -  sound machine (white noise), snoring (husband)
I'll humble you -  dog waking me up before my cell phone alarm

SOUNDSNAP: Too many times, sounds are in the background or repeated so often that we begin to ignore them. During your writing class this week, ask students to walk around their house and write down the places and types of sounds they hear. Ask students to share their discoveries and begin to look for similarities and differences of sounds that fill their homes. If students are interested, suggest they write a sound poem, using mine as a mentor example. I started using www.Soundsnap.com as a way to help students think deeper about the sounds that surround a setting. If we are writing about the beach, I use the search feature for "beach sounds." This week, you may want to use the 1001 "Home Sounds."

Invitation: ASK yourself: What sounds signify that you are home? DESCRIBE the place, space, time, and tempo of these sounds. WRITE a poem or CAPTURE these soundscapes using Soundcloud as a means to record and share out this audio content. SHARE your creation on Twitter using the hashtag #WalkMyWorld, #LE7, and #HearMyHome. It’s time. What will you share? Explore.Play.Create.Learn.

 

Interested in learning more about #WalkMyWorld, visit: walkmy.world