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

Shape of MY Story: #WalkMyWorld #LE4

The future isn’t a place that we’re going to, it’s a place that you get to create. - Nancy Duarte

WEEK FOUR: Explore your voice and the sounds of your world by diagramming the events that make up YOUR story.  Last week #WalkMyWorld discussed the shape of a story. First, I diagrammed the Three Act Story Arch of a National History Day Documentary. Then, I found a wonderful TEDX talk by Nancy Duarte that discussed a different shape of a story.  Finally, I found an interesting article about a different shape of a video game narrative. 

This week, #WalkMyWorld invites you to answer these questions: What challenges exist when the story is about you? Use your voice and the sounds of your life to illustrate where you are in your life journey. How do you use language to define who you are and your place in your community/culture?

To begin, I LISTENED to the song from the Disney film, Mulan. Despite the tranquil sounds of nature, she wonders why her reflection doesn't show her authentic self. 

Next, I READ the lyrics to the song so I could get a deeper understanding of her challenges and shape of her story. This song evokes a strong connection to the sounds and shape of MY story which I diagrammed at the beginning of this blog. I realized the shape of my story looks just like the ripples Mulan sees in her reflection. These ripples distort and cloud the authentic reflection of me. Many times I stop and ask myself, "Who am I inside when my reflection shows a mother, a wife, a teacher, a student, a friend, a sister, and a daughter?" At the same time, the shape of my story looks like a speaker, pounding out an orchestra of sounds so loud that I can't think! I hear: cheers of the crowd at my daughters' events, clinking dishes and snoring, the tap, tap, tapping of students typing on keyboards, and the bling of emails and texts calling for my attention. Then, I walk into yoga, where it's warm and quite. I take a deep breath in. I take a deep breath out. Slowly, just as Mulan wipes away her make-up, the sounds that shape my story fade away, til I hear nothing but my heart beat, beat, beating and I am left with nothing but the shape of me. 

Invitation: THINK of sounds that surround you in the morning, noon, and night. CREATE a diagram showing how the sounds shape your story. ANNOTATE your diagram to identify key sounds in the narrative.  SHARE your creation on Twitter using the hashtag #WalkMyWorld #LE4. It’s time. What will you share? Explore.Play.Create.Learn.

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