Why I like to read (and why you should too.)

The latest assignment: a digital storytelling project.

Going digital and the vagaries of plagiarism

Going digital

I’m excited about making my Digital Story Project.  First of all, I found a new graphic organizer that I really like, easel.ly.  It is simple to use, very intuitive, and looks professional.  It is in beta form right now; I hope it sticks around.

As I began scripting my story and immediately began thinking about potential locations at which to film.  I have a friend who owns a used book store, and there is a public library right across the street from him.  I also have a few props in mind.  This should be fun.

The struggle I am just beginning to face is the collaboration aspect of the assignment.  My nature is to work by myself most of the time. I realize getting fresh perspectives and extra eyes on the project will make for a better end result, but sometimes I am hesitant to let go of “my” project to let others edit or alter it.  I need to check my ego and be open to the ideas and suggestions of colleagues.

Citing sources and plagiarism

I’ve noticed a startling increase in academic plagiarism in the past six or seven years.  I don’t think digital natives really understand that copying and pasting information from various sources on the internet is the intellectual equivalent of theft. After all, at its very core, the internet is a means of searching for information from a variety of sources and synthesizing and transferring that information in a variety of forms to many different locations and users.  It does this quite efficiently, and modern users don’t like to be slowed down by processes like citing sources for the information they share.  Issues of Copyright and Fair Use can complicate matters even more.

If we want students to avoid plagiarizing, we need to educate them on how to cite sources, and we need to make it easy.  Technology can be a partner in this, with software that automatically generates bibliographies, works-cited pages and such.  But in the end, the student needs to know what plagiarism is and what it isn’t, as well as the consequences for plagiarizing and how to avoid plagiarizing. 

I wonder if showing students real-life stories of people who got in trouble for plagiarizing would help -- Politicians like Senator Scott Brown, who cut and pasted a large portion of Senator Elizabeth Dole’s website onto his own (Hayden, 2011), or economics professor Brian Swart, who lost his job and had his PhD. rescinded after it came to light he had plagiarized at least four published articles and his doctoral dissertation. (Sullivan & Gardiner, 2013)

Sources:

Hayden, E. (October 13, 2011) Scott Brown’s Website Plagiarizes Elizabeth Dole. The Atlantic Wire. Retrieved from http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/10/scott-browns-website-plagiarizes-elizabeth-dole/43617/

Sullivan, P. & Gardner H. (February 13, 2013) Econ Professor Swart resigned due to plagiarism. Scarlett & Black (Grinnell College newspaper). Retrieved from http://www.thesandb.com/news/econ-professor-swart-resigned-due-to-plagiarism.html

Promoting libraries, Old Spice style

Why Do I Love Books So Much? (and why you should too)

I'm saving a version of this here in case I lose it elsewhere.

First Draft - Digital Story “Why Do I Love Books So Much? 

Keith Osterberg

9-12-13

I love to read. Books, magazines, comics, encyclopedias, you name it. I read a lot online too.  Sometimes people, especially students who don’t read very much, ask me why I read so much. They tell me they prefer TV or movies or video games.  “Read a book?  Ugh!” they say.

Let me tell you why I love books so much...and why you should too.

First of all, books can take you places and teach you things.  A book is a portal to different times and places. I can’t afford a plane ticket to Tahiti, or a hotel room when I get there, BUT with a book, I can experience it all...in here (points to head).  In my mind’s eye.  And if you have a library card. You can experience it for free!  

And not only can a book take you to different places, but it can take you to different times in history!  Ever wonder what life was like for someone like you back in the pioneer days?  Find the right book and you’re there.  A book can even take you to times that are yet to be...the future...Or even fantastic worlds that are pure imagination. 

Not only that, but with a good book, you can stand in the shoes of someone who isn’t at all like you...someone who is experiencing things you have never experienced, and maybe never will.  I’m never going to have a sword fight with an ogre or rock out in front of an audience of thousands of fans, but in a book, there are none of the limitations of real life.  In a book, I get to experience that.

“Wait a minute,” you say. “I can do that in a movie too. Or a video game. Why do I need a book?”  True enough, you can. But with a book, you are painting the picture. Your imagination turns the words on the page into the reality in your head.  A movie or video game dictates all that to you...how it will look and sound.  But not in a book.  In a book, it’s your call.

Reading was pretty much unavoidable in my house, growing up. My dad worked for a newspaper, so we always had the daily paper on the kitchen table. Dad was a big science fiction reader too.  My mom wasn’t into books as much, but she read a lot of magazines, and my older brother and sister were both avid novel readers.  

I read comic books.  I read fiction novels about kids my age who became spies and pickpockets and abolitionists.  I read a true life story about a 16-year-old guy who took a sailboat around the world, by himself!   And then, when I was about 10, my mom went to work for an encyclopedia company, and we ended up with a set of encyclopedias in the house.  THAT took my reading to a whole different level. 

You know what else all that reading did for me?  It made me smarter.  If you read a lot, you can’t help learning more about life and the world we live in.  You get a bigger vocabulary.  You learn to write better because, even if you don’t know all the rules of grammar, you know when something doesn’t sound right.  That’s a gift all those writers give to you.  Oh, and you get good grades.  No kidding.  Readers do better in school.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?  You learn to write better. You get a bigger view of the world. Your vocabulary gets bigger.  If you start reading books, you’re on your way to earning A’s, my friend.

So, if you aren’t reading, you’re missing out.  Get a library card, buy a paperback at the used book store, check something out at your school library.  Get started changing your life.  (stare)  Go on, do it.  (leave the frame. pause)  What are you still doing here.  Go! Get a book!  Be a reader.  

My experience with computers and digital technology

My experience producing information utilizing computers and digital technology is a long and storied one. Back in the early ‘80s, I was part of a computer users group, a bunch of hobbyists who were trying to see what we could accomplish with our Commodore 64s and TRS-80s (a few of us had slightly more advanced Apple IIs and PCs).  As limited as we were technologically speaking, we did manage to produce a computer-based newsletter, a CUG bulletin board, and even a community access TV show on a junior college cable site. This was all pre-Internet.  I had no access to computers at my teaching job, so technology there consisted of creating the occasional audiotape or videotape project with cassette and reel-to-reel machines.  

In the late ‘80s, I got out of the teaching profession for a while and went to work for the publishing house of my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as a copywriter/editor. I helped create advertising, Sunday School curricula, and print materials like catalogs and the monthly magazine, The Disciple. Combining my writing and editing experience with my hobbyist computer background, I was involved in converting the company from traditional print production to desktop publishing. Eventually, I became the news editor of the magazine, where in addition to copyediting and writing, I was responsible for page layout and design and providing “hard copy” photo-ready pages for the printer.  At this stage, very few printing houses were set up to accept print projects via e-storage device, phone or email.

Eventually, as director of communications for Christian Theological Seminary, I became a jack-of-all-trades producer of print and video materials for the school. More and more, the technology advanced and I struggled to re-learn, adapt and take advantage of it to reach my communications goals. When I returned to teaching high school in the ‘90s, I saw the school being wired for internet and computer labs being set up, but the school still struggled to keep pace with changing technology, and actual classroom activity changed very little. My biggest uses for the new technology were teaching students to create documents like brochures and PowerPoint presentations.  I also used Mac-based software to show students how to make multi-track recordings and to use non-linear videotape editing to create short videos, but without the capability of Web 2.0, distribution was largely limited to the classroom or, occasionally, setting up a rolling video cart in the cafeteria so students could see the videos while they ate lunch. 

I haven’t been in a classroom lately that affords me the opportunity to develop podcasts, wikis or blogs or class websites. I’ve done most of those things now in the context of the MET program at Missouri Baptist University, but truthfully, most of what I do is hypothetical.  I am anxious, once I have my degree, to find a position where I can utilize everything I’ve learned in the past year.

Choosing a Web Tool For the Learning Task

Choosing the appropriate digital tool for the learning task is important, but to be honest, I sometimes choose a tool because I am interested in it and want to see if it can work in a learning context.  It may be putting the cart before the horse, but if a particular tool is a motivation for the students and for me, why not create a lesson to fit the tool, rather than limiting yourself to only finding tools that fit lessons?

One example of this would be what I have done with audio editing tools. Back when I was teaching high school, there wasn’t much in the way of online tools for digital editing, but I had an Apple Mac with Garageband, which I used to teach my technical theatre students about editing music and sound effects for theatre productions.  The program was so successful that I had students who weren’t even in my class wanting to come use it on their lunch break to record their own rap compositions.  These were kids who had no interest in my class (or almost any class for that matter) but this piece of technology had hooked them.  

Nowadays, I would use a Web 2.0 tool like Audacity to accomplish the same thing. I would also want to steer them toward some sort of webcasting situation, perhaps using the webcast or audio weblog as a way for students to  critique literature assignments or debate with others on which character was their favorite and why.  In a creative writing class, I would want to introduce the students to spoken word poetry and have them recite their poetry for webcasting. This would motivate them by giving them an audience to express themselves.  I think that could be very empowering and much better than having the teacher be the only one who reads what they write.