Digital Storytelling is primarily a blending of different media forms, in order to tell a story. These can a mix of visual and audio, digital pictures and hand drawn images. One example of this is Gabriel Conte’s Draw My Life (see video at the end).

Many are telling their stories through Facebook and Instagram and even going to YouTube as a medium (See above video for an example). Storytelling doesn’t change, however, the medium does. We, as humans, still tell stories but how we tell them, changes depending on preferences. Some prefer to tell their stories orally face-to-face, others prefer to tell them written (blog post, in a letter etc) and others prefer to use multimedia and other digital forms.
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What we as classroom teachers and Teacher Librarians need to understand and ensure, is that the digital storytelling is embedded within the curriculum and not used in place of something else, just because they can.

When it comes to interactive texts, there are many different forms. But to use these texts, schools and sites need to be able to handle the bandwidth or IT requirements. Many teachers (both classroom and Teacher Librarians) are still resistant to change, however, due to having to try and adapt years of teaching experience and pedagogy to suit the current environment. Students, as they read are now publishing their opinions and thoughts on sites such as Goodreads or publishing them publicly on Twitter.

Authors are now discussing their books with their fans on Twitter and this leads to great engagement on a communal topic.  For really great interaction with their fans, look to J.K. Rowling’s Twitter account. Every year on May 2nd, she apologizes for a character she’s killed off over the course of the Harry Potter series. A current fan theory is that she is planning on releasing a new Harry Potter book/object as there were no apologies this year. And also due to another post that hints to something possibly Harry Potter and the Cursed Child related.

Increasingly, there is a rise of people using images as a form of digital storytelling and this is, in part, due to the higher number of people choosing to scan images and get them digitized. Short term, however, many are still going to prefer print over digital as they have been the norm for a long period of time.

Module 3 was concerned with leadership and change within organisations as well as what it means to work in a team - as we inherently do within a school environment.

Change tends to stay within the realms of technology and management on a year-to-year basis; outside of that, there can be some structural change to adapt to as well. With technology, there is very little engagement with the use of it. This could be due to the aging teaching population who dislike the rise of technology use within students lives and in the classroom. It can be argued that younger teachers don’t wish to ostracise themselves from their older colleagues so they don’t ‘rock the boat’ when it comes to the use of technology within the classroom. Downsizing can play a part in terms of change within a workplace and this could be a major part of change within a smaller school or site. This could especially be true if student numbers are dwindling.

Stress can be a factor when coping with change as if we are under a lot of personal or professional stress; we could respond differently to what we normally would. While attitude change can be a normal part of change, a difference in attitude that is beyond what you would normally expect from a disgruntled co-worker; could be a reason for investigating further and establishing what could be wrong.

We all work in teams, and we all need to be able to work in them efficiently. This means dealing with a lot of opinions, personalities and much, much more in order to get the task or job done. Setting boundaries early on can help ensure that the process is fairly smooth. However, conflict and communication (and/or lack thereof) can really hinder the progress of a team so being able to effectively and with compassion deal with them when they arise.
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Ultimately, as Teacher Librarians and classroom teachers, we need to be able to adapt to change, stress and being able to deal with the complexities that come with working in teams. We need to be able to be flexible when it comes to our environment and those that we work with; both on a day-to-day basis and on an ad-hoc basis.

I did notes (on my computer, would you believe it or not!) and am uploading a summary now.

A major aspect of being a good leader is knowing yourself and knowing your strengths. Knowing what you can do well and knowing what may be best to distribute to other team members.  Also, knowing where you fit in within the leadership structure; both within the school or site but also the wider educational department and the curriculum bodies.

Knowing that the situation will change, depending on the setting, is vital to make sure that no toes are stepped upon. Understanding that a public school is different from a private school and a primary, secondary and combined (R-12) are all different in their requirements and leadership structure is vital.  Also, understanding that there are different leadership styles employed by staff within a school is important to understand what their focus and objectives are.

There are different forms of leadership; including Situational, Transactional, Transformational, Servant, Distributed and Instructional. All of these can benefit the wider school in different ways. Situational Leadership is more focused on what the situation at hand is and how to respond to it appropriately. This form of leadership changes and the exact leader can vary. Transactional Leadership utilises rules and incentives to maintain normal flow of operations and is not generally focused on the future or strategic operations. Transformational Leadership is, as the name implies, a leader who goes beyond the day-to-day level of operation and focuses on how to take the organisation or site to the next level of success. A Servant Leader displays attributes of someone who has their staffs' interests at heart - they are servants of their team. Distributed Leadership is based upon the distribution of tasks by team member's strengths and expertise. Finally, Instructional Leadership generally focuses on the executive leadership team within a school or site. They direct and manage from the top but allow staff to develop their own leadership as well.
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All of these play a part in how leaders and staff operate within any organisation, both within schools and outside organisations. Leaders come from many different backgrounds and we have to take that into account when working within teams; both as a classroom teacher and as a Teacher Librarian.  As a Teacher Librarian, we must be open to developing our own skills and the skills of those who we work with and to do that successfully, we have to be good leaders.

Well, I'm in for a big September!

Firstly, the assignments due and all the work associated.  But most importantly, I have been offered (and I accepted!) an opportunity to work a four-week contract in a local high school! To protect the privacy of staff and students at the high school, I am not going to name it but I will be teaching Year 11 English and overseeing a Student Teacher with a Year 9, 10 and 12 English class. It's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time!
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I can't wait and I'll keep you updated!