Projects

Education and research

The focus of Jason's project time for two years has been "Stories of Culture and Place," described in detail below. For a more complete list of projects, see Jason's portfolio.

Stories of Culture and Place

A digital storytelling program that is part of the University of Alaska Geography Program

Stories of Culture and Place helps students research, create, illustrate and perform original stories about their cultures and the places in which they live. It uses a cross-curricular, project-based approach to learning that addresses a number of content and skill areas simultaneously. Students develop digital, art, oral and written literacy skills (pictured here as the DAOW of literacy). They research geography, local history and cultural values so they can apply their research results to the creation of an original story. They learn project planning skills that are transferable to other activities. They create original artwork to support their stories. They learn about using computers and other digital technologies to help tell their stories. And they develop the self-confidence and social skills that comes with giving voice to their stories.

Stories of Culture and Place involves Jason in a number of activities, including:

• Working directly with students and teachers in classrooms
• Working with mental health clients as a way to help them "tell their stories"
• Creation and distribution of professional development materials
• Providing training for teachers, community members, and organization leaders

Stories of Culture and Place has traveled throughout the U.S., and has been featured through projects and workshops in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Experience with this program formed the research foundations for Jason's new book, Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity. The following resources are available about Stories of Culture and Place, as well as the techniques used in the program:

• A detailed description of Stories of Culture and Place. This is especially helpful if you are interested in pursuing a program like this in your school.
• A very detailed set of web materials about digital storytelling that address a number of the pedagogical, theoretical and practical considerations involved in doing a program of this kind.
• Articles by Jason about digital storytelling, available at the articles site.

Questions about any of the material you find here are always welcome. Please feel free to contact jasonOhler.com.

Green Screen Performance-based Storytelling

The Matrix meets traditional storytelling

Digital storytelling takes many forms. One form is called "computer-based" digital storytelling because activities are on focused on creating a story with and through a computer, with the final product being something that is watched on the screen. "Green screen performance=based" storytelling is another approach and is often the one used in Stories of Culture and Place. In this approach, students perform toriginal stories in traditional oral style. Their performances were videotaped in front of a chroma key background, much like the background used by the TV weather person, which allowed pictures and original artwork to be added "behind them" in post-production, appearing as backdrops while they performed their stories.

The final product is a DVD of student performances in which their original artwork is added to their recorded performances during post production using the chroma key editing process. The result is students performing original stories in front of original artwork.

The process of taking students from story creating to DVD development is captured in a slide show of a project completed in Nome, Alaska in 2006.

Watch an example of green screen performance-based storytelling

Hannah Davis tells the story "Fox Finds a Friend"

Fourth grader, Hannah Davis, tells the story of a mean Fox without friends who decides he needs to learn how to be kind if others are ever to like him. The Fox makes a deal with Dove: Dove teaches him to be kind, and in return he will be a lot more fun to hang out with. Fox is a good student and turns into a friend to the others in his community. Hannah's story was part of a project in which students creates stories that were based on local cultural values developed by Native Elders. In Hannah's case, her story is based on the cultural value, "speak with care," which is exactly what Fox learns how to do.

Citations. Thanks to CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) for permission to use the picture of the fox in this story (copyright CSIRO). All other pictures in the story were created by Hannah Davis. Thanks to David and Anna Katzeek, Tlingit scholars of the Thunderbird Clan, for performing the song "Cha aadi yei-oona teega." Also, thanks to Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (www.ccthita.org) for "Southeast traditional values – our way of life" which appear in Hannah's story.

How green screen chroma key editing works

Four versions of the same picture taken from one of the student performances appear below and help demonstrate how chroma key editing works:

In front of chroma screen	In front of a fox!
In front of original pictures	The grand finale!

The first picture is what you would have seen if you were watching the performance. This is what was actually videotaped. Here the student performs in front of a mono-color background, which functions as the "chroma key" in post-production. The mono-color allows video editors to tell the computer "replace this color with a graphic object." The other three pictures shown here are taken from the same performance after chroma key editing was completed.

Theoretically, any color can be used, as long as it is a single color, though some colors have become industry standards. I used the particular shade of green shown here because it was the color of a sticky pad. This allowed me to use sticky notes to cover electrical outlets, cracks in the wall and other imperfections in the painted wall surface.

What is important is that the color should not be one that would likely to appear in performers' clothing. We even sent a memo home to parents with a chroma color sticky note attached to it that read "Make sure your children don't wear anything this color!" If children wore, for example, a shirt of the same color as the chroma key wall, then when chroma key editing was performed, the replacement picture would have appeared on their shirt! This can be interesting and welcomed, as long as you planned for it.