Some of you MAY have already taken Digital Narrative and Cognition course. We also introduce this concept in the course introduction. I repeat it here because story creation is such an important foundation for this course. Consider this lesson as a review.
Your deliverable for this lesson is to:
- record an audio reflection on Canvas in which you relate what you have learned from these readings about the relationship between story and learning and your thoughts as to whether or not a positive correlation exists between story as a learning construct and knowledge acquisition/understanding of subject matter.
- List at least three pros and cons for creating instruction with story as the basic framework/construct.
Story is most often taught in a descriptive mode. Students are asked (usually on standardized tests in PK-12) to list to name the basic elements of story (i.e., plot, character, setting, rising action, etc.) with the expectation that they will become better readers. Asking students to know/list these story parts, as you must know by now, is simply descriptive and is at the lowest level of the Bloom’s hierarchy of knowledge acquisition. VERY few can actually create stories even after these elements and their definitions have been memorized.
If you do not believe me, conduct a little survey of your own. Ask a friend, a child, an adult, whomever.. to tell you a story (I mean a REAL story.. with all the elements described below..) or go ask someone to ‘do’ arising and falling action…
so let’s begin our journey…
I am suggesting that there is a natural link between humans, story, and learning… to wit:
- Point #1:“Gregory Bateson
In the 1950s he was asked if he thought artificial intelligence in computers was possible. He responded that he did not know for sure but if you asked a computer a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question and it responds with “that reminds me of a story”, then it would be close… now, this is quite telling… in other words, what separates humans from other beings/man-made devices is our natural inclination for storytelling…
- Point #2: Roger Schank
Schank has been arguing for years that the road to understanding human intelligence is built upon story. He proposed that “the process of developing increasingly complex levels of stories applied in increasingly complex ways is one way to map intelligence.
- Point #3: Jean Mandler
Mandler conducted considerable research into the constructs of story that remain seminal in the field even today.Her work on story constructs back in the 1980s predates all the recent publicity around ‘digital storytelling’.
- Point #4: Marshall McLuhan: Medium is the message (we will see him again later in the term)
This is one of our lesson for this cycle.. McLuhan is the seminal guy when it comes to discussions on the effect of media on learning and communicating. His point is that the media a person uses not only helps describe define the message but also the people who most often utilize that media.
- Point #5: Janet Murray
Janet Murray wrote Hamlet on the Holodeck, a review of how media has changed how we tell stories.. Hamlet representing the ‘old school’ and the holodeck (the story telling entry point (like the looking glass was for Alice in Wonderland) for Star Trek.
- Point #5: Walter Ong . (Same here.. we will visit Dr Ong’s work again later)
Find out how Walter Ong ( a disciple of McLuhan’s) thinks about ‘secondary orality’ and how we are entering a new old age of storytellling
- Point #6: Eric Havelock
(another colleague of McLuhan) had many ideas on how story structures thought. He posited that literature is different from ‘storying’… in the latter one participates whereas literature is passive. He also taught that the mind actually stores information in gist form. To reconstruct that into knowledge, the brain contextualizes it using story constructs.
These folks led me to believe the following:
- Because of pressures to remove story from the curriculum, we do not utilize story as a framework and we have begun to lose our ability to become good story creators.
- More and more people believe they do not have a story to tell.
- But the truth is we still have a deep intuitive sense of the power of story.
- My research provided me the opportunity to run into two individuals (Ruby Paine and Reuven Feuerstein) whose researched the causes of ‘second generational poverty’. Feuerstein, in particular, demonstrated a causal relationship between the lack of development of story structure, casual (as opposed to formal) language register, and academic failures. He and Paine suggest that for those with only a casual language register, their concept of story is episodic and random in which they very often omit consequences and cause and effect. Consequently, if a student has not had access to a formal story structure (that includes cause and effect, consequence and sequence, and is in an environment with no formal routine and structure), then that student does not know how to plan. This lack of planning capabilities correlates significantly to knowledge acquisition.According to Feuerstein:
- If a student cannot plan, he or she cannot predict
- If a student cannot predict, he or she cannot identify cause and effect
- If a student cannot identify cause and effect, he or she cannot identify consequences
- If a student cannot identify consequences, he or she cannot control impulsive behaviors
- If a student cannot control impulsive behaviors, he or she most often demonstrates learning disabilities, and even worse, may even have an inclination to criminal behavior.
This is where you come in.. in this course we are going to base the learning principles of still and time-based, visual media on the power of the story construct. You need not only learn how to push the software buttons but you must also learn how to tell a story digitally using these products.. THAT is the link between technology and the classroom….
Let’s get to the basics…
Story Parts
Stories may:
- Be a propositional conclusion (this happened, therefore…)
- Represent a point of view (this is what I believe…)
- Change attitudes (convince you of my point of view…)
Story Elements
This is my obligatory reference to the old standardized testing ‘story’ but don’t worry, we get past this VERY quickly…
- Character
- Setting
- Plot (rising action…blah, blah, blah)
Plot Parts.. another reference to standardized testing
Conflict – three parts
- Before: character learns of the need to do something, is influenced, hesitates, decides, or refuses.
- During: character performs the task(s), some succeed, others fail, etc.
- After: consequences of these actions
Results… moving (slowly) away from the sanitized version…
- Tragedy = conflict wins
- Comedy = character changes
Non – Stories.. these are hardly ever taught…
- Catalog: lists that are related at their center.
- Episode: a collection of consequences of a central situation.
- Unfocused chain: a list of causes and effects with no center.
- Focused chain: a series of episodes (e.g. continuing adventures of a character)
- Simple narrative: a collection of focused chains.
- Catalog: lists that are similarly related at their center.
- Episode: a collection of consequences of a central situation.
- Unfocused chain: a list of causes and effects with no center.
- Focused chain: a series of episodes (e.g. continuing adventures of a character)
- Simple narrative: a collection of focused chains.
Character – a finite number exists
- Types (there is a very finite list of standard archetypes.. (some believe only 25 specific types.. 10 males and 10 females, plus about 5 different types of ‘supporting roles (best friends who influence action and decision making).. if you do not believe me.. watch a few episodes of Star wars, or call George Lucas and ask him what he thinks about all this)
- Values.. the basic character values/ethics mode of operation of the character.. easily identifiable so that the archetypes differentiate from one another.
- Allowable actions.. in building a video game, designers build this is.. a character in a game can only do what his or her character type allows them to do.. the goal of the player/learner is to figure this out…
Plot – a finite number (also) exists
- How many are there? here are differing points of view on this….
Conflict.. this is what disrupts the norm.. in learning terminology, see Piaget’s views on disequilibrium
- Possible alternatives are not compatible with character’s values.
- The moral/teachable moment is how the conflict is attempted to be solved – the character is torn.
But the most over-looked part of any story is the reader in a story or player in a video game or the viewer in a video/movie:
- Plays a role in interpretation of events
- A narrative has many unsaid things and it is up to the reader/viewer/player to reconstruct them based on the pieces given
- In other words.. every story teller needs a story listener/viewer.. when you create your stories think of this fact….
Now, this is the heart of the story creation process and what makes story the purest contextualizer/construct for knowledge acquisition…
Plot Generation –Brannigan, 1992.. according the Branigan…
- Story is a way of organizing spatial and temporal data into (time and space… i.e., the setting)
- cause-effect chain of events with a beginning-middle-end that (highlighted for a reason.. this is what creates learning opportunities.. look at science, for example.. it is ALL about cause ad effect.. so is history.. even math for that matter…)
- embodies a judgment about the nature of the events as well as (one absolutely needs to recognize the disruption, otherwise no judgments can be made)
- demonstrates how it is possible to know (i.e, narrate) the events.(what makes it credible to the reader/viewer/learner/… that which causes the suspension of disbelief a la Brenda Laurel)
So there you have it THE FOUR CRITICAL ELEMENTS OF STORY CREATION … each of them is necessary but insufficient.. all four MUST be present tor a story to occur…
Story as Transformation
In all stories a change usually occurs…
- A pie recipe is temporal but NOT a story of a pie because the sequence is not based on cause and effect.
- Some person, object, or situation undergoes a change, as measured by a sequence of attributions (judgements),
- which are applied at different times, and a value judgment is inferred (i.e., the moral of the story).
Todorov’s ideas on transformation:
- A state of equilibrium at the outset (A)
- A disruption (B)
- A recognition that there has been a disruption (-A)
- An attempt to repair the disruption (-B)
- A reinstatement of the initial equilibrium (A)
These changes are not random but are produced according to principles of cause and effect.
A transformation is necessary but insufficient:
These changes are not random but are produced according to principles of cause and effect, and there is a judgment/moral attribute (in this case, it is implied, not stated).
Kinds of Causes .. this is also very important… what makes the disruption a critical part of the story…
- Includes a judgment as to relative likelihood that particular events might happen together:
- Consecutive (arbitrary)
- Chronological ((then… then…. then) order governed by time))
- Conventional (the order is set by familiar social, generic practices)
- Mediated (video games cause violent behaviors?)
- Enabling (element is necessary for the purpose of another)
- Direct (element is sufficient)
- Unique (element is necessary and sufficient)
How many causes?
- A good story mixes two of the causalities:
- Permits more moral implications and plausibility
- AND
- Also blocks out other possible combinations… else the story can be confusing and amoralistic
Kinds of stories
- Character Stories
- Memorial Stories
- Adventure Stories
- Accomplishment Stories
- The Story about a place in my life
- Story about what I do & how I make change happen
- Recovery Stories
- Love Stories
or
Simply Google “story and change” and you will be surprised how many hits come up
Seeing as learning is all about ‘change’ then the relevance of learning about change stories should become obvious. Further, learning about the change process and seeing how good story constructs involve a change or transformation that the main character undergoes or is required to face, makes this activity one that could be quite useful to you, not only in the K-12 classroom but also in business and industry. This will all unfold as we progress through the semester.
Tell a Story Instead
In case you need any further motivation to use story as a basis for your lesson content, here is one poster that you should keep around as a reminder:
Tell_a_Story_Instead