Nancy W. Gleason, PhD Lecturer, Political Science Department Tufts University Digital Story Telling & Research Project PS138 Conflict & Natural Resources

Presentation Outline Video Assignment Structure and Organization Assignment Assessment and Grading Technology Used – Digital Design Studio Sharing Student Work Examples of Video Projects Challenges and Next Steps

The Assignment Create a 3-5 minute video on conflict related to either diamonds or petroleum Each video was directed to a specific stakeholder in conflict Assessments provided at three stages in the process: Storyboard submission Rough Cut Final Video

Assignment Structure Students will work in groups of 5 to create a 3-4 minute video about conflict related to either DIAMONDS or PETROLEUM. Each group will present to a specific audience: Consumers of resources Industry producers of resources People in the conflict Prevention workers In total then, there will be 8 videos produced, 4 on each resource that respectively address the above 4 stakeholder groups.

Student Roles within the Group Student Roles: Each group member is responsible for video content, but there are also separate responsibilities for each group member to take on. For example: Production manager – coordinate schedules, book technology, etc Artistic director – compile images, tasteful theme, scholarship quality Writer role – craft script etc Technical experts – iMovie guru Content supervisor – manage content collection and organization of group members GRADING BASED ON INDIVIUDAL AND COLLECTIVE PERFORMANCE

Video Project Objectives Learn how to make an interactive, innovative video presentation using iMovie Present critical information to a specific audience Create a powerful education tool to reach out to conflict stakeholders Demonstrate academic prowess through sound research Leverage social media to share your work

Project Timeline & Deadlines Thursday September 20th – Groups and topics finalized Thursday September 27 th Class Held in DDS, 3 rd Floor Tisch Library Tuesday October 25th – Story board and bibliography due. This initiates the productions stage, where students will create images and sounds, identify images and sounds, record narration or a script of some sort to present your research. November 6 th – 7-9pm DDS blocked out for your use November 13 th 7-9pm DDS blocked out for your use. ROUGH CUT DUE 10pm November 27 th – Final Video Projects Due Thursday November 29th, Video Viewing in Olin 12 Theatre – 3 rd Floor Tuesday December 4th, Group Discussion and Analysis of the Videos

Grading Adapted from the Center for Digital Storytelling's "Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling" as outlined in the Digital Storytelling Cookbook ASSESSED ON: Content, Dramatic Question, Script, audio, pacing, emotion, images, economy and credit/sources EXAMPLE: Dramatic Question EXCELLENT: Content is engaging -- viewer is left with thought-provoking ideas and/or the story develops in a way that's different from initial expectations. Useful for prompting discussion and dialogue GOOD: Content is interesting -- viewer is left with thought-provoking ideas and/or the story develops in a way that's different from initial expectations SATISFACTORY: Some surprises and/or insights, but realization barely differs from the expectation NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: Predictable and not very interesting. Realization and expectation do not differ

Teaching Challenge met by this multimedia assignment Challenging students to think outside the box about a complex & dynamic problem Enabling them to share their research beyond the classroom Provide training in group-project management Teaching them to articulate solutions to these problems, not just identify root causes of the problem Grading 40 outcome products effectively

Technology & Resources Used Tufts Digital Design Studio Faculty interested in using the DDS to support a digital media project must submit a DDS project proposal form.DDS project proposal form Bryan Revis, Digital Media Technologist

The Digital Design Studio (DDS) Course related digital media projects: Assignment planning/scoping, course-specific workshops on media literacy and copyright issues, storyboarding, production techniques, etc Last Fall ~140 student videos were made in the DDS!

Sharing Student Work Sharing your students work from the DDS (1) They had to come up with a list of at least 15 people ( contact addresses) to whom they planned to send a link to their completed project. These are to be strategic contacts - relevant NGO thinkers, academics at other institutions, personal connections the students may have, and industry relevant contacts. Ask for feedback or a chance to come in and present the video where relevant (2) Forward it to all their parents and if appropriate ask them to share it with all their friends (3) Post it to the Facebook pages for their Tufts classes (4) Tweet out the link to their video and ask their friends to do the same (5) The group with the most hits on their link on the last day of classes got a gift certificate for the entire group to eat out at CheeseCake Factory The idea is to learn how to use social media to get your message out there and to use it to network for jobs.

Tufts Visualization Award Revamping the Kimberly Process – This video was made for PS 138, Conflict and Natural Resources Fall 2012 By Dani Jenkins, Stephanie Krantz, Karen Bustard, Daniel Goodman, Meagan Maher

Tisch Library Research Award “We Be the Niger Delta” Rebekah Liebermann '13, Anna Vanderspek '15, Gillian Leitch '13, Jessica Laporte '14, and Mark Rafferty '13 VIDEO:

Assignment Outcomes What worked well: Narrowing the scope of the assignment Planned time in the DDS Clear Deadlines and grading rubrics Challenges: Managing group dynamics is difficult Significant out-side class time commitments are required, this is difficult for some off campus students and athletes Balancing in-class time for this assignment with covering course content

Assignment Results of note – unintended consequences Real friendships were made between the students This becomes part of their online portfolio for life Tangible skill set to add to their CV and note in interviews

Next Steps for this assignment Collaboration with an international NGO to ensure wide exposure for the video Completing assignment earlier in the semester so as to ensure time for “marketing” the video Working with the Career Center to better leverage the videos for the students with employers – perhaps a lecture on managing your online portfolio Helping students develop a list of strategic people with which to share their videos

Thank you Nancy W. Gleason, PhD Lecture Political Science Department