Session 3: Storytelling & Communications - October 2022A

Textbook Success Program October 2022 A Cohort
1

Hello, @oct22-A-cohort! I look forward to seeing you at our session on Thursday on Storytelling and Communications. Here are some important links for the session:

Also, @rcastro-mcgowan the text I was thinking of in Manifold is Selections from Petrarch’s Canzionere The details of the project are below, from a chapter about Manifold in the OER Starter Kit for Program Managers -

“She has included only the poems she teaches and has embedded multimedia, including audio recordings of the poem read aloud in Italian, links to scholarly articles about the poem, and images of related artwork and of the original manuscript with annotations, into each page. This dynamic anthology addresses the range of learning styles found in any classroom by providing several different entry points (audio, visual, textual, etc.) into the text. Presenting the text in different formats also helps students develop a critical perspective because comparing the same work in different media highlights aspects of the work’s form and structure that may otherwise be more difficult to isolate. Listening to the recordings aids both students’ language skills and their understanding of the oral tradition of Classical poetry, and modeling how a scholar annotates a poem teaches close reading skills that students can practice on their own.”

2

Thank you for the information on the Italian OER textbook @stacy.kats I will be looking into that. It seems very interesting.

3

Hi @oct22-a-cohort,

It was great seeing you this session. We missed you @ysavoy @rbutler and Maelody Holman. Please review the slides and materials from the session and post any questions in the forum. The chat from the session is also available.

I want to highlight the [CFP](Northeast OER Summit CFP - https://neoer.umasscreate.net/conferences/2023-2/2023-call-for-proposals/) from the Northeast OER Summit. Even if your work isn’t in a sharing place right now, there’s a good chance that you could present on something or get feedback by the time of the conference in April, so it is worth considering.

This session was dedicated to explaining the importance of storytelling in the open publishing process. Storytelling allows you to situate your role in the work, describe the story of your project, both within your team, but also more broadly as you market your OER. Review the quote from late Ojibway author Richard Wagamese in our slides — and you’ll see how central narrative and story is to the work of OER creation. We discussed the transformative power of education and how storytelling can play a role in making inclusive content with equitable processes.

We emphasized acknowledging and validating different types of knowledge and expertise — and how you all play an integral part in this work by reflecting on the content of your OER (approach, vision for the discipline, knowledge, research, text, media, contributors, students, pedagogy). Jo-ann Archibald’s Indigenous Framework for Storytelling offers a guide to help you articulate the work you will be doing on your OER projects, both internally to inform decision-making on your OER but also externally to the broader open education community.

Thinking deeply about the storywork you want to do as content creators and team support members, may sound like a lot of effort, but we know from experience with past cohorts how well those efforts play out in the longer term. Having a clear understanding of the story of your resource - both its purpose and content - is critical throughout the publishing process to ensure deliberately and carefully looking at ways to really make sure the end resource is as useful as it can be.

Prior to our next session, please complete the Session 3 Homework activities in your handout. These include a mix of individual and team-based activities:

  1. Share your personal story by writing a bio (we’ll review this next week)
  2. Work as a team to identify marketing avenues to share your project’s story
  3. Post these pieces to your project-specific fori

Next week, our focus will be on establishing team roles and effective collaboration to support your project’s success.