DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARD TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri ___________________________________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ___________________________________________________________________________ By Barri L. Bumgarner Dr. Roy F. Fox, Dissertation Supervisor July 2012 The undersigned, appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN WRITING: A CASE STUDY OF STUDENT TEACHER ATTITUDES TOWARD TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY Presented by Barri L. Bumgarner, a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. ______________________________ Dr. Roy F. Fox, Chair ______________________________ Dr. Amy Lannin ______________________________ Dr. Carol Gilles ______________________________ Dr. Laurie Kinglsey ______________________________ Dr. Jill Ostrow ______________________________ Dr. Martha Townsend DEDICATION For Mom, who inspired a deep love of learning from the first time she read the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam to me… For Dad, who would have been so proud. For my support network, Yos and close friends alike – happy hours were more than toasts, the much-needed laughter often the best escape in times of immeasurable stress. And for Marsha, because you believed I could…and should. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS When I started my PhD, there were so many intangibles, so much I did not know, and a wondrous world of possibilities. My entire research was shaped in Roy Fox’s Media Literacy class, that long ago day in 2006, when I did my first digital composition as a Master’s student. I was awed, I was inspired, and his then grad assistant, Amy Lannin, challenged me to consider writing in new and different ways. To say Dr. Fox and Dr. Lannin inspired me, motivated me, and supported me is a gross understatement. At times, like after my house burned down in November of 2010, their support was integral to my continued success. The two have been like pillars in my growth as a professional, as a higher education thinker, and as a researcher. Dr. Fox guided me to my research topic and offered continued guidance throughout the PhD process. Through her seminars, our work on MWP projects, and professional development work all around the state, Amy became a colleague, a friend, a mentor on so many levels. She challenged me to think, to be introspective and, at points, she was the shoulder I needed when the stress of it all made me question what I was doing. When I first took a class with Jill Ostrow, she was new to the department, and I remembered thinking after only one class, I want to teach just like her… She inspired me to think differently about how I teach, about formative assessment that did not require numbers but feedback, and she guided me to see myself through a different lens. She, too, supported me in ways I can never thank enough, at one point spending hours in my front yard, because she was not only a colleague but a friend. From the first day I entered Carol Gilles’s Talk in the Curriculum course, I knew I would take all the classes I could from her. She read a picture book, and I immediately was drawn to her middle school mentality. After her many years in higher education, she still had her heart grounded in the public school classroom. When I did an assistantship with Dr. Gilles, she evolved into much more than a professor. I had many questions, and she prompted me to find the answers. She answered questions with questions that made me think and, when I faltered, she offered motivation that kept me strong. Several points during the last year of my research, it was Carol who had the words of encouragement I needed to stay on track, to not let the trauma of the fire consume me, and reminded me that what I was doing was important. Laurie Kingsley opened my eyes to the importance of teacher preparation, and the work we did together became integral to my research. With her expertise and inspiration, we will finish our article and soon be published. Later in my PhD career, I took Marty Townsend’s Writing Across the Curriculum course, and I realized much of my work embraced the WAC/WID mindset. I had taken Donna Strickland’s class and incorporated her box logic assignment into a digital assignment for my own students, changing the way I viewed digital possibilities in my own teaching. Marty helped me see the possibilities of crossing content boundaries with research for a paper in her class that eventually became the foundation for my dissertation. Her continual support and motivation to attend IWAC in Bloomington have inspired me to see beyond my department and my course of study. Aside from my committee members and numerous other professors, so much of my support came from colleagues. There were too many conversations to count with Juanita ii Willingham, debating Vygotsky, general semantics, and how it all applied to our individual research. In the beginning, Shannon Cuff offered initial guidance and help navigating the comps process, Steve Barrett reminded me not to take it all too seriously, and the whole Oakland crew let me know I had a foundation that inspired us all to aspire to reach as high as we could climb. Keri Franklin, who had first been a friend, then a colleague, continually inspired me to keep chugging along. For her feedback in reading drafts of Chapter 4 I can never thank her enough. She cleared my vision to see findings as a map that would lead others on my journey or on a similar one of their own. Colleagues in 211 kept me sane, from Heather Statz’s positive outlook that continually inspired me to our ESP crew who caught the collaborative bug to take writing across the curriculum in a project we never dreamed would become so important. I could never have done any of this without Jayme, who allowed me to be in her methods class to find research participants. A HUGE thank you to my participants, both student teachers and cooperating teachers, and to the schools that opened their doors to my research. An enormous thank you to Janet Musick, my friend and editor, who helped make this dissertation better. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge everyone at the Missouri Writing Project who has inspired me, including Julie Sheerman who has steered me toward the professional development that I have come to realize encompasses everything I love about education. So many have impacted me, and the result both fills me with pride and humbles me. I could never have done this alone. Last but definitely not least, thank you, Marsha, for believing in me, for allowing me to take this journey, and for not only offering support but reading every draft and challenging me to think deeper. Nothing I do is ever a success without you as a part of it. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...............................................................................................ii APPENDICES.................................................................................................................viii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ix LIST OF FIGURES............................................................................................................x ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 How This Study Began ................................................................................................. 2 Research Problem and Rationale................................................................................... 6 Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 7 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 8 Social Learning Theory/Constructivism ................................................................. 8 Modified Transactional Theory............................................................................... 9 Thinking and Writing............................................................................................ 11 Cross-curricular Lens ............................................................................................ 14 The Role of the Workshop in the Digital Writing Process ................................... 16 Teacher Preparation in the 21st Century............................................................... 18 Organization of the Study ........................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .................................................... 22 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 23 Introduction to Digital Literacy................................................................................... 24 Defining the Terms................................................................................................ 24 Why Teach With or About Digital Literacy?.......................................................