What's happening

I've been posting to the email list as interesting items come to my attention but haven't developed the habits yet to keep this blog updated. So here's a list of some of the resources and news over the past few months:

• A new video has been posted on our MDRC Our Voices You Tube Channel, a story by James Ivy called Listen to My Dream.
• I am traveling to Calumet MI next week to help out storytellers at Superior Alliance for Independent Living (SAIL). They are working with a group of students who have disabilities who are transitioning from school to life and will be doing a day of storytelling.
  
• I was able to show some stories to a few people at a Peer Mentoring Training in Lansing last week for people in the community mental health system who have developmental disabilities.

Various Resources and News:

• Thanks Norm for finding this article about storytelling! It covers some of the elements we talk about in our classes in a bit more depth.
• We passed on this message to our email list:
  "Hello, this is a message from a new admin of Autistics Against Autism Speaks! First, thank you to all members who have started following the new Twitter account, after about two weeks we have almost a hundred followers! If you haven't done so already, you can follow us here: www.twitter.com/au1smspeaks". Now, I need to ask for the help of every one of you, for a very special new video we're doing for the YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/autismspeaksv1ds. The idea was thought of by @psychomia from Twitter, so thank you! Here's the plan: we want to make a video promoting the fact that autistic people and parents of autistic children are proud of their autism and, more importantly, that people on the autistic spectrum are equal to everyone else and are human beings just as much as neurotypical people. We want volunteers - whether they're so-called "low-functioning", "high-functioning", Asperger's or parents of children on the spectrum - to film themselves talk about these things and send the videos to us via e-mail at autismspeaks123@googlemail.com. Obviously, to do this you will need to be happy with having your face on the internet, but that's it! You can film it on a webcam, a phone, a camcorder, iPod, or anything really! Just e-mail the videos to us at autismspeaks123@googlemail.com and we'll put it in the video. Thank you for reading, and a massive thank you in advance if you help out!"
• Free online resources to do a story map for your digital story:
  http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/storymap/index.html.
• Wouldn't if be great to have some students with disabilities enter this annual contest? C-SPAN's StudentCam is an annual national video documentary competition that encourages students to think seriously about issues that affect our communities and our nation. Students are asked to create a short (5-8 minute) video documentary that responds to one of the topics listed below. To view the full list of competition rules and requirements.
• ORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA, and MCLEAN, VA -- The Foundation of American
  Women in Radio & Television and The Academy of Television Arts &
  Sciences Foundation proudly announce a partnership with The Loreen
  Arbus Foundation that will focus on the needs, achievements,
  contributions and stories of citizens with disabilities to commemorate
  the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2010.
  The partnership creates The Loreen Arbus Focus on Disability
  Scholarship to be given to aspiring student television and filmmakers.
  The announcement was jointly issued by Sylvia Strobel, Interim
  President of American Women in Radio & Television, Terri Clark,
  Executive Director of the Television Academy Foundation, and Loreen
  Arbus. Both scholarships will be presented at the April 10, 2010
  College Television Awards, the Television Academy Foundation’s annual
  celebration of the best in student television, digital and film work
  in the U.S.
  
  AWRT’s competition will challenge students to create a 60 second
  Public Service Announcement (PSA) that tells the compelling story of
  disability in America, the societal changes effected by the Americans
  with Disabilities Act that have enabled them to become more
  independent and self-sufficient, and the remarkable contributions
  Americans with disabilities have made. The PSA will be prominently
  displayed on AWRT’s web site and social media outlets and will be
  showcased during the Television Academy Foundation’s College
  Television Awards this coming April, and at the July 2010 National
  Summit on Disability Policy Conference in Washington, D.C.
  
  On behalf of the Television Academy Foundation, one of the
  scholarships will recognize a young talent whose work sheds light on
  people with disabilities, helps emerging artists gain recognition and
  increases visibility for artists with disabilities. The scholarship
  will be presented to student writers, producers or directors with
  disabilities, producers of content focused on people with
  disabilities, or to a piece that features one or more actors with
  disabilities.
  
  Holding the distinction of serving as the first woman in the U.S. to
  head programming for two cable networks, Showtime and Cable Health
  Network/Lifetime, Loreen Arbus is a disability rights activist
  committed to her work with United Cerebral Palsy (UCP), the
  organization founded by her parents, Isabelle and Leonard H.
  Goldenson, Founder/Chairman, ABC. The fifth-largest U.S. health
  agency, UCP serves and advocates on behalf of more than 54 million
  Americans with disabilities.
  
  Contacts:
  Television Academy Foundation: American Women in Radio & Television:
  Pam Golum/Michael Samonte Amy Lotz
  The Lippin Group/LA alotz@awrt.org
  msamonte@lippingroup.com (703) 506-3290
  (323) 965-1990
  
• A found a new story about a disability experience posted on Stories for Change - FYI: Out of Darkness
• I thought you may like this collection of stories at Ohio State. http://digitalstory.osu.edu/stories.html
• In early November, the IML hosted a group of 4-year-old preschool students, who learned about video cameras, story structure and basic editing in a revised version of our Digital Storytelling and Recombinant Narrative Workshop. The students responded exceptionally well, using their love of stories as a foundation for thinking through screen-based narrative. http://vimeo.com/7926691.
• Captioning Resource: Captioning YouTube Video and Providing Accessible Controls.
  

That's it for now! Thanks for sharing.