Featured Narrative on the Occasion of Steve Jobs' Passing: #206, "The Impact Composing With a Computer Had on My Life"

Image via CrunchBaseThe passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has set the Internet ablaze with reminisces and stories about how Apple products touch so many technology users' lives.  This Storify narrative captures a tiny portion of this discussion, and we hope someone is archiving the Twitter discussion on hashtag #RIPSteveJobs for posterity!

These social media ephemera are full of literacy narratives: stories about how the devices we use to read and write have touched and changed our lives, how they have changed (or honored existing) attitudes toward reading and writing, and how the digital spaces in which we read and write intersect with our "analog" lives.

The DALN is full of literacy narratives about Apple products, so today in honor of Jobs' passing, we share narrative #206 from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives about how John Scenters-Zapico's first encounter with an Apple computer changed his attitude toward composing--and even his entire career as an academic.  Titled "The Impact Composing with a Computer had on my life," Scenters-Zapico marks narrative #206 as occurring during the 1980s and relating to the keywords computer virgin, literacy, technology, composing, and Computer.

Feeling inspired by this story?  We invite you to

1. View the full item record for narrative #206 in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, or

2. Share this blog post with others via email, Facebook, or Twitter!  You could even share the entire Featured Narratives Series using this link!

3. Ensure that you don't miss any future Feature Narratives by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our blog via RSS or email (to subscribe by email, use the link in the right-hand sidebar that says "Follow by Email").

4. Reflect on your own literacy stories and consider sharing one or more of them with the DALN!  The DALN submission process can be completed entirely online from any Internet-connected computer, and we welcome submissions from all around the world on any topic related to reading, writing, or composing!  Just click on the "Submit a Narrative" link at the DALN web site to get started, or check out our Video Walk-Thru of the submission process here on the blog!

Featured Narrative Series, #472 "Reading Tom Clancy"

Today's featured Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives archive, #472 by narrator "Shane, Willis", is titled "Reading Tom Clancy."  In the DALN narrative submission data, the narrator describes this narrative as taking place in Ohio during the 1990s. The narrative is marked with the keywords English, Father, Fourth Grade, and Tom Clancy.

One night when I was about ten years old I couldn’t sleep, so of course I did what most ten year olds do, I bugged my parents. My dad worked the early shift at work and had very little patience for my constant interruptions, so after about my fourth or fifth trip into my parents’ room he finally decided to do something about it. He took me to his closet where he had a box of books and picked up a thick volume, Tom Clancy’s Debt of Honor, and told me not to come back until I had finished reading it or I would be grounded.

So I started reading. Since I was only in the fourth grade many of the concepts presented were way beyond my understanding, but for some reason I was hooked. I didn’t stop reading for nearly four hours. After that night it took me nearly a month to finish the entire book, when I was finished I had developed a love of reading that stayed with me to this day. From that day on I was never without a book, some days staying home ‘sick’ from school just to finish a particularly interesting novel.

I would say I have my father to thank for my passion for reading, even though his intent was only to get me to sleep.

Do you have a story about a special author or book that changed your experiences with reading?  Or perhaps a story about a pivotal person in your literacy life?  Please consider sharing it with the DALN in text, audio, or video form!

Feeling inspired by this story?  We invite you to

1. View the full item record for narrative #472 in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, or

2. Share this blog post with others via email, Facebook, or Twitter!  You could even share the entire Featured Narratives Series using this link!!

3. Ensure that you don't miss any future Feature Narratives by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our blog via RSS or email (to subscribe by email, use the link in the right-hand sidebar that says "Follow by Email")!. Join our email list in the right-hand sidebar under "Follow by Email."

4. Reflect on your own literacy stories and consider sharing one or more of them with the DALN!  The DALN submission process can be completed entirely online from any Internet-connected computer, and we welcome submissions from all around the world on any topic related to reading, writing, or composing!  Just click on the "Submit a Narrative" link at the DALN web site to get started, or check out our Video Walk-Thru of the submission process here on the blog!

Featured Narrative Series: #1001 "First Time I Played Reader Rabbit"

Today's featured Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives archive, #1001 by narrator Alisha Neumann, describes the narrator's early experiences with using a computer and particularly the software program Reader Rabbit.

Almost everyone has a story to share about using a computer or software for the first time, and maybe you'll be inspired to share yours after watching Alisha's narrative!

Alisha Neumann's narrative includes a Creative Commons license (non-commercial no derivatives), which is an option given to every narrator submitting to the DALN.  Learn more about Creative Commons licenses at the CC home page.

Feeling inspired by this story?  We invite you to

Image via Wikipedia1. View the full item record for narrative #1001 in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, or

2. Share this blog post with others!  You could even share the entire Featured Narratives Series!

3. Ensure that you don't miss any future Feature Narratives by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our blog via RSS or email (to subscribe by email, use the link in the right-hand sidebar that says "Follow by Email")!. Join our email list in the right-hand sidebar under "Follow by Email."

4. Reflect on your own literacy stories and consider sharing one or more of them with the DALN!  The DALN submission process can be completed entirely online from any Internet-connected computer, and we welcome submissions from all around the world on any topic related to reading, writing, or composing!  Just click on the "Submit a Narrative" link at the DALN web site to get started, or check out our Video Walk-Thru of the submission process here on the blog!

Our First Guest Blog!: Amy Edwards Patterson's Glogster about the DALN and the Milwaukee Digital Media Conference 2011

It's a big day for the DALN Blog: we're publishing our first guest blog post, and what a post it is!  Amy Edwards Patterson, Gen Ed faculty member at Moraine Park Technical College in Wisconsin, composed this fabulous Glogster about her experiences with the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives and her DALN-related experiences at the Milwaukee Digital Media Conference 2011.  


Thanks Amy!  Check it out below, and don't forget to follow Amy on Twitter via @amycep!

Feeling inspired by Amy's post?  We welcome inquiries from potential guest bloggers about your experiences related to the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives!  We met Amy through our Twitter account (@dalnarchive) and you can contact us there, or we'd love to hear from you through Facebook or email!

(Prefer a full-size version of this Glogster?  Click here!)

Featured Narrative Series: #2423 "Reflections of a DALN Social Media Coordinator"

(New to the DALN blog or the Featured Narrative Series?  You can access the entire Featured Narrative Series to date by clicking here!)


A special entry today in our Featured Narrative Series: #2423 by Jen Michaels, the Summer 2011 Social Media Coordinator for the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives!    Meet the face behind the blog style sheet, if you will.  Hi!  I'll be reading the blog comments as always, so if you have any feedback about our DALN social media presence or any questions, you'll know exactly who's on the other side!

Feeling inspired by this story?  We invite you to

Image via Wikipedia1. View the full item record for narrative #2423 in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives,

2. Share this blog post with others!  You could even share the entire Featured Narratives Series!

3. Ensure that you don't miss any future Feature Narratives by following us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our blog via RSS or email (to subscribe by email, use the link in the right-hand sidebar that says "Follow by Email")!. Join our email list in the right-hand sidebar under "Follow by Email."

4. Reflect on your own literacy stories and consider sharing one or more of them with the DALN!  The DALN submission process can be completed entirely online from any Internet-connected computer, and we welcome submissions from all around the world on any topic related to reading, writing, or composing!  Just click on the "Submit a Narrative" link at the DALN web site to get started, or check out our Video Walk-Thru of the submission process here on the blog!

The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives Submission Process: A Video Walk-Through

Curious about the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives' online submission process?  Perhaps you're thinking about submitting your own literacy narrative, teaching with literacy narratives, or hoping to help others share their stories?  This short video walk-through will give you a tour of the online submission process, which can be completed from any computer with Internet access!

The process doesn't take long, but it does include several important steps:

1. Consent to have your literacy narrative included in the archive

2. Opportunities to add optional descriptions, keywords, and demographic data that become searchable in the archive, making your narrative easier for others to access and giving you opportunities to describe the narrative as you wish

3. Uploading your literacy narrative file (or multiple files, if you wish!) to the DALN server

4. A Deed of Gift declaration and an option to attach Creative Commons licenses to your narrative.

Image via Wikipedia

The DALN also has a Submit by Mail feature if you prefer to submit your materials on CD or DVD.  Finally, if you are helping others share their stories in an environment with limited computer access, you may find the print versions of the DALN submission forms useful.  They are identical in content to the online submission process.

Questions about the DALN submission process?  Let us know in the comments below, or contact the DALN using this contact info!

Featured Narrative Series: #129, Susan Plachta's "Three Billygoats"

Today's featured narrative from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives is #129, Susan Plachta's "Three Billygoats."  Archive #129 includes a video file and a text transcript of the video, and we've included both in today's post!  We reproduce the text and video exactly as they appear in the archive.  This DALN contributor describes the narrative as focusing "on the influence of my mother on my literacy" and describes events that took place in the United States in the 1970s.

"Susan: So what I wanted to tell you is the story of literacy that I had was when I was about four or five years of my mom always read to me the three billy goats gruff. And each time she would do it, she would do all the different voices. And it would be "Who's that stepping over my bridge?" And each billy goat would then be the smallest voices to the large ones. And that it would always be a great experience, because we would sit on her lap and we would listen to it and get all the voices, and I would like to hear it over and over again. And so with that, each time I would pick different books that my mom would read to me, but always came back to that story, it always came back to the three billy goats gruff. Love that story. I think it really instilled my love of reading, just have that great experience at the very beginning, encouraged me in that way. Exactly, she brought everything to light, the characters, and having those moments with her, and she's always been instrumental in my literacy. So that's my story."

Feeling inspired by this story?  We invite you to

1. View the full item record for narrative #129 in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

2. Share this blog post with others!

3. Subscribe to our blog via email so you won't miss any of our Feature Narratives. Email subscribers receive an email anytime we add a new post to the DALN blog!  Join our email list in the right-hand sidebar under "Follow by Email."

4. Reflect on your own literacy stories and consider sharing one or more of them with the DALN!  The DALN submission process can be completed entirely online from any Internet-connected computer, and we welcome submissions from all around the world on any topic related to reading, writing, or composing!  Just click on the "Submit a Narrative" link at the DALN web site to get started, or stay tuned for a blog post later this week with a video walk-through of the submission process!

Five Ways to Interact with the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

There are so many ways to participate in the DALN, and they don't stop at submitting your own narrative!  Today we share five ways to interact with the DALN.


1. View, read, and listen to narratives archived in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

When contributors submit stories to the DALN, they make their stories available for public access through the Internet--and they're meant to be enjoyed and watched!  Some fun ways to browse the archive include...

Browse Options on the DALN Home Page

--Search by keyword for an idea or trend that’s important to you.  For example, as of today's posting date, there are 135 narratives tagged with the keyword music, eleven with the keyword love letters, and seven with the keyword tattoo!

--Browse a DALN Collection, such as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Contributors Collection or the submissions from students in the First-Year Writing Program at The Ohio State University during the 2010-2011 school year!  Many of the organizations in the DALN Contributing Partners Program also have extensive collections.

--Follow our blog via Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or Follow by Email (see the sidebar at right) so that you won't miss any of our Featured Narratives posts here on the blog!

2. Teach with Literacy Narratives Across the Curriculum


The DALN's narratives encompass reading, writing, and composing in a wide variety of contexts.  Just look at the DALN search results for the keywords biology, dance, or computer science!  And of course, literacy narratives are very useful in composition or literacy courses.

Four DALN Search Results for keyword biology

Whether you have students compose their own narratives or view the narratives of others, select sample narratives for student discussion and analysis or have students find relevant narratives on their own, select a literacy trend to highlight or have students identify trends in the narratives, the DALN offers possibilities for almost every academic topic.  For more, chck out the DALN's Teacher Resources section.

3. Tell Others About the DALN

The DALN grows more rich and diverse as it reaches new audiences and inspires new contributors.  Do you know a person, group, or organization that might be interested in archiving their literacy stories or interacting with the DALN in other ways?  Link them to the DALN home page, to a relevant literacy narrative from the archive, or to our DALN blog!  

4. Submit a Literacy Narrative (or Two, or Three!) to the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

Feeling camera shy or have writer's block?  There are lots of ways to reduce the intimidation factor, like telling the story to a friend or family member while you record or focusing your narrative on a specific person, place, or object related to your literacy history.  Many DALN contributors find that once they start thinking and talking about a literacy story, they can't stop talking about it!  Brainstorm ideas for literacy narratives with this document, or learn more about the DALN submission process--or stay tuned for a blog post later this week that walks you step by step through the online narrative submission process!

5. Help Others Record and Contribute their Stories

Family, friends, colleagues, and members of groups and organizations in your life all have wonderful literacy stories to tell.  Since the DALN accepts submissions in multiple forms--text, audio, and video--submitted online or via snail mail, many potential contributors are just one helper away from contributing their wonderful story to a permanent public archive.

This is where you come in!  Make contact with an organization or group, determine a time and location for setting up a simple recording booth, and help other folks record and share their stories.  Your contributors can use keywords to tie their narratives together so that they can be easily located as a group in the DALN archive.  Groups with many potential contributors might also consider becoming part of the DALN Contributing Partners program.

Stay tuned later this week for a post that walks you through the DALN submission process.  Jen, our own DALN Social Media Coordinator, will show you step by step how she records and submits a DALN narrative! 

Have you used the DALN in one of these ways, or perhaps in another way altogether?  We'd love to hear from you in the blog comments!

Featured Narrative Series, #891, "Home School and Literacy"

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Today we feature DALN narrative #891 from contributor Lynn Simmons.  In her DALN submission, she describes this narrative as being "about how my literacy story began while I was home schooled" during the 1990s.  She chose the keywords essays, literary terms, movies, home school, and georgiasouthern as search terms for her narrative in the DALN archive.


Feeling inspired by this story?  We invite you to

1. View the full item record for narrative #891 in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

2. Share this blog post with others!


3. Subscribe to our blog via email so you won't miss any of our Feature Narratives. Email subscribers receive an email anytime we add a new post to the DALN blog!  Join our email list in the right-hand sidebar under "Follow by Email."


4. Reflect on your own literacy stories and consider sharing one or more of them with the DALN!  The DALN submission process can be completed entirely online from any Internet-connected computer, and we welcome submissions from all around the world on any topic related to reading, writing, or composing!  Just click on the "Submit a Narrative" link at the DALN web site to get started, or stay tuned for a blog post later this week with a video walk-through of the submission process!

Free Resources For Collecting, Sharing, and Teaching with Literacy Narratives from the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

As this blog progresses, we look forward to highlighting resources related to literacy narrative collection and showcasing specific documents in our existing DALN resources section.  For today, however, we wanted to point visitors to the many wonderful, existing resources in the DALN's Resources area!  Many of these documents are Word .DOC and .PDF files that we invite you to use freely while collecting, sharing, and teaching literacy narratives.

Understanding the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives and Brainstorming Literacy Narratives

What is a Literacy Narrative?

Brainstorming for Literacy Narratives: Basic Literacy Questions 

About The DALN Collection and Submission Process

How to Create a Literacy Narrative and Submit it to the DALN

Why We Need the DALN Submission Forms

Teaching with Literacy Narratives and the DALN

DALN Assignment Ideas for Teachers

Formative Assessment Ideas for Teachers

Teachers' Resources: a full page of resources related to teachign with the DALN, including assignments, samples, workshops, formative assessment ideas!

Facilitating a Literacy Narrative Collection Event

Hosting an "Everybody Has a Literacy Story" Event/Literacy Narrative Day

Setiing Up a Simple Story Recording Booth

Tips for Recording in a Public Place

Simple Recording Directions (for onsite, online recording) 

Is there a resource that you want to share or that you wish the DALN would share or create?  Maybe you have a resource of your own to share?  Let us know in the blog comments or by emailing us!

Featured DALN Literacy Narrative Series: 3 Narratives To Kick Off the Series!

The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives features over 2,400 unique stories about reading, writing, and composing all around the world.  The narratives are publicly available and searchable through the DALN web site, but we look forward to sharing some of these literacy narratives with you through our blog as well!

If you enjoy these stories, we invite you to

• --Visit the original narratives at the DALN to view their full information --records and any supplemental files.  We've included links to each individual narrative below, but the DALN is also fully searchable by keyword, title, author name, etc.
• --Share these narratives with a friend by sending them the link or sharing the link via social media, and
• --Get inspired to share a narrative of your own or help someone else share their narrative!

In the future we plan to feature narratives one at a time, but to give a small taste of the DALN's diversity of narrators and stories, our kickoff post in the Featured Narratives series includes three narratives!

Featured Narrative #1: Yusuf's "Everyone Has a Gift," recorded in 2009, was the 539th narrative submitted to the DALN!  Yusuf describes the story as being "about my life and change I need for my country, Somalia."

Featured Narrative #2: Kevin DePew's "Being labeled a bad writer has made me a better instructor" was also submitted in 2009 and was the 231st narrative submitted to the DALN.  Kevin submitted the following keywords with his DALN narrative: teaching writing, bad writer, inventing the University, high school, Track and field, and CCCC2009.  The last keyword refers to the narrative's collection location at the 2009 Conference on College Composition and Communication.

Featured Narrative #3: Many of the DALN's stories are video or audio narratives, but the DALN also welcomes text narratives!  Gwyn Casey's "Childhood & Literacy," the 288th submission to the DALN, was submitted as a Microsoft Word .DOC file:

"My literacy story begins with some of my earliest childhood memories.  When I think about it, I hear my grandpa’s black Dodge pull around to the back of the rented building where we lived. Unknowingly, as a child, I thought it was normal for everyone to overlook the Mill Creek Valley and smell the stench of industrial waste.  However, my family was lucky.  We had a car, a roof over our heads, and plenty of food on the table.  My mother worked, my father worked, and my grandfather worked—close to home and within walking distance of our house: Kroger’s on State Avenue and Hutchinson Brothers Sporting Goods on Eighth Street.  That left me at home with my grandmother, a woman who sewed baseball gloves to support herself and her three boys after her husband died suddenly of a heart attack.  So the man I mention above as my grandfather was not really my grandfather but my grandmother’s second husband, but you wouldn’t know it.  The man was my best friend and protector.  I credit him for my interest in reading because, daily, he always brought home the newspaper.  Being the inquisitive child that I was (which probably means I was a pain in the butt), I would insist that I sit on my grandfather’s lap, sip the foam off his beer, and read the newspaper.  Some where along the way, probably because I outgrew his lap, he gave me a pencil and taught me to circle all of the letter “O” that I could find within the section of the newspaper which he had finished reading.  He was proud that I could find so many, and that is the beginning of my literacy story."

Feeling inspired by these narratives? Learn more about recording your own literacy narrative or facilitating a narrative collection event in our DALN Resources section at http://daln.osu.edu/!