This is a video assignment for my Learning With Digital Stories course. I was required to produce I short video where I describe what I do when it’s cold outside. I live in a cozy little apartment in the pictured building.   When It’s Cold Outside from Robert Piper on Vimeo.

As they say, I’m a sucker for happy endings” and I also love books. Therefore a digital story that includes both books and a happy ending is irresistible to me, and this rich story includes both. The Bookmobile begins by describing that the narrator, Storm Reyes, was eight years old when she began working full-time ... [Read more...]

I argue that some topics, even those which are seemingly innocuous, are better suited to abstract discussions than large collaborative projects. In these cases, the educator can offer both sides of an argument and then encourage an open discussion of it, and perhaps, a later independent response.  To support my argument, I endeavor to analyze ... [Read more...]

In my search for a digital story for this week’s critique, I finally realized that digital storytelling has become an important outlet for people who feel the need to share their pain. I encountered so many tragic stories of violence, including war, child abuse, sexual assault, racism, neglect and more. Some of which were so ... [Read more...]

Soon, web pages may be plastered with advertising like this building.

“We must teach communication comprehensively in all its forms. Today we work with the written or spoken word as the primary form of communication. But we all need to understand the importance of graphics, music, and cinema, which are just as powerful and in some ways more deeply intertwined with young people’s culture. We live ... [Read more...]

This short digital story is artfully crafted and presents a girl’s history that must be told over, and over again until we finally hear it and correct the culture which permits it. A culture that all too often strips away a young female’s self-worth and any “hope” she has of a future is absolutely heartbreaking. ... [Read more...]

With this topic, I’m certainly feeling my age as well as revealing my tastes in music and limited knowledge of pop culture. I’m afraid the remix culture, at least as it exists today, has left me in the dust.  Although I do watch many videos, and since the genre that I most enjoy is documentary, ... [Read more...]

The following podcast was an assignment for my Producing Media for Learning Course and was: Record a 5-10 minute podcast on “a color,” not color, but “a color.” Well, that’s vague and abstract, and me, I’m not very artistic. When I think of this I’m a bit overwhelmed . A color, 5-10 minutes, I doubt ... [Read more...]

One of my principal concerns with teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Korea is the learner’s “affective filter.” Lightbrown & Spada (2013) write the following description of the affective filter hypothesis: Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis is proposed to account for the fact that some people who are exposed to large quantities of comprehensible ... [Read more...]

The digital story “Rites of Passage” compares and contrasts the educational experience of the storyteller, Nikiko Masumoto, with the educational experience of her Japanese-American grandmother during WWII. This story made me acutely aware of the fact that for digital stories to truly appeal to me that they must connect to some shared personal experience. Although ... [Read more...]

I couldn’t resist sharing this photograph of twelve 10,000 won bank notes for today’s Daily Create, #tdc1709. I have read a good bit about King Sejong the Great and I’m now learning the writing system he created, Hangeul. It is a very logical system and I am happy to report that after just a few ... [Read more...]

I take this shortcut several times a day which is just a few steps from my door in Uijongbu-Shi, ROK. My wife suggested that it would make a nice nighttime shot, and I agree. I realized after shooting it that it was not the assigned Daily Create, as I had wandered off from the assigned page, ... [Read more...]

  I was immediately struck by how openminded Guy Merchant was concerning graffiti in his neighborhood. I, like many, have often viewed graffiti as a form of art, and yet art that is defacing the property of others. Although I strive to be openminded I am quite sure that I would not have approached neighborhood ... [Read more...]

My Response to the Digital Story “My Iligan” While searching for a digital story to critique for this week’s assignment I, fortunately, stumbled upon the prize-winning story “My Iligan” produced by Arkay Timonera of the Philippines. Timonera was awarded first prize in the 2009 My Iligan digital storytelling contest held in Mindanao, Philippines. From the ... [Read more...]

My wife and I recently moved into this cozy little two bedroom apartment in Uijongbu-Shi, ROK. We arrived two weeks before the Fall 2016 semester commenced, so we furnished the space quickly. The computer and its monitor traveled with me as checked baggage. The day after our arrival we purchased the bookcase, desk, and filing ... [Read more...]

I chose to critique the digital story “Ethnolinguistic Profile: Self-study of a Multilingual Person” as it was attached to the scholarly article that I responded to this week, which was “Digital Storytelling: Using Different Technologies for EFL.”  Christiansen and Koelzer (2016) included it as an example of a student-produced, compelling, digital story. Another reason for ... [Read more...]

One of the main reasons I recently relocated to Uijongbu-Shi, Republic of Korea (ROK) was to teach. My focus will be on teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and I plan to take advantage of available technology, to better my teaching, and to improve learners’ L2 acquisition. Since my arrival here, just a few ... [Read more...]

This bike shop is just a short walk from our apartment and I’ve noticed that it is a bit of a gathering place for some neighborhood gentlemen. There is a bike trail which snakes along a river that runs just past where the other fellow is seated. Convenient, as riders often stop by for repairs ... [Read more...]

The sociocultural aspects of “new literacies” described in this chapter immediately grabbed my attention and caused me to reflect on an experience I had last semester. In my online Games and Learning course, the readings were posted online and two students were asked to read and annotate the pieces in advance, using the annotation tool ... [Read more...]

My wife and I recently relocated to the Republic of Korea from the Big Island of Hawaii. I lived in Korea for most of the nineties but have not visited since we moved back to the U.S.A. in 1999. Therefore, I have not seen my nieces since 1999, when they visited our home on a ... [Read more...]