The Oklahoma Heritage Association is a leading partner in the statewide "Celebrate Oklahoma Voices" (COV) professional development initiative. COV is a statewide digital storytelling project empowering learners to become digital witnesses, archiving local oral history and sharing that history safely on the global stage of the Internet. Thanks to grants from AT&T/SBC as well as support from other project partners, Celebrate Oklahoma Voices continues to provide Oklahoma educators with digital storytelling equipment ("a digital backpack") and high quality professional development workshops focused on oral history and 21st century literacy skills.
Over 80 videos created by Oklahoma educators and students have been published on the COV learning community, currently located on http://lc.celebrateoklahoma.us/. Anyone interested in Oklahoma history and heritage is welcome to join the COV learning community. On the site members can rate and comment on videos as well as participate in online discussions. Joining the COV learning community is the best way to stay up-to-date on COV workshops and events.
- Fall Educator Workshops: COV will again offer introductory 2.5 day workshops for Oklahoma educators November 5-7, 2008, in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. An online application form is available, and more information about the workshops is available on celebrateoklahoma.us. The cost for this 2.5 day workshop is $150 per educator. Applicants must be current PK-20 educators in Oklahoma. This participation cost includes "digital backpack" equipment: a digital audio recorder, a digital camera, a USB headset with microphone, a USB flash drive, and a backpack.
- 2008 Veteran's Day Videoconference Salute and Celebration: Plans are underway to facilitate an all-day videoconference on November 11, 2008, for educators and students around Oklahoma focusing on the stories and sacrifices of our veterans and veteran families, past and present. More information about this collaborative project will be posted on the COV learning community.
A large number of organizations and individuals have collaborated together since the fall of 2006 to develop and implement the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project. Our collaborative continues to expand. In addition to the Oklahoma Heritage Association, current and past partners in COV include:
- AT&T
- The College of Education at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO)
- Oklahoma Public Television (OETA)
- The Oklahoma State Department of Education
- OneNet
- The Oklahoman (NewsOK)
- The K-20 Center at the University of Oklahoma
- Howe Public Schools
- Mid-Del Public Schools
- Oklahoma City Public Schools
- Enid Public Schools
- Tulsa Public Schools
- Tandberg
- Discovery Education
Over 100 teachers, librarians, administrators, instructors and professors from a variety of Oklahoma educational institutions have completed our initial 2.5 day workshop.
In August 2008, the Instructional Technology division of the Oklahoma Department of Education released an RFP for new competitive grants funded with federal Title IID funds. This RFP specifies on page 8:
"...training in the use of Celebrate Oklahoma Voice (COV)/Digital Story Telling will be required for eighty percent of professional staff, and all instructional leaders, affected by the funding under this program."
Oklahoma schools receiving 2008-2009 competitive TitleIID educational technology grants are eligible to have "Celebrate Oklahoma Voices" professional development workshops presented for their teachers at a local location. For budgeting calculations the following formula should be used for these professional development workshops costs, NOT including travel expenses for participating teachers:
Base cost for a 2.5 day COV workshop with 3 facilitators: $3000
Per participant costs (10 participant minimum, 25 participant maximum per workshop): $400
Using this formula, a COV workshop for 10 teacher participants would cost $7000. A COV workshop for 25 teacher participants would cost $13,000. Note these costs do include "digital backpack" recording and storytelling equipment for each teacher participant. School districts may need to budget additional travel and hotel costs for teacher participants which is NOT included in this cost formula. This cost formula covers curriculum, supplies, and facilitator costs for each workshop.
COV project participants will make every effort to provide each workshop in the local, requesting school district. Workshops must have a minimum of ten participants, however. If a second workshop is provided, a second base cost fee will be incurred in addition to per participant costs. Depending on the number of teachers needing to complete the COV workshop, districts may want to plan for more than one COV workshop session. For example, rather than budget for one 25 participant workshop at $13,000, a district may opt to budget for two 13 participant workshops at $8,200 each or a total of $16,400. This would provide more flexibility for staff who many not all be able to attend the same session. In addition this could provide flexibility for the school to add more participants at the incremental $400 per participant cost, up to 25 participants per workshop session.
Please direct questions regarding COV workshop pricing for Oklahoma TitleIID competitive grants to Wesley Fryer at the Oklahoma Heritage Association: wes [at] oklahomaheritage [dot] com or 405-523-3214. Note that individual Oklahoma educators NOT teaching in a district receiving a TitleIID educational technology grant are still eligible to apply for AT&T grant-supported COV workshops at the $150 per participant cost.
This RFP was posted to the Oklahoma School District Reporting Site. The deadline for this grant RFP was Friday, August 29, 2008. A list of 2009 awardees is available from the Oklahoma Department of Education.
Celebrate Oklahoma Voices continues to grow and expand. The article "Empowering Oklahoma Educators to to Preserve and Share Oral History" provides a summary of our story through July 2008.
Dr. Dana Owens-Delong of the University of Central Oklahoma and Wesley Fryer of the Oklahoma Heritage Association currently serve as the co-directors for the COV project. To learn more about Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, visit and join the COV learning community and visit the project's informational website: celebrateoklahoma.us.
More information about COV workshops is available on the Frequently Asked Questions pages of our older website. AW-9 form is available for school districts needing to complete a purchase order. (PDF) School districts needing an invoice to process a PO should request one directly from Karlee Chill. More info about workshop payments is available. Please direct other questions about Celebrate Oklahoma Voices to Wesley Fryer.