We are so excited to announce that Digital Storytelling Contest (DISTCO) 2013 has started! DISTCO 2013 is an online contest where students and teachers in K-12 are invited to submit their original digital stories between December 3, 2012 and February 25, 2012. Please check our website at http://www.distco.org for complete timeline and updated rules. The DISTCO project has various benefits for students. It is a challenging competition in which students can showcase their skills in multimedia, technology, research, writing and creativity.

AWARDS

DISTCO Scholarship Awards (New!) – 18 students in Senior Level (Grades 9-12) category will be awarded scholarships totaling up to $84,000 by North American College in DISTCO 2013.

Among the many rewards available in this year’s contest are iPad Minis, iPod Nanos, and Gift Cards. Please visit http://www.distco.org/awards for more information.

DOCUMENTS

Please find following documents attached in this email for more details.

1- DISTCO 2013 Flyer
2- DISTCO 2013 Information Packet

For more information on how to create digital stories, please visit http://www.distco.org/tutorials.

SUBMIT YOUR DIGITAL STORY BY FEBRUARY 25, 2013!

North American College was proud to host winners of DISTCO 2012  and their families at an Award Ceremony on May 22, 2012.

See pictures from AWARD CEREMONY below:

In DISTCO 2012, the fourth in the series of DISTCO projects, there were around 3000 students registered through our website. 1175 of these students were qualified to submit their digital stories. Out of these projects, 595 of them were eligible for judging.

There were two types of judging in DISTCO 2012: Official Judging and Popular Voting.

The popular voting took place between 3/22/2012-4/27/2012 over our YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/thedistco .

The official judging took place among the same time period by a group of faculty members at North American College and various other Universities.

In DISTCO 2012, there were 3 grade level categories (namely Elementary, Junior, Senior) and Grand prizes. Please see a list of winners at http://www.distco.org/results.

We would like to thank our sponsors and congratulate all of the winners again!

The DISTCO 2012 is part of a series of “Digital Storytelling Contests (DISTCO)” hosted by North American College (NAC) and sponsored by University of Houston and University of Texas at San Antonio (Academy of Teacher Excellence).

The first contest of the DISTCO series, DISTCO 2008, was initiated in the fall of 2008. This was followed by DISTCO 2009 and DISTCO 2010.

The DISTCO contests are open to all K-12 students and teachers at both national and international levels. The DISTCO 2012 asked students and teachers to submit their digital stories in a certain time frame and manner for the contest. The competitions are held online through http://www.distco.org.  The project has certain benefits for both students and teachers. It is a way of exposing and challenging the students in a competition where they can show their skills in multimedia, technology, researching, writing and creativity.

The DISTCO projects contribute to investigation of educational uses of digital storytelling in K-12. The results of the research are published in national conferences and the you can read some of results at the http://www.distco.org/research

The DISTCO 2012 RESULTS are released today. Please see RESULTS page for more information. We would like to congratulate all winners and invite them to pick up their awards at our AWARD CEREMONY.

DISTCO 2012 AWARD CEREMONY

You are cordially invited to DISTCO 2012 Award Ceremony on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at 6 pm at North American College, Houston, TX. Please click here for directions and our address. Please join us at this happy day as we recognize the winners. For more information please email contact@distco.org. Congratulations to all winners…

PS. This ceremony is open to all winners and their families.

“Official Judging” and “Popular Voting” has started!

You can vote for your favorite Digital Story by clicking the “Like” button on our Youtube channel. Popular voting ends on April 27, 2012.

Results will be announced on or after May 1, 2012 on our website…

Visit our Youtube Channel to view and vote for your favorite Digital Stories:

DISTCO 2012 Elementary Level (Gr.K-5) Contestants – Youtube Playlist

DISTCO 2012 Junior Level (Gr.6-8) Contestants – Youtube Playlist-PART I

DISTCO 2012 Junior Level (Gr.6-8) Contestants – Youtube Playlist-PART II

DISTCO 2012 Senior (Gr.9-12) Level Contestants – Youtube Playlist

Please see our Evaluation Rubric for Official Judging below:

The research results of DISTCO 2012 are out!

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT

Submission are now closed. Thank you for your interest. We have received many quality digital stories in this year’s contest. The next step in DISTCO 2012 is OFFICIAL JUDGING and POPULAR VOTING. The start of judging and voting will be announced here in couple of weeks. So, check back here soon!

“Registrations” are now closed. However, if you registered on time, you could still submit your story by Feb 24, 2012. For details on “Extended Digital Story Submission” deadline, please see Rules page…

Digital stories can be submitted from this link:

http://www.distco.org/register

Hurry in!  Registrations close on January 27, 2012…

In order to be eligible for submissions, complete registration by this date. If you successfully register and take the required survey, your Digital Stories can still be submitted until February 24, 2012.

Visit http://www.distco.org/register for more info…