After doing the reading for digital stories my mind began to swim. The ideas that popped into my head and how intrigued I was about digital stories was awesome. I could see this being used in every grade level (a first for me and technology) and every part of the school.
Digital stories are short (3 to 10 minutes max) videos created by anyone that include video, picture, music, narration, and graphics. Digital stories are that....stories told and created by the presenter. They are based on a sigle topic and one point of view. They can be about anything and made by anyone with a "story" to tell.
I would think that digital stories could be used in the media center as a way for the media specialist to review or introduce a library concept (DDC or how to use a non-fiction book). Students could use digital stories in the media center as a way to share their favorite book (especially the younger grades). This story could be done weekly or bi-weekly by various students on various grade levels and shared school wide.
In the classroom, I began to think of all the ways I could use it as well. Of course, any teacher could use it as a way to preview a topic, review a topic, or teach one. But, I really wanted to think about how my class could use it...23 six year olds. Then I thought how they could use it to keep track of their own writing ideas. It could become a digital storybook of sorts. I also thought about how a digital story could be used as a culminating activity for students in any subject area. As I've heard often in education and know from real life....if you can perform the task and explain your thinking clearly...you must understand it. By creating performance based task using digital stories as a way to show understanding in my book is an awesome way to not only implement 21st Century Learning but to also the every day standards students must learn.
Stacy,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that digital stories can be utilized by all grade levels and in every part of the school and be made by anyone who has a story to tell; I think that this is the best part of digital stories – the way they level the playing field and give all students a chance to be subtle or loud while they are being creative with technology.
I like your idea of using digital stories to share stories. I am a high school media specialist, and I think that high school students could do this as well. They could either share their stories with other high school students or make them for younger students.
Stacy, I hear your passion for your students and your new found technology. In think that digital stories are going to become a permanent fixture in your curriculum. As a former middle school ELA teacher, I have a favorite digital story assignment. Last year my 8th grade students made one for my son for Thanksgiving; he was deployed in Italy over Thanksgiving, and they created a digital story as a way to say thanks. The entire squadron got to see it and loved it. I was so proud of my students.
Great post! I think Digital Storytelling has a place in all grade levels and both the classroom and media center. The possibilities are endless. My school has very limited access to technology that would actually function properly long enough to complete such a task, but I would love to use this somehow in the future. I think its a great tool to use also to get students involved in their media center sharing their favorite books!
ReplyDeleteOne way that I think digital storytelling could be particularly useful for a media specialist is for completing and communicating "book talks". When introducing new books, a digital story would be an effective media and could be broadcast or emailed to the entire school at one time. Also, if you are communicating to other teachers, for example explaining policies or procedures or even ways that the media center can serve them, you could do it through a digital story.
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