Digital Storytelling

I was impressed with the many ways that you can create a digital story. The beauty of it all, is that most of us are already doing the majority of it and don't even know it. The Four part step-by step approach to create a digital story from materials found on the web is one that I would love to implement in my class. The computer applications class is responsible for developing three cornerstone projects throughout the course. I am seriously considering having them to do a digital story. They are already familiar with the different resources that are available in the classroom as well as in the media center. By the end of this class, they will have learned about the dos and do nots of power pointing, a little bit of pod casting and a lot of using multi media. The greatest information found in this article is that some digital storytelling software programs are free especially with Microsoft Windows.

Teaching with media and popular culture

This article was a real eye opener for me. It made me realize that teaching with media is really nothing new. It has been around for ages. I can even remember being in class and watching a movie to help enhance the teaching of a concept in a class, a project that was being implemented as well as a book that was being read. Up to this point, I did make the connection of media being taught in the classroom. However, I did realize the videos were being shown for a purpose as a resource for the teacher, but not for something that students would soon be using as a learning tool in technology advancement. Using various media and text to illustrate, to critique and emphasize is a great way to bring media into a classroom. I can see this happening in a graduating classroom of this day and time of technology. With the Senior project or as referred to by some, the graduation project being a requirement for students entering high school in the year 2006-2007, there is a great need to learn, share and teach as much technology using various media to students who are candidates for graduation of year 2010.
I was impressed with the differenct was that students used media to express there way of thinking about things. I really liked the idea of using collages from videos clips, movies, text and other sources to recall specifics in readings assigned in different classes. There are so many multi media resources that students can pull together to make a project of. I recently had students to do small projects using alternative input devices. They did interviews, still images and made a small video, and one of the most exciting ones, was a wrestling match narrated by one of the teachers. Also, I shared with the class how I made a DVD of Christmas pictures taken with a digital camera and uploaded to a laptop. I had colleagues over for a tree trimming near Christmas time and snapped a few still shots. Clips from the pictures were selected and effects and transitions were applied. I then, added music to the clips to set the tone for Christmas. I made a DVD using IDVD and gave a copy to all of the attendants for a Christmas present.