This is by far my favorite topic this semester. I enjoy the idea of students using their creativity to illustrate an idea or belief through multi-media. After researching “The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling” that Dr. Cooper shared with us I realized that there is much more there is to Digital Storytelling than meets the eye. Not to mention, this site is one stop shopping. Everything from examples, tips, lesson plans, evaluations, and other resources is clearly detailed. Robin states that the following digital literacy skills are learned when creating a digital story. http://faculty.coe.uh.edu/brobin/homepage/Educational-Uses-DS.pdf
1. Research Skills
2. Writing Skills
3. Organization Skills
4. Technology Skills
5. Presentation skills
6. Interview Skills
7. Interpersonal Skills
8. Problem-Solving Skills
9. Assessment Skills
Examples: The examples section is listed by subject area and includes Educational Technology, Engines of Our Ingenuity, Health, Personal Reflection, Places, Pop Culture and the more traditional subjects of math and social studies. I was really drawn to the section on pop culture with topics like Justice or Just Us?, Wall of Hate, and Print Media.
Essentials: Includes the 7 elements of storytelling listed below. This is a great starting place for students to get an overview of important components of how to tell a digital story. Also discussed are the educational uses of Digital Storytelling http://faculty.coe.uh.edu/brobin/homepage/Educational-Uses-DS.pdf. The article describes three major types of digital stories including: Personal Narratives, Historical Documentaries, and Stories designed to inform or instruct.
1. Point of View: What is the Author’s perspective?
2. Dramatic Question: Grab the viewer’s attention!
3. Emotional Content: Serious issues that come alive and connects the story to the audience.
4. The Gift of your voice: Personalize the story and use inflection.
5. The Power of the Soundtrack: Music and other sounds embellish the storyline.
6. Economy: Don’t overload the viewer.
7. Pacing: Control the rhythm of the story and how slowly or quickly it progresses.
Create: The website also includes a step by step process for getting started. This could easily be broken down for students to use as a cheat sheet for the story process. The teacher could actually create digital stories on the process to help students get the big picture. Topics include choosing a topic, collecting resources, selecting content, recording, and evaluating. Also shown are examples of how students can create photo collages using a variety of programs including Picasa, Photoshop, and PowerPoint. Copyright information on creating these is also included!
These are just a few of the highlights the website offers for Digital Stories. I am already thinking of ways to incorporate this into my lessons for next semester. Maybe students create a digital story on being a good digital citizen and discussing website evaluation, copyright and netiquette?
Hi Kim. I love your enthusiasm for Digital Storytelling. I like how you included the different digital literacy learning skills and the elements of storytelling. What I immediately thought about as I read your post was parents. I think that it's important to be able to tell and share with parents the educational value behind any new strategy. Digital Storytelling is not only fun for students, but they are learning. And not only that, they are demonstrating and presenting the content matter they have learned through the process and they have a finished product to show for their efforts.
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