Education has found yet another way in which technology can aid the learning of students. Digital storytelling has transformed the art of storytelling which has been around for ages. It allows for pictures, music, and narration to be added to the story. It can be used in a variety of ways in the field of Education and has several positives. Students will write a multiple different stories throughout their educational careers, and digital storytelling can take those stories to a new level. This is not to say that every time a story is written it has to be done digitally, but occasionally this does add to the excitement for the students. Students will also better their technological skills while creating their story digitally. Digital storytelling can also be a good outlet for shy students who would otherwise be hesitant to express their story to others. This type of storytelling allows for the story to be told without a student ever having to get in front of a large crowd of peers. They are simple to make as well. Its as easy as 3 steps: 1) Creat your story, 2) Find media to go along with it, and 3) Choose the technological source in which you will creat your digital story. Because of the simplicity in this new way of telling stories, teachers could use digital storytelling in a variety of different ways. Some possible ways in which I would use digital storytelling for my own classroom are listed below.
I could picture using digital storytelling in a variety of ways for my future classes. Digital storytelling would be a great group activity for students to get engaged in as well as for teachers to present content to their students. I can picture for a future English class assigning a group digitial storytelling project. Each group is assigned a common book to read and the entire group must produce a book review together to present to the class. A teacher could use digital storytelling to introduce a new concept, explain a complex idea to the class, or to summarize an entire unit before a big test. I think that it could best be used to explain a complex idea. Different students learn in different ways. This is one thing that all teachers must learn. A digital story could be a way that some students learn particular things better than a normal lecture. I also could envision a unit review being a nice way to use digital storytelling. Both the review and the explanation of a complex topic are ways that individual students could use the recorded digital story as needed to learn or review concepts.
Overall, I think that digital storytelling can be a great way to enhance learning for students of all ages. While the elementary level may be the best to use digital storytelling on, I also think that it could be used effectively at the middle and high school levels if used properly. More information about digital storytelling can be found by viewing this short Video Clip.
ECraft,
ReplyDeleteYour idea for a teacher to use digital storytelling to summarize an entire unit before a test is a great idea. I could really see this being used and effective in the classroom by teachers. Maybe students could even be in groups and do a summary of the unit in a digital story format as their review for the test. That would be a fun project for the students while they get to review the material at the same time. It does seem that storytelling would easily fit more naturally in an elementary environment, however, I certainly think it could be used in all grade levels. Thanks for your post and great ideas!
Ms. McKay
I agree with Ms. McKay that using the digital story format is a fun idea that students can use to review material. I really liked your suggestion about using digital storytelling to help students understand topics that might be too difficult. I also wrote about that! I think that having a recording alongside visuals in which students can watch and listen as well as rewind, pause, and replay would really help students better understand the concept. The teachers' explanations are sometimes lost in class so this would help students extend their learning.
ReplyDeleteMr. Craft,
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that digital storytelling could be a great tool for shy students to showcase their work. Since a digital story is created and edited before it is shown to anyone, it will give shy students a chance to participate and make a presentation without having to stand up in front of the class and give it verbally on the spot. I also liked the idea about essentially splitting the class up into book clubs, with one group studying each book. I have seen teachers do that, and have the groups give a presentation after completion of reading, but having students create a digital story to present their information about the book would be fun for students and would be an effective learning tool. I think it may be more effective to use digital storytelling to introduce an idea than it would be to create a review. As it is a time consuming project, it might not be as worthwhile to make a review about something the students have already learned using this specific medium. It would however, be a great hook into a unit to get students excited about what they will be learning. Thanks for your suggestions!
Sincerely,
Miss McGrath