Digital Storytelling

Before taking this course I had never considered the idea of digital storytelling. Initially the concept seemed rather intimidating to me. Simple power-points are typically as far as I would go to convey my information across a digital medium. But the more I looked into the concept, I realized that a digital story can be as simple or complex as the author chooses to make it. Typically, these stories just end up being a few minutes long. The purpose of digital storytelling is to bring together various elements, such as images, video, music, audio recordings, and text in order to present information about a specific topic.

I never recognized how easily technology can be integrated into a teacher’s curriculum; in the case of digital storytelling it is no different. It’s an effective way to make complex concepts easier to understand. They are also more interesting than a traditional textbook lesson or power-point lecture, which can make the learning experiences more memorable for students. It goes far beyond a traditional, oral storytelling experience. This tool incorporates multiple learning styles, so the possibilities for organizing and presenting the information are endless.

These are not only great tools for teachers to use as an instruction method, students can benefit from creating digital stories as well. Digital storytelling promotes literacy and help build communication skills. Students learn how to research a topic and convey their information across different mediums. They learn how to organize their thoughts and visually present them in a way that is concise and easy to understand. Students will probably encounter problems along the way as they brainstorm and create their digital stories, this is a perfect opportunity to consult with others. These experiences will help develop problem-solving and interpersonal skills. In the end, the students would have to present their digital stories. I know I was very intimidated with the idea of presenting to the class when I was younger. Digital stories will help students become more comfortable with sharing their ideas with others and using technology.

Link:

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu

Global Community

Thanks to modern technology being readily accessible for the masses, connecting with global education communities around the world is easier than ever. The possibilities are endless for establishing connections, all one has to do is have the desire and start exploring. I initially tried Google © and started searching under ‘global education communities’, but that didn’t really get me on the right track. I discovered a great resource for teachers, Curriki (www.curriki.org), but I wanted something that went beyond sharing curriculum. In order to find ways for students to connect with one another, I modified my search to a more focused entry entitled ‘connect students to global community’. I hit the jackpot and discovered two amazing resources, Skype in the classroom and ePals. 

With ePals, there are classrooms in 200 countries and territories collaborating together in the largest K-12 learning network. Here is the information about ePals Inc. as quoted from their website, “The ePals® approach provides an effective way to instruct and reach today's technology savvy students and teachers. ePals provides digital content designed for collaboration and self-paced, self-directed learning as well as a safe platform to share work globally. Authentic ePals projects are centered around meaningful content and experiences that require teamwork, digital literacy skills, higher-level thinking and communication. By engaging in authentic learning experiences about relevant issues, students, teachers and mentors learn and work together, strengthening core learning while motivating learners and building self-confidence and skills necessary for future careers. At the same time, ePals helps teachers learn to use technology effectively in their classrooms, providing professional development, curriculum, contests and other resources” (2011).

Skype is already being utilized by teachers around the world and now there is an official link that is just for teachers and their classes. “Skype in the classroom is a free community to help teachers everywhere use Skype to help their students learn. It’s a place for teachers to connect with each other, find partner classes and share inspiration. This is a global initiative that was created in response to the growing number of teachers using Skype in their classrooms” (Skype Limited 2011).

I was lead to education Skype thanks to another blog, so I will pass on my newly acquired knowledge in the links below if anyone wants to learn more! There is also an article I uncovered about children sending stuffed animals and a journal to connect with the global community. Each Travelling Animal is inside a hand-sewn backpack, along with a journal for recording the travels and the postal and e-mail addresses for the classes so that everyone can keep in touch. The travelling animals start out being mailed to friends, family, and acquaintances. Those who acquire the animals then send them to their own friends, family, and acquaintances, and the process continues until the return date for the animal and its accompanying journal. I thought it was a great idea and I could see this being implemented in my own classroom in the future.

Article:

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/north_sound/arl/news/27556824.html

Links:

http://education.skype.com/

http://www.epals.com/

Educational Blogs I Follow

One of the blogs I have been following is Technology Fridge. For the week of July 10^th there was a link to Free Technology for Teachers. This website has free resources and lesson plans for teaching with technology. I read the July 7^th post about Automatoon, a service on the web that allows its users to create animations. I explored this further and created a free account, now I have learned how to make my own unique animations! This new tech tool would be great for students using technology in the classroom. They could use the animations on websites they are creating or any other multimedia project. Also, students could create animations to demonstrate their knowledge of certain concepts, such as the Hydrologic Cycle or the anatomy of a volcano. They could even recreate their favorite scene from a book they read, rather than use a simple hand-drawn illustration.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/07/automatoon-create-animations-for-web.html

The second post I looked at was from the other blog I am following this semester, 2 cents worth by David Warlick. The July 5^th article on the home page caught my eye, So what do you call a textbook that isn’t a textbook? One of the hotly debated issues is wondering what we are going to call our future textbooks if they aren’t even books. Warlick likes the idea of a ‘digital curriculum’ and this got me thinking about what my curriculum could look like years down the road. Traditional textbooks are continuing to become more obsolete as more efficient technology is being developed, as a future educator I need to recognize this and see what other resources are out there. Eventually, my instruction could be based solely on a collection of resources designed and maintained by me. This would make my teaching methods highly individualized and unique; I could really cater to the needs of my classroom without the limitations of a textbook.  But the problem is that a lot of inexperienced teachers rely heavily on textbooks to get them through the first years of teaching. Warlick brought up the idea that perhaps teachers should be required to create a first year digital curriculum to present at job interviews. I found the idea fascinating; I would encourage this progression into digital curriculum because it would promote continuous learning. One of the responsibilities that will come with becoming an elementary teacher is committing to becoming a life-long learner. I feel this new concept could really press teachers to think ‘outside of the box’ and our students could really benefit in the long run.

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

The final post I looked at was also on David Warlick’s blog from October 8, 2010, Are they students or are they learners? I was drawn to this post because it had 84 comments left on it, so I assumed it must have really promoted some people to think about the concept. What was great about this post was that Warlick created a chart to distinguish the characteristics of students and learners and how they differ from one another. The categories were entitled relationships with educators, relationship with other “students”, motivation, compensation, mode of operation, why?, equipped, and assessment. I really recommend people check this out; it was really eye opening for me. I never realized how the relationships in the learning environment could be so dramatically shifted just by approaching school from a different perspective. If the children are occupying the role of the “students”, they are being motivated and influenced by the culture of school and must work to earn compensation (good grades). This takes away from the sheer joy of learning something new; it’s more a job than a passion. Learners see value in their work and are motivated to learn because they see how it benefits themselves and others. There is a collaborative spirit among learners, whereas students are competitors. I’ll be thinking about this more as I become an elementary school teacher. Will the children that I teach be students or learners?

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2762