Welcome to Web 2.0!

If you are just getting started go to the Welcome Page or if you are continuing lessons welcome back! Use the Weekly Outline or blog archive for easy navigation. If you are on a roll work ahead. Feel free to email me with any questions. Be sure to scroll down to check the Q&A Meebo Chat Room often.



Are you a VCS Employee? Sign up for Professional Development on Training CALENDAR ~10pts!!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Week 8: Digital Storytelling

The Center for Digital Story Telling defines digital story as a “short, first person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music or other sounds”.

Retrieved from, www.storycenter.org



Take a moment to browse some examples from the University of Houston.
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/mathematics.html

Take a moment to do your own research on digital storytelling or relate a personal application of this tool.

Post a brief reflection of this idea here on the Junkie blog.  How could we use this in the classroom?

21 comments:

Nancy Keck said...

Our students seem to have lots of trouble with measuring things. This would be a fun and effective way to do some reinforcement on measuring. For example, how about searching for things that are between 5 and 10 inches. Might be fun to hunt for them around school and then show measuring them. Would be fun to do a shape hunt with very young children.

Sharon V said...

There are many ways digital storytelling can be used in the classroom. Teachers can use it to explain a concept. Students would be able to view it as many times as needed to be able to reinforce the idea. Digital storytelling is also a great way to create examples in language arts. Showing examples of similes, synonyms, and antonyms would be a great way for students to show their understanding of language.

Unknown said...

While this is not an original idea, I have seen digital storytelling used to create book trailers to generate interest in books. If a student has a favorite book they could use digital storytelling to advertise it to their friends. Another use could be as student biographies. What a neat way for students to share their lives with others!

Sue said...

Students love visualization and would be interested in seeing a concept presented this way. Students could also use digital storytelling to present their own project to classmates. They would enjoy the innovation while reteaching.

Anonymous said...

Digital Storytelling is just another great way for students to express themselves. One particular idea on the digital storytelling site that I found interesting was students using this tool as a way to journal their progress through a science experiment. This added a personal and reflective touch to the student's science experiment journal that you would generally not see / read in a traditional science experiment notebook.

Señora Sarasua said...

Speaking as a foreign language teacher, students could create a travelogue in Spanish with images of the target country and culture. They could personalize and present key concepts in the language as well. Any way that a student can personalize the material is so important when retaining vocabulary and grammatical structures!

Time4Sail said...

Immediately I thought a project my students completed last year which was a Geometry Book. They defined shapes and terms, found examples around the world, and had a review or assessment. I could see my students using Digital Storytelling to create the project. Too much fun. Now to find a digital camera for my class to use!

Meredith Gilbert said...

What a great way to show different Number Bonds. My class spends the first 6 weeks of school working on Number Bonds to 10. We do a "Story of" for each number. This would be another "story" I could share. Love this!

Late Comer said...

Digital storytelling is a good way to provide instructions or information that needs to be repeated many times; such as changing two fractions to have a common denominator, explaining classroom rules, procedures and policies (great for open house). I would like to encourage students to use digital storytelling to create trailers for non-fiction books (FCAT prep).

mkj said...

I have found a few sites on digital storytelling for foreign language teachers with some nice examples. One is http://mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com/ and the other is http://mfl-digitalstories.wikispaces.com. I also had students work on a digital storytelling project a couple of years ago using Photo Story. The project was to describe their families using the appropriate vocabulary and grammar. Some students breezed through the assignment while others struggled. Computer skills were essential because there is not more than one class period to spend in the computer lab working on those skills. We quickly figured out that the Photo Story needed to be converted to Windows Media Player before class because the upload time was too lengthy. Those were some of the problems. However, the students and I really enjoyed watching what they could put together and learning something about each other. It was interesting to see some of the students instantly recognize some of the errors made by their peers. It made for great class discussion. I am anxious to learn some new formats.

Cyndi said...

I think I would like to have my students use this to create activities for the preschoolers. I am going to take some time playing with some of the suggested sites.

Michelle Deibler said...

We have used this tool in presentations during faculty meetings at my school. It was very cool. I think it would make great tutorials for reviews and I think my students could use it for science fair presentations.

andrews3 said...

Digital Storytelling can be used for virtually any subject, so the list of uses in the classroom has to be endless. Math concepts, science, health issues, historical events, biographies, fiction and nonfiction books, all forms of literature can all be explained or presented through digital storytelling. The benefit of using digital storytelling techniques would be in keeping students' interested and motivated, whether they are creating the digital story or simply viewing it.

cathycity said...

I really enjoyed exploring digital storytelling. I love photography and have many images that could be used as collages in a digital story. I really enjoyed watching one of the example digital stories entitled "Almost Paradise". It was about a girl who came to this country as a young girl because her mother heard it was a paradise. She tells about her experience growing up here and contrasts her mother's story. She talks about her struggles with racism. I could picture something like this being shown at the beginning of a multicultural unit in order to generate ideas for discussion.

Mrs. Jacobsen said...

I love the idea of digital storytelling for my first graders whose writing is not always up to par. Children could publish their stories for sharing. Teachers could save examples of well written stories to be shown and critiqued. The stop and pause feature of any story lends itself to discussion.

On one of the websites I searched I saw the idea of digital storytelling cookbooks. What a neat way for younger students to connect with family members for favoritie recipes or legacy type projects.

I also watched a story on the Holocaust that just showed pictures and a few words on the numbers of Jews killed in each country. It was very moving. What an impact ...

christine said...

I loved reading all the digital storytelling ideas. I teach 3rd grade and this would be a great way to do a mini book talk. Other students could see if they want to read the book...I can assess if the student comprehended what they were reading. You could use it to teach sequencing, making lists, and following instructions.

Gizbe said...

The examples of digital storytelling were a lot like what I have done in the public relations field before I became a teacher. This is a great way for students to bring their stories to life using either drawings or pictures. This is also a great way to create a report and present it to the class. Many students fear speaking in front of their peers, this is a great to present without the fear of speaking in front of a group.

Debra said...

Digital Storytelling is something I would like to promote to my teachers. This is wonderful technique for presenting a research report or stories that they have written. The samples you provided were excellent.

Cool Beans said...

I used digital storytelling to create great visual science presentations that reviewed important key concepts. My students get tired of listening to my voice, but they would watch my videos over and over. The downfall I unfortunately experienced was when I had to switch computers. Apparently I didn't successfully transfer the images needed for them to run on my new computer. I will have to be more careful in the future.

Sherri Callahan said...

I am feeling tech-stupid because I can't figure out how to play the great art videos from the suggested University of Houston site. Drat.

Sue Shaw said...

We have used windows PhotoStory successfully in social studies classes and I have used it for media production announcements. I watched the dust bowl video and I plan to share this site with both SS and Reading. I will also show kids how effective this is so they may use it as one choice for their assessment in reading class this year.