Digital Storytelling in the Classroom:
To be perfectly honest I had never heard the term digital storytelling before now. I was familiar with power points and various movie maker programs like iMovie but I didn’t realize the wealth of options that are available to us for free online. This opens up a whole new door in education allowing our students to explore and express themselves creatively through digital media, which is something they have become accustomed to and enjoy. It allows a student who may not consider themselves artistic to choose from art already available to them. Or a student who is bored or un-interested in writing essays to showcase their knowledge in a new and exciting way. It is also a great way for students who would not normally participate in class to have a voice and showcase their own creativity.
Digital storytelling has the advantage of going beyond print on page and adding all sorts of complimentary mediums to the story like movie clips, pictures, animation and more. This helps students who don’t feel confident in their writing abilities alone by giving them a chance to enrich their story in other ways. Here’s a little video clip to help explain digital storytelling and how it can be used in the classroom:
I started my journey through digital storytelling with Storybird, which is a great site for beginner digital storytellers as most of the work is already done for you, you simply fill in the blanks with a story! Very little editing can be done with Story Bird but this simplicity of use allows students to focus on their writing rather than getting to wrapped up in the digital aspect of things. The artwork for Storybird is amazing, there is such a large variety to choose from. Check out a tutorial for Storybird to find out more about what it is capable of:
Here is a digital story that I created using Storybird.
I also checked out StoryJumper, which was another great beginner digital story creator. This one allowed for a bit more freedom to edit and personalize your story. There are also options to pay for a printed version, which I thought was kind of neat.
Digital storytelling has many uses in education; it integrates technology, can inspire and engage students, can cross curriculum, allows students to publish their work globally encouraging students to take pride in their work and strive higher, it can also be used for community involvement, group work and collaboration. This is just a few of the benefits of digital storytelling, however there are some disadvantages. If digital storytelling is not utilized properly, it can be more of hindrance on learning than an aid. There is potential to focus too much on the technology aspects rather than on the writing skills and content itself, and this should be clearly expressed to the students before embarking on any digital storytelling project. It is great that students can add all sorts of bells and whistles to their stories through technology, but if the story itself takes a back seat then we are hurting our students’ progress and learning.
Check out some of these websites for a deeper look into digital storytelling and its uses in the classroom:
City of Surrey. (2010). Surrey Childrens Festival. Digital Storytelling Sign up. Retrieved Sept 19 from: http://www.surrey.ca/childrenfestival/8714.aspx
Hi Riley!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you again...it's been a while since PS2 hey? Thanks for sharing your take digital story telling. I find what it offers is so rich and varied that there is something that is bound to catch everyone's attention. The book you made with StoryBird has a much richer look to it - in comparison to the one I made with StoryJumper. I guess, I know which one to choose now!
I agree with you that the danger that digital storytelling offers lies in the fact their are many bells and whistles that students might get distracted by. This is why it's super important to choose an appropriate medium for digital story telling, and likely begin with something simple.
I remember that you created a digital poster assignment while we were doing the university portion of PS2 - and it had something to do with rocks and minerals (Gr 7 Science), and while reading this module it made me think of that. Do you remember what site you used to make this? I would like to know - as it is a wonderful tool for creating digital messages. Maybe pass it on to Lorraine. If you can't remember, that's ok!
Have a great week!
Mike