As educators, we are always looking for ways to make the curriculum we have taught to our students "stick". Before our last face to face class session, I had never heard of students creating digital storytelling projects. Even after a long day of working and driving all the way to Carrolton, I was drawn in by the digital storytelling examples that were shared during class. These projects must have been very memorable for the students who created them. What a fun way to learn!! Yes, there are many obstacles to overcome when doing a project like this with students. In a real classroom setting, many students may have a hard time with a project like this. You have to model for them how to complete the story board, and many students will not be familiar with Moviemaker. Like us, they have never been exposed to this type of learning. I believe that after you have gone through one digital storytelling project, it will be much easier for students to do it a second time on a different topic.
When I think of digital storytelling, I think of the Amazon's Kindle. Just this week, I have been training high school students on how to use GALILEO. I opened up my lesson reading an article about how Saturday mail may be discontinued. The article stated that mail volumes are declining. We had a discussion about why mail volumes are declining in the digital age and what implication this may have on libraries. This got the students thinking about why digital information and search tools such as GALILEO are important. It is very important that students know how to use digital information tools as they enter college.
In the high school media center electronic reference materials can be considered an "ebook". GALILEO offers the same type of information available in an encyclopedia, but the information is electronic. Our media center has never purchased an "ebook". The reason is that there is not a very high demand for these electronic materials. Just this year; however, I had a teacher request an electronic teaching resource. She was asking for a GALE poetry reference material. I looked into purchasing the ebook for her, but I found that the reference e books cost $1,900, not something I have in the budget at the time. Now that I know this is a material will be utilized by the teacher, I will look into purchasing the digital reference materials next year. I am planning on asking the teacher to train other teachers on how to use the GALE electronic poetry resources, so they will be used by other teachers as well.
As we talk about digital story telling and ebooks, it is important to remember that there are free materials out there on the web for teachers to try. It would be a good idea to train teachers on where to find these free electronic resources in hopes that these materials will be used to enhance learning in the classroom.
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I agree that creating a digital story will help the curriculum "stick". I can assure you that I will not forget this project even long after this class is over. I am certain that when I am gathering my projects for practicum there will be many projects I will not remember doing, but this one will certainly not be one of them! I also agree that although this has been a difficult task, especially synthesizing the information, that the next time will be much easier and will afford better results. I have already revised and rewritten this one several times and would still love to start completely over. But, I have already spent way too much time "playing" and am behind elsewhere because of it. Certainly a project like this for high school students would have a definite timeline, although I think they are better at making decisions than I am!
ReplyDeleteGoing through this program at WestGA has enlightened me to the many free resources available on the web, especially for teachers. I wonder if as a media specialist we could gather these for teachers and present them with available information. My neighbor told me that her media specialist works on this during the summer and provides new ideas to teachers each year. YIKES! I'm not suggesting that I plan to spend my summers on the computer, but I plan to (at least try) to gather information as I find it and make it available to the teachers.