Digital Storytelling

Jennifer New wrote that we should "see technology as a storytelling tool, not a teaching goal". Digital Storytelling is a 21st Century Learner's way to showcase their imagination. Instead of always writing with a boring old pencil and paper, why not have some more fun?! Students are able to adapt to technology more quickly than most adults, and being an elementary teacher, I am always looking for new ways to captivate their attention and motivate them to push themselves. Using technology is the best way to do this - Enter Digital Storytelling.

Digital Storytelling is a great way for students to show their ideas in a way that is relevant to them. Previously, I dipped my toe into first doing iMovie trailers for students to persuade others into reading the book they just read. Over the next few years, I plan to use digital storytelling while incorporating Green Screen techniques. I started this off by doing "Choose your own adventure" stories (I used this website to get me started). My students fell in love with it!

The best part so far about doing digital storytelling is that it is capturing ALL my students' attention. Each one of them bought in quickly. And why not? Everything that Kara Wyman said in her article, Digital Storytelling: Putting Students' Passion for Technology to Good Use has been evident in my classroom. My students who normally do not write or have trouble staying focused on writing were more engaged than ever. The students have been teaching each other how to use the Green Screens, Scratch and troubleshooting Google Forms together. The perseverance of students who would normally give up right away once something was difficult is astounding.

Engagement

In the future, I plan to evaluate how well things are going by doing exit surveys with my students. How do they feel about Digital Storytelling? How do they feel they did? Are they proud of what they created? I also plan to host student -led conferences for the second round of parent teacher so that the students are able to show their parents what they created. The digital stories will only be one part of this presentation. We will also include our Interactive Projects and the chance to show off some of our coding skills. This way, if the parents want to, they can give feedback as well.

I would love to explore even more ways to incorporate Green Screen into their Digital Stories. I do a unit on creating comics every year with my students. I've always had success getting even my most reluctant writers to participate when we explore comics. Now, with the ability to show their work in a digital format, I will be able to get those kids who always say they "can't draw" (not true of any of my kiddos, they can all draw, matter of confidence I've always found). They will make individual comics as well as collaborate to create a comic together. They will use green screen to help create their scenes and create the story together while following the "story mountain".

Benton, P. (2006, April 21). The Power of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: Telling Stories With Technology, retrieved from edutopia.org

Birckbickler, J. (2017, May 24). Choose your own Story with Google Forms, retrieved from EdTechTeam.com

New, J. (2005, December 4th). How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom, retrieved from edutopia.org

Warfield, A. (2016, January 17). 6 Reasons You Should Be Doing Digital Storytelling with Your Students, retrieved from gettingsmart.com

Wyman, K. (2017, May 2). Digital Storytelling: Putting Students' Passion for Technology to Good Use, retrieved from educarion.cu-portland.edu

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