Digital Storytelling- From Planning to Doing Throughout the Digital Storytelling process, it is important to complete a large volume of work to ensure that your creativity, ambition, and taste are displaying through your creations. Ira Glass explains that it may take a lot of time to figure out what works best to produce creative work, however it is a rewarding feeling when the production includes that “special thing”. How Can Digital Storytelling Work In A Classroom? What is a good story?
To find out more about how to incorporate Digital Storytelling into lessons for your classroom visit “Get Started with Digital Storytelling” Example Digital Storytelling Lesson Digital Storytelling is a great way to incorporate more than one aspect of media literacy. Students will often have the chance to choose different mediums to channel their interests and creativity, such as voice over, music, images, font, and others. Below, I included a brief outline of a possible lesson that could be incorporated into a Grade 2 classroom. This particular lesson would be cross-curricular, relating to the curriculums of Media and Social Studies. Students will choose a personal favourite holiday and present their ideas within a slideshow. Students would be encouraged to use different fonts, colours, transitions, music, images, and video. Requirements would also involve the students completing a voice-over using the application called Animoto. Students will explain their traditions, foods, and activities for their particular holiday. After presentations, the class would discuss as a group the similarities and differences among the holidays that were shared. The teacher will create a poster involving a Venn diagram displaying the findings that the students brainstorm during consolidation as a class. For more helpful resources For resources relating to lesson plans, tools, technology, and classroom resources, visit the amazing and resourceful website, Cube for Teachers. The Cube connects to all curriculum documents for teachers interested in creative and new techniques to integrate within the classroom.
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Teaching with the use of technology opens a variety of different opportunities to students in the digital world. School boards are encouraging educators to engage in participation with their students though the digital world. Some Web 2.0 tools that can be incorporated into the classroom are safari, geocaching, blogging, IMovie, YouTube, Twitter, smartphones, Ipads, Facebook, and so much more. Participatory culture is a new way of learning, which encourages participation and allows for a greater level of attentiveness during class time. Students become more focused and engaged when learning through participation and hands-on learning. Learners are able to explore, experiment, and create meaningful projects for the world to view and use. Teachers are encouraged to embrace technology participation, communication, and collaboration with other students, teachers, and schools around the world to create an active and real-world environment within the classroom. Today, individuals are constantly connected to digital technologies and personal media applications, however it is crucial for students to learn how to collaborate and reflect using their online voices within their personal profiles. Thought and teamwork during school will benefit individuals as they enter the 21st century work field in the future.
Alice Cassidy, a principal of In-view education and professional development created a list of 10 ways to actively engage students, which reflects her experience of teaching at the University of British Columbia for fifteen years. Cassidy voiced how important it is to get to know your students on a personal level. Topics and themes can be implemented throughout lessons to interest the students on a deeper level, for example, minecraft and lego. It has been proven that when students are engaged during learning, they are able to achieve high-grade levels as well as enjoy school further. This can be achieved through icebreakers, where students are welcomed into a collaborative environment and welcomed to share their unique ideas and personalities. Students also need to feel valued within the classroom. Alice explained that inviting students to begin lessons and asking for feedback after class, relating to what worked and what didn’t, gives the students a chance to have a voice. It is important for both students and teachers to reflect and collaborate together to ensure that improvement for future lessons are implemented. When students feel worthy while making a difference in the world, they will try a lot harder than they would while completing a worksheet. It is also essential to connect learning to the real world. Having students engage in current events has purpose and meaning, which gives the students a drive to complete their assignment. A great website for these activities is called Teaching Kids News. Even though many students are already connected to the technology-based world, it is important that they have skilled teachers modelling how to dig even further. Students need to be mentored to critically analyze and engage in real-world issues successfully. Reflection of work is equally important to creation. Students need to learn how to collaborate and improve as they develop further knowledge about digital technology. Educators need to ensure that students have the chance to work with certain opportunities and applications multiple times to have the chance to improve, rather than constantly learning new things every class without analyzing what went well and what needs work. When students become comfortable with certain technologies and inquiries, they will feel more confident to engage among their own personal practices out of the classroom context. Making in the classroom involves students and teachers working together and building on personal ideas, thoughts, and imaginations. Rather than a traditional way of teaching, the classroom becomes an interactive and engaging environment where the learning is ultimately driven by the students rather than the teacher. This way of teaching allows all students, no matter what diversity, background, and or ability one has to feel empowered through their voice, unique thoughts, choices, and ideas. Traditional way of learning, students followed certain steps to get to a particular end product. It was important to receive a better mark then their peers and figure out the correct answer, however it has all changed through makers education. Students are now in a non-competitive environment where end products are endless and open-ended. Learners have the chance to reflect on interests and passions that they value and reflect upon the real world. Students are able to let their imaginations run wild while using real tools as well as real problems. When learning through a hands-on environment, learning is more comprehensive and easier to understand and grow from, rather than learning from a textbook or slideshow.
During Tuesday’s class, which happened to be makers’ day, I enjoyed having the chance to be creative in class. It was refreshing working on something that I chose to do as well as enjoyed doing. Class seemed to go by super fast due to the fact that I was so concentrated and engaged while completing my colouring sheet. School and assignments can become overwhelming and it is important that students are given that time to take a moment to focus on something they are passionate about and diminish some anxiety and stress that has built up. Students need to have the chance to create, design, and explore while focusing on a topic they are interested in. It is important that every learner is valued and welcomed with their diverse skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking. Today’s technology has been really impacting all areas of our lives. Teachers need to find ways to utilize the technology at students’ fingertips and change how learning happens in schools. Students are able to take pictures, videos, make notes, read, use apps etc., which is already included in a classroom, however technology has a chance to change the way learning happens. Learning does not have to stop in the classroom. When learning through technology, learning follows the students around all day every day. Mobile learning is definitely here to stay, and it is important for both teachers and students to take advantage of it in the right ways.
I have included Geoff Stead’s two tips below for teachers to remember when using technology within their classrooms.
A public service announcement is when an important message is being sent to the public. This message is usually based on raising awareness on a certain issue. These messages are normally either knowledgeable, inspirational, or unexpected and shocking. The intended message’s objective is an effort to alter the public’s attitudes and behaviours to promote attention and possible change. It is important to engage the audience as the 5P’s of advertising are used; product, purchaser, persuasive, pitch, and presented.
Through public service announcements, students are able to voice a certain message using images, words, and multiple sources. A benefit of creating a PSA is that it can be created in multiple types of media (eg. IMovie and Animoto). It is important that students are taught how to send a certain message as well as understanding the objective of a video. Throughout creation of PSAs, students can become personally involved while working with a topic that personally interests them, however, a disadvantage is that students’ opinions may not be the same as their peers and may cause debates. It is important to teach students that everyone has a different opinion and view on certain issues. As a teacher it would be awesome to inspire children to create their own PSA. Every student has a unique interest and it is important for children to voice these opinions and ideas. It is also a great way to motivate students to focus on the social and global change happening around them. Storyboard That is a great website for students to use when creating their personal PSAs. There are many different templates in which students are able to choose to start off their video. Creating PSAs are also a great way to practice in getting a strong message across in a short amount of time. Scholastic also has a great website where teachers can refer to for ideas on lessons and teaching how to create an effective PSA. I also found a great chart in which students can fill out when building on their ideas when creating their PSAs, including; scenario, goal, reasons, facts, and more information. For students that cannot come up with an idea, or to get students brains thinking, teachers should provide some ideas and example topics before creation begins. I believe it is important to view examples of PSAs and take notes about similar traits in the videos to understand what is involved in an effective public service announcement (eg. humour, inspiring, etc). I believe it is also important to spend time experimenting with different types of media and learning what works best to teach students. I got the chance to create an avatar in class today. I used the website Big Huge Labs to create a look a like. To bring my avatar to life I created a magazine cover called "Teaching in the 21st Century".
What?
The topic I chose to discuss and reflect upon is John Seely Brown’s term, tinkering. Brown explains that students need to foster a sense of creativity and imagination through inquiry. It is crucial to create, reflect, and share ideas to make an idea a reality. Brown explains, “Kids should get to play with knowledge”. This way of learning has no boundaries and unlimited possibilities. It is important to embrace the change that is happening within technology and our global world. So what? I believe that is it important that students are able to create their own ideas into a reality because it connects the child to content amongst his or her interests. It is also important for individuals to reflect. “Does my creation work? Why or why not?” of if it does work “could it work better?” Tinkering brings thoughts and actions together. Having designs and sharing them with a peer based learning environment allows feedback so students are able to learn from each other. The teacher needs to be able to turn the class into a learning community rather than listening to the teacher and reading out of a textbook all day. It is important for students to teach other students. Now what? If tinkering is used in a positive way, students will start to become open to criticism and appreciate and learn from it, rather than get upset and frustrated. It is important for students to witness each other’s struggle and processes to get to the end products and realize that with hard work, success is created. Tinkering is a way to foster imagination, and it is time that the teacher sits back and circulates the class for extra help while students learn from each other rather than their textbooks or a slideshow. When I am teaching a lesson and one of my students asks me a question about a topic the class can stop and investigate, the lesson will be put on hold and as a class we will take risks to find out further information. I want my students to feel confident with using and applying their imagination, no matter what the idea is. I am excited to apply this new way of teaching in my future classrooms and ensure that all students are excited to put their heart into their every day learning. All visual images have the capability to tell a story and depending on how the photographer snaps his or her picture, the story may change. Visual images can be used as both a valuable and universal tool, across generations and cultures. Viewers need to be able to deep listen, deep look, and deep think when evaluating and reading images. Semiotics is a term that defines the understanding on how visual images create stories. Semiotics is the study of meaning, content and contexts of photographs. Claire Harrison explains “the meaning of signs is created by people and does not exist separately from them and the life of their social/cultural community” (Harrison, 48). Harrison describes how meanings can often mean different things in different areas or cultures. Within a classroom setting, a picture could be used as a launching point for critical thinking. It also has the capability to bring history to life. When teaching students to evaluate a still picture, the video named Explain the Image explains how you must become a detective, evaluating the five W’s (Who, what, when, where, why). Evaluating a picture can be integrated into almost any subject lesson plan (eg. history and language). It is a great way for students to become aware of surroundings and make sense of them. There are many different compositional decisions that a photographer must choose from to create an image. In the Steve McCurry’s video, he includes 9 photo composition tips in which a photographer needs to consider. A photographer is able to create strong viewer involvement by including the following:
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