It is time for our movie debut! Students worked together to learn about character traits and incorporate them into science and health goals. We used the 7 elements of digital storytelling when we filmed. PowerPoint was used to create this video, as well as a Windows Live Movie Maker, a digital camera, and a song from iTunes. While this was a smaller video, this lesson could have been expanded. Currently, schools use the trait posters shown in this video throughout the yeart o surround students with positive examples of ideal traits.
My previous post about digital storytelling was all about important elements of a story. Digital storytelling can be done by anyone, but captivating an audience takes thought and dedication. There is much planning that goes into telling stories digitally. First, one must decide on a story to tell. In this instance, my partner and I thought it would be nice to have students work on science and character traits. After you have an idea of what you want, you need to plan. An activity plan comes in handy as a teacher because it shows what TEKS will be learned through the making of this video and what the expected outcomes are. After this is when you create a storyboard. A storyboard is a visual map of what you want the video to look like. It shows what the each shot is about and how long it is. When all this is complete, it is time to make a movie! Make sure you keep up with the blog; movie coming soon!
I hadn't learned much about digital storytelling before this class, but I am glad that it has been brought to my attention! It can be a unique project to use in the classroom that will allow students to enjoy what they are learning.
Digital storytelling is a form of film making that allows people to share parts of their life with others. There are seven elements in storytelling that are crucial to the art and three types that can be made. They are to be kept in mind when making these digital stories.
This is effective for student learning because they are more interested in their learning while they are doing something fun and different. It teaches them skills they would not have acquired doing other types of projects or regular work. It may be hard to do in a special education setting, but it is definitely doable.
The emergingedtech technology resource ebook is a wonderful tool for educators. There was much to be learned and I will definitely be utilizing it in the future!
I discovered that games are scientifically proven to help students learn. We always knew games helped students, but so much research has proven why it’s helpful. I had no idea here were actual “game-based classrooms”. It was crazy to me that one of the steps in having one of those classrooms was to actually play the games before students got a chance to. Page 25 of the ebook began a list of game websites that worked great in the classroom. I found certain sites like funbrain, Discovery games, sheppard software, primary games, educational games on nobelprize, and childtopia. Of the ten provided, I would use these six more so than the others. There are seven more listed under that and I know I will keep this book for the purpose of going back and looking at them!
I’m glad there was an entire section on iPads. I recently got an iPad and am interested in how I can use it in the classroom. This chapter detailed the different things I could use it for. I like that there were reviews of different apps I could download and why they worked well in the classroom. I also like that it gave me choices. For example, there were four good apps for whiteboards on the iPad, why they were good, and why others were not good. I found it extremely useful that this book included a link to an app for students with special needs.
The picture and image editing chapter was interesting because the information learned there could be used outside of the classroom as well.
How will you use your new knowledge of technology in your classroom?
