DIGITAL STORIES To the MAX

Well lets just say overwhelmed is a good word to use when I left class this week! We are embarking on a new technological adventure and it is going to be difficult but a very amazing task. I had asked teachers about digital stories and they say that they are wonderful to use in their classroom to break up regular teaching and learning. I know that I would have loved to watch digital stories when I was in elementary school. It is such a fun way to introduce a new topic to your class. You hit them with a bang and then they emotionally become involved in their learning.

Digital stories are short movies filled music, narration, and video clips. They are suppose to invoke a strong emotional tie with the watcher. Pictures can say a thousand words and instead of reading you are giving your students a chance to learn through watching. Sometimes seeing something is a lot more powerful reading about it and that is what we are doing. Digital stories don't need to be long they are jam packed with images that cause your brain to think.

So why are we learning how to create our very own Digital stories, well that answer is the same like all the other things we are learning in this class. With the growing technology of the world we as teachers have to take that into our classroom. Times have changed and everything is digital, people don't just sit at home and talk and read any more. Everything has a technology tie and that is what stimulates our students, they are used to computers, ipods, PSP's, XBox, and the list seems to grow longer everyday. Even the children in our future classes will have Iphones and cooler technology then we the teachers might have. In order to stay with the times and keep our students actively engaged in their learning we have to give them opportunities to get that sensory engagement in the classroom. I wouldn't use a digital story for everything but there are many things in the core that would be taught more effectively through a Digital Story.

Now that I know what a digital story is and I will be learning how to actually make one I know that I will be become a Digital story master! I am very excited because I have a MAC and this will give me a chance to work on my imovie skills. Me and my team have not decided what topic we want to cover in our story but I know that through all our many examples in class we will find something that we will be proud of! I was very overwhelmed when I left class but know that I have had time to think about everything I know that Doc Waters always prepares us for what we are expected to do so I had to take a step back and realize that we are going to get through this together. Everything we have learned thus far has gotten me so excited to become a teacher! I can visualize myself using all these skills in my future classroom someday and I know why this class is so beneficial.

Movie of the Week

I was unable to download any of the examples on our class site! I think they weren't compatible with my MacBook so I am just going to reflect on all the examples of Digital Stories that we watched in class. I have to say that I was very blown away by the stories we watched in class. I thought there is no way that I am going to be able to do this. I was horrified when we watched the example of the Holocaust Story, no matter how many times you see those tragic pictures they never get easier to see. I can only imagine how much of an impact that would make on a student. Especially as the years go by because the Holocaust is getting farther away and soon we will have no survivors and our future students will not even realize how much of an impact it was on our history. Every example gave me a very good Idea of how to make my very own Digital Story and I am very excited to get to work.