Digital Storytelling.. Storytelling of the future

Digital storytelling is a new way in which material can be presented. Instead of the traditional sense where a student approaches the classroom and either reads of a paper, or reads of a powerpoint, digital storytelling allows for more intruiging ways of presenting the material. We have all had our share of boring lectures in which slide after slide is bulleted text after bulleted text. This is a revolutionary idea which can recreate the way we view presentations.

Today I'm focusing on three parts of digital storytelling which are slideshare, slidecast, and voice threads. A voice thread is a website designed to allow for feedback on a multiple of pictures through text, talk, and even drawing. Slideshare is basically a powerpoint presentation that has been enhanced.

I found an interesting website that took digital storytelling a step further. Brenda Dyck created another way of telling stories through the use of places. She uses additional tools such as google earth and community walk to have a sky view of a certain neighborhood. Then she demonstrated how the students could take pictures of some of their favorite childhood memories and make a digital story out of the images and locations. I did not get a chance to explore the website completely, but one discouragement I may have about this is for the students who move around a lot, if these websites are able to show a variety of states, towns, and countries, that would be excellent for those students who do not stay in one location all their lives. Other than that this seems like such a clever idea to incorporate other tools in the classroom to enhance learning.

In order to "enhance" my unit plan, I am going to include these technologies to further engage my students learning. Slideshare can be used when I myself present the material needed to my class, instead of saying "take 20 minutes to read paragraphs 1-10", I could say "lets review our material using this method". The new method will help maintain interest in the topic, and allow the information to be further processed and saved in their brains. Then once they have learned the material, now its their turn to go out, find information using the internet resources provided in the previous blog, and create their own unique presentations.

Check out my story telling below. First I have included my unit question and topic TEKS, and learning outcomes for my SlideShare presentation.

The Water Cycle, A SlideShare Technology-Integrated Plan

The Water Cycle

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