Here are three more digital stories to get you thinking of ideas and how you might use digital storytelling in the classroom. All were created with PhotoStory 3.
The first was created by a 7-grade student for a social studies project. Each student in the class picked the name of an American Revolutionary War character from a hat. The student then needed to create a digital story about that person using PowerPoint, PhotoStory, or Movie Maker. The student selected PhotoStory.
The second video was created by an elementary school teacher to tell students about the life of Helen Keller based on a book they were reading about her.
The third video was created to be used with middle school students to give them an eyewitness account of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. After viewing the stories, feel free to leave comments.
Do these videos give you ideas of how to integrate digital storytelling into your teaching? If so, what new ideas do you have?.
These are great teaching tools to use in our classroom, especially the second and third digital story. It is a great hook and a great way to have the students learn about an important event in history. I could see myself using digital stories to talk about science and the history of the town the school is in. I would also like the students to create their own digital story of what they have learned in class, research and books. It is a nice way to have students to express themselves if they are having a hard time in school or home. Digital stories are amazing. I just wished we all had the advantage of having the resource to do this in our classrooms. The students would be more motivated in learning and they would still be using higher order thinking.
ReplyDeleteI can see using digital stories as a great way to supplement our science and social studies lessons in the lower elementary grades because there is so much focus on Language Arts and Math. These digital stories can be made for the students to view during center time and they can respond to them in some fashion, depending on if it is Language Arts or Math. I loved the first digital story because it was created by a student. This must be a great motivator for students to research topics when they can create a digital story as their response. This is a great way to make the lessons reach our students' multiple intelligences.
ReplyDeleteI loved the digital story about Helen Keller! I think students benefit from the use of digital stories because of the many sensory inputs they allow students to experience at once. I agree with Taini as to the hook it provides but it could also be a great way to review a unit or revisit later in the year.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed view these digital stories, I am continuously amazed by the quality of the images and sound. Using digital stories like these would be a great way to incorporate social studies/history into my classroom. With increasing demands for lanuage arts and math instruction using digital stories with social studies and science related topics I could cover the content area and technology intergration together. During Reader's Workshop for example, instead of partner reading using books students could work together to view and respond to the digital stories. Gotta love a multi-tasking lesson!
ReplyDeleteDigital stories are such a great resource to have for our students. I love the idea of taking topics that you will discuss in science and social studies and creating an engaging and useful digital story for students. Not only can you have them watch it and discuss it, but like others have been saying students can then respond to it which allows you to integrate in written responses and that higher order thinking we are always striving for our students to show. This is a great tool to use to engage our students, but I also love the idea because so many of my students are visual learners and to listen to something is one thing, but to see pictures and other visuals that go along with the topic will allow them to have a better understanding. It might also open up opportunities to collaborate with other teachers on grade level topics and then extend the use of the digital stories from the whole group setting to the smaller resource room setting.
ReplyDeleteWhat great ideas. I was thinking on a much larger scale. I can see the students using this tool to discuss books we read in class. Some topic we discuss can be further explored through additional sources such as the Internet and additional books. Creating a digital story would allow students to take ownership over what they are learning. They can have their stories come to life with them being the author of their our short video!
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the stories the first thought that crossed my mind was, this is such a creative and enticing way for students to learn and hold on to information. They not only learn but then teach others students and teachers alike.
ReplyDeleteThe second thought that came to me was the connection students make to the information. Since the dawn of education students have been learning through one model, the text book! This gives students like myself to learn information in a multi-sensory way, visual and auditory. I always had difficulty holding information that I was reading because it was difficult to stay focused read and then remember. As a teacher of literacy this excites me, to see new ways for students to gain, hold on to and then use.
All three stories were inspiring! The students can use technology to express themselves and teach their peers in a way that is second nature to them. I am experimenting with a story on the planets and will keep you posted on our success. The intial excitement was great to see and it turned a project on the palnets into a creative interesting story.
ReplyDeleteAll three digital stories are directly related to the work being done in the different classrooms that I work in daily.The students with weaker reading skills will be able to access the material through digital stories and gain the same knowledge need to be successful on the tests.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great resource! Before watching the videos, I was thinking that it would be fun to have students publish stories and reports using this program. I also think it would be a good teaching tool to hook students in when teaching and introduce new topics. I think this would be an amazing resource for our science and social studies units.
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