Digital Storytelling

Below you will find a link to the slideshare presentation that I prepared and could possibly use to teach my students the importance of writing. Digital storytelling is kind of complicated but as is with all technology it just takes a little getting used to. Kids will defiently enjoy using and being subjected to this type of learning because when they play educational video games and things like it, they can relate. Digital storytelling can be used in many different ways. You can use them to teach a lesson or have the children get into groups and make one of their own on a topic that they chose.

Slideshares, slidecasts, and voice threads can all be used in classroom setting and be very successful if they are used in the correct way. Slidecasts are simply slideshares with sound linked to them. In the link below I demonstrated the correct use of a slidecast. I think it would be wonderful not only for me but for the students. I would love to have them each write a short letter to a random soldier or if they knew of a soldier they could write to them but then I would have each student type it up and put it into a slide and allow them to decorate the slide as they wished. After that I would let them create a voice thread attached to their slide and let them thank the soldiers or say whatever they thought was appropriate and then I would combine all the slides and somehow post it so the soldiers could see it or send to one soldier in particular and then hopefully he/she would share it with their fellow comrads.

These are some great tools and I believe that in the future they will be used more and more. I don't know if I would use the slideshare and voice threads on a regular basis but I know I would love to make use of them. I might just use them for special occassions, for example the different holidays or to show school pride. If I was to use it scarcely I would be able to utilize it as a special thing that we only get to do sometimes. Then maybe, I could use it as a motivator for kids to do their work and behave on a daily basis. I might have a chart or something set up, maybe on a number basis, and for everyday a single student is good or does something great, they recieve so many points and as a class they would have to meet a certain number before we could use that type of technology.

I am very anxious to put these methods to real life use, trying it out on students and seeing how they take to it. I hope you can take from my ideas but if you don't like mine, maybe you could come up with some of your own.