I
think that digital storytelling can be a fun and interesting tool to use in the
classroom. It also provides many
educational benefits such as building content knowledge and supporting
struggling readers by providing differentiated reading and writing activities
at each student’s level of ability. Digital stories can range from simple
personal narrative to complex, research reports and ultimately foster literacy
development and increase reading comprehension. Students are able to work
together and utilize different personal strategies in order to develop the
stories digitally, and other students may benefit from learning in that style.
Creating stories through film can be engaging for many ages of students and
promote the learning of many different subjects and genres.
I
definitely believe that this way of teaching is worthwhile and will improve
education. In today’s economy, it
can be challenging for much of the educational attention to be focused on the
arts, and many of it is cut from elementary programs. Using arts in teaching is
not only a fun and different way to learn, but it can also benefit the students
in a multitude of ways. I feel as though most learners are visual and auditory
learners, which would be utilized in this way of teaching. The script writing
and process of drafting and creating the video even before editing emphasizes
their use of creativity and allows the students to explore many facets of their
abilities. I could use this in the classroom in many different situations, but
most likely for older students such as 7th grade and on because they
would most likely have the knowledge and skills to create a video. I could assign a video project for
students to recreate scenes from a play, such as Shakespeare’s “A Mid Summer
Night’s Dream,” or even to explain something to the other students, such as how
the food web works for a science class. I always find that it is easier to
learn when the information is visual and even humorous at times.
References
DeMaria, S., & Fuhrman, C. (2011). That's a
Wrap! Telling Stories with Video. Learning
and Leading through Technology, 32-33. Retrieved from
http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20110607?pg=34&search_term=telling%20stories%20with%20video&doc_id=-1#pg34
Royer, R., & Richards, P. (2008). Digital
Storytelling. Learning and Leading
through Technology, 29-31. Retrieved from
http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200811?pg=33&search_term=digital%20storytelling&doc_id=-1#pg31
