Digital Story 2

What?

This week we continued to work on our digital story. We learned how to make it in Photo Story 3 and we also learned how to transport slides from PowerPoint into Photo Story. We also learned how we need to submit this assignment to her and how to post it on Youtube.

So What?

If I want to incorporate an emotional story and to it by presenting it through media, this is a great way to do it. Digital stories allow teachers (people) to share their thoughts on an event. It is also a great teaching tool for the students to connect to. So as a student it helps me be creative in how to prepare certain lesson plans and it gives me great ideas on different media forms to teach with. As a teacher, it helps me by allowing a way into getting my students interested. Students love videos and it is also a visual way that students can connect to the material being taught. Also as a teacher, my students would be able to create their own digital story. Whether it be on their life or on a researched subject. Photo Story 3 is an easy program that each of my students would be able to use. As a colleague it helps my team be more creative. It brings more emotion into the lessons and it may influence other teachers to use the same system. I believe we are doing this to be experimental and not use the same teaching techniques.

This can apply to me in my other classes by creating a digital story when I present. Each presentation and subject I have taught on could have included a digital story. I did a presentation on Slavery and I think if I would have done a digital story for it, everybody would have been able to feel the emotion stronger. It is a sensitive subject that deserves to be taught and taught passionately and correct. Learning Photo Story 3 gives me a starter tool to move on to making more in depth videos. I could be able to make family videos or even make wedding videos. This technology means freedom and enjoyable. It brings out my creativity. Photo Story and other digital story programs means creativity and change in the way we teach and the way we collaborate as teachers.

Now What?

Photo Story and digital stories means a new way to do assignments or do homework. It gives them more power in the way they learn and more power in how they learn the information. When students are interested they tend to want to do more and are more interested. I never thought to use Photo Story or digital story for my students to use. This changes by using it. I think it is just as important and more fun then writing a paper. The type of teacher I will become by integrating these different techniques will make me a better teacher. It will keep me on my feet and will not allow me to get lazy because it is constantly changing.

My students would be able to work by themselves or with partners on creating a digital story in Photo Story. They could research a social studies topic we are learning about during the year and make a good representation of what it was like during a persons life or during a certain time period. They could also create life biographies. There are many assignments I could have them do. They could collaborate with others outside the class by inviting them into our classroom and show them their work. This will help me to become a better teacher by allowing my students to have more participation and say on what they are learning and how they are learning about it. It gives them responsibility in helping me as well as their class. This helps me as a colleague by being unique and being open to helping others learn different styles and techniques to teach. As for collaboration, I think the staff will talk to each other more because others may be curious of what you are doing and the reaction of the students. It will add to better communication.

Video Reflection

This video started abruptly. It didn't allow you to transition into what you are about to see and learn about. I also think the slides switched to soon. I wasn't able to see what it was they wanted me to see. I thought this video was corny and it didn't really allow me to feel the message he was presenting. I thought it was pretty boring and I also felt it was more rehearsed and that he had a script he had to memorize. He is a young kid and he youthful personality didn't come across very strong in this digital story. I thought the message was really good and I like the part where they brought in his home life. That allowed me to feel more apart of his story but overall I didn't think this was a good video.