Digital Story 3

What?

This week was our last week to work on our digital stories. We had to make final finishes to our digital story by adding the pictures to go along with the music and voice and work with transitions and the effects to make it more entertaining.

So What?

What this means is that our digital story is almost done. We decided to work in Windows Movie Maker because the program was easier to use, had more options, and was already converted into a WMV file. This has meant to me as a student and as a teacher a lot. It has helped me to be more creative and it helped me to see how much I enjoyed making these videos. They are very impactful if made right and I was able to see the difference it makes. As a colleague, I am able to help those that I work with and give them advice on how to make one for themselves or collaborate with them and allow them to use any videos I may make. I believe we are doing this because it is fun and very informative.

There is a lot to making a digital story. You first have to do a storyboard and find the pictures that are going to be descriptive, informative, and be able to tell a story. Next, you need to find a script. For our video we used a speech. We had to do more work combining the music to the parts of the speech we wanted to use. And then you put it all together in the program of your choice. We used this because it helps us to see what we can do if we want to do something different and impact our students. This can apply to me in my other classes and in general by using the information I learned and putting it into action. I can make digital stories in my other classes and can also make personal digital stories. Life is one big story we can express through videos. This new technology is a new way of teaching which leads to a new way of learning for my students. It helps me as well as my future colleagues to be more creative in the way we present the information to our students. It helps me to see what students like and what they learn from.

Now What?

This technology means a lot to my future students. My students are in the generation where technology is meaningful and is needed. Digital stories wont bore them. They will enjoy hearing these stories about the civil war, pioneers, science experiment, etc. because they can visually see whats happening and can emotionally connect. Using this type of technology will make me a better teacher because I will develop passion and will be more informative of the subject area because it requires a lot of research. My students can help me do digital stories or they can make one of their own. If I learned a lot about the subject I did my digital story on, I can only image how much my students would also learn.

Digital Stories and technology in general will help me to be a better teacher and colleague because my classes will never be boring. They will always have meaning behind it and my students will be able to connect better to that. My colleagues will see the passion I have for the subject and may look to me as a resource to help them develop the same teaching style. This technology class has opened my eyes to how many different teaching styles there are and how easy it is to integrate technology into a classroom. Integrating technology can help myself and my colleagues to have better communication and collaboration. We can share ideas, thoughts, and feelings. Like I said before, if I enjoy learning through technology, then most likely so will my students. It's becoming the new way of life and a new way of learning. Without it we would be lost and we wouldn't be as far as we are today.

Video Reflection

I did not really like this video. I did not see how it was connecting to what we were learning about this week and how it had anything to do with technology. Education is important and many famous people do go to college and continue their education, but this video was not believable. It was a young boy who was only interested in being a movie director. Yes, he talked about education but it didn't really connect to the true importance of education. So what I would have done different is maybe have a student that is in the arts and film school present and express how without his education in not only the areas of interest but with the generals, he wouldn't be where he is today. Now what, I don't think if I showed my students that clip they would have been impacted so I would have changed it or added to it to help them see the true importance. Or I would not use the video!