Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling has shaped the way in which I collaborate with teachers. I have found that this a fantastic opportunity to work with teachers and be a part of the classroom experience with students as well. When I first learned how to use moviemaker I was so excited at how easy it was and wanted to share my new knowledge. I went to the English department chair and showed her the personal memoir I created and asked if she could use something like that in her classroom. Since then we have worked together on a few projects using moviemaker to create digital stories. At the beginning of this year, she had her freshman students create biographies to share with the class. This allowed the students to not only acquaint themselves with the peers they will be spending the next four years with, but gave them an introduction into how to navigate this program. Since then  we have done projects with the students and their digital storytelling skills are gradually evolving. Another assignment we did was to create Propaganda Commercials based on their studies of Animal Farm. Ms. Collie made this project a ‘competition’ and a group in each class won a trophy for best commercial. I loved stepping outside of the library to watch the students present their projects. This has been a truly rewarding collaboration experience. Teachers can be wary of using technology (outside of standard PowerPoints) in their classrooms, but with something like this that is easy and fun, you can really get students and teachers equally excited about creating these Digital Stories!!