Digital Storytelling

The reading from Technology in the Secondary Science Classroom by Bell, et al. stresses the importance of using digital images and video as a tool, and not a substitute for good teaching. The video and images need to be discussed and deciphered when used in the classroom. I find that if I can show pictures that I have taken, my students are that much more engaged in what I am trying to show them. And if I want them to be even more engaged, I will turn the reigns over to them!

I have a blog post that is older about our little Mitosis Movie Project. It is the one project I have done where students had to create a digital content and publish it to the web. They turned out really well, and I wish my students could see how many hits some of their videos have after being on the internet for a few years. I also like to create You Tube play lists to use during different units, like this playlist about fungi.

Some of the new tools I have learned about seem like they will be really helpful in continuing and encouraging my use of digital storytelling. I really like Glogster and VoiceThread and see the potential for some great student work. Another tool I found is called Pixton. It can be used to create comics and I think that has some strong appeal for my 7th graders! I found an example on a blog by Ollie Bray and reposted the image above.