digital storytelling: what can it do?

The more I read about digital storytelling, the more I can see using it in my future classroom. I think this is due in part to my tendency to focus on details. When digital storytelling was just a vaguely defined and huge project I was hesitant to try to pictures its use in the classroom. However, now that I have several excellent step by step guides to refer to, leading my students through a digital storytelling project seems much more doable.In his article "Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom," Tom Banaszewski reiterated some of the important points that other authors had made, but also gave me some new information about successfully including this type of project in a writing curriculum. One of his main points of emphasis is that digital storytelling really benefits from student to student collaboration. Having students help each other discover and explore is a one of my biggest teaching goals, so the fact that digital storytelling easily lends itself to this is a huge incentive for me to use it in my classroom. I believe that student collaboration can provide a completely different type of learning than teacher instruction can, and since real world problems are often solved by people working together and not by one person telling everyone else what to do, I think that learning how to operate in this way is incredibly important. If students can learn a skill such as how to use video editing software as well as gain practice in guiding each, all while expressing themselves and their writing talents in a public way, I don't see why I wouldn't use this project to teach.
I addition to convincing me that digital storytelling is a worthwhile use of class time, this article also gave me some more helpful tips for how to orchestrate the project. I understood that planning was important, but having a list of exactly what type of planning needs to be done before students should start compiling visual and audio files is an excellent resource. We've already read some great instructions for actually creating the digital story so I really appreciate Mr. Banaszeki's insights on the planning stage.
I also really enjoyed reading about the prompt that was used in the article. I definitely want to give my students at least some guidelines to guide their project, so I appreciated hearing how one teacher gave their students ideas for content. Although I still don't completely understand the digital storytelling process, the idea of using it in the classroom is growing on me.

useful instructions

The readings for this week and the last have been of a decidedly different nature than those we read in earlier in the semester. As we begin to work more seriously on the digital storytelling project, the articles have become less about how technology in general can benefit education and more about the specifics of using film to create great projects. The article "Understanding Digital Images" by J.V. Bolkan deals with the very important and very confusing topic of digital image resolution and how it affects the use of digital cameras in the classroom. The main point of the article, which I only vaguely understood prior to my reading, is that the way that pictures are stored can permanently the computer can y alter the images. This means that even if the picture is taken with the best digital camera on the market, the way it is stored either on the camera or on a computer can significantly change the picture quality. The article also discussed how editing or altering images in any way can decrease the clarity and make it impossible to restore the image to its original state. While I learned a lot about the specifics of purchasing cameras and storing pictures while keeping resolution in mind, what I found to be most helpful were the tips regarding how to edit images. I probably won't remember much about the specific sizes or types of files I should use to save my pictures, but I will definitely remember not to drastically resize, over edit or in other ways significantly change a picture in ways that will decrease its quality. This article will change the way I take pictures, both in the classroom and in my personal life. Now that I know the harm too much editing can cause, I will take more time to plan shots and be sure to take multiple pictures with different angles and lighting to minimize the amount of editing that must be done.
The importance of planning was also discussed in Karen Lindstrom's "10 tips for filming, " a handy begninner's guide to creating a successful video interview. I love the format of this piece, since lists are easy for teachers to use and easy for students to refer back to during a project. Since I don't have much experience with using video technology I really appreciated the simple words and explanations used. I am definitely going to save these tips so I can use them during my digital storytelling project and also so I can give them to my students to help with video projects. I am going to work on compiling lists similar to this one for all of the technologies I want to use in my classroom in order to help my students.
"Beyond Words" by Bernajean Porter provides more in depth explanations for many of the topics covered in "10 tips for filming." While the first article could be used as a quick reference during filming, sections of Porter's piece would be an excellent document for students to read prior to beginning work on a digital storytelling project. I can see the advice in this article being used in a classroom because of the simple way it is worded and its focus on small scale, amateur projects. While it would be great if all students could use professional microphones and editing programs, most students will probably have very limited access to this type of equipment. Porter's article does a great job of giving realistic instruction for digital storytelling projects in the classroom.