I Have a Story to Tell

This girl knows how to tell a story.  Believe me.  I can talk until YOU are the one blue in the face.  But, when it comes to telling a story using pictures, music, narration, and more, I could easily get scattered. I have seen my fair share of presentations and documentaries (I am a Nat Geo junkie... I love a good documentary) but never really thought about how to create one myself.  With the digital storytelling assignment, I was able to choose a topic and create a digital presentation that illustrated that topic with pictures and narration. 

I chose to complete my presentation on how to make a meal from start to finish.  This presentation could be shown to any age life skills class or elementary general education classes and leads students through choosing a recipe, making a grocery list, grocery shopping, and preparing and serving the meal.  I chose fun and colorful pictures from the web and narrated the script myself.

I plan to use digital storytelling as a way to present information to my students that is fun and will grab their attention.  Digital storytelling could also be used as a student assignment in higher grades.  Students could work individually or within groups to create a digital story to display what they learned about the given topic.  It would be a fun alternative to the old standby- Powerpoint.

Of course, any learning experience would not be complete without the occasional hiccup.  I got rather frustrated with how time-consuming it was, but I imagine that that would get easier with more experience.  I also had to record my narration about 12 times, no joke.  I could see how some students may not have the skill set or patience to complete a project like this, but if several were assigned throughout the year, (beginning with a simple version including pictures and a music track and leading to a final version with pictures, movie clips, music, and narration) it would give the opportunity for students to build on prior knowledge and master the use of this form of technology.

When you compare digital storytelling to a more traditional method of presentations, well- it doesn't really compare.  Why continue using only Powerpoint, overhead projectors, and the like if we have this moving, attention-grabbing method at our fingertips?  And besides, who doesn't like a good movie?  :)