A Smart Podcast for Students!

Here is an interesting podcast on how students can use smartphones smartly. Enjoy!

http://www.infinitethinking.org/itm-41---getting-smart-smart.html

Twitter in Schools

Since we are talking about Twitter this week, I thought of posting an interesting article about Twitter. Honestly, I am not so active on Twitter, however I do find that Twitter has a lot of interesting activities for classrooms. Here's the link:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2013/06/20/twitter-in-the-classroom/

Enjoy!

Page 179 - Crane's Assignment

Reflect in a blog post to other educators by answering the following questions:

a.       How will digital storytelling improve students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills?

Digital storytelling is an effective technique to enhance a student’s overall development. Through digital storytelling, a student not only focuses on the topic to be learnt, but also the entire process of being a part of storytelling. This process includes writing and reading scripts, listening to other’s stories and ideas, speaking to tell stories, and also communicating with peers and teachers during the various stages of creating digital stories.

b.      Is digital storytelling a good interdisciplinary project? Why or why not?

I believe digital storytelling is a good interdisciplinary project. For example in one of the examples provided in Crane’s book, a class created a digital story to honor Martin Luther King. The students talk about the speech, this kind of digital story could also be used for an English class, focusing on the speech’s literature. Digital storytelling can also be used in an advanced Computer class where students learn about the various applications to create it. Digital storytelling can definitely prove to be an effective interdisciplinary project.

c.       What are some of your ideas for using digital storytelling in your school?

I am not a professional yet. If adequate resources are available in school, digital storytelling can be an effective learning experience for students. There could be many creative ways to incorporate digital storytelling into classrooms. Crane, in the book, Using Web2.0 and Social Networking Tools in the K-12 Classroom mentions a few of the creative ways in which a few teachers incorporated it in their classes. For example, . Digital storytelling can be particularly useful in role-play teaching strategies in History (to talk about prominent leaders and their work), Science (to talk about characteristics of various animal and plant families), English, Mathematics etc. Apart from that, we can also integrate digital storytelling as tutorials for teaching certain tools.

d.      How does video add to the ultimate product?

In Crane’s book, the multimedia poster on Glogster multimedia represented the different aspects of the American Revolutionary War. It is a good way of summarizing a piece of history by involving student’s creative ideas of that period in history. In this poster, along with the images, there were different videos that portrayed the various aspects of that period. Adding videos was an interesting and engaging strategy and it helps in enhancing the effectiveness of the digital story.

Page 169 - Crane's Assignment - Part 2

Write blog posts to reflect on the following questions:

a.       How can you incorporate digital storytelling into your curriculum?

If adequate resources are available in school, digital storytelling can be an effective learning experience for students. There could be many creative ways to incorporate digital storytelling into curriculum. Crane, in the book, Using Web2.0 and Social Networking Tools in the K-12 Classroom mentions a few of the creative ways in which a few teachers incorporated it in their classes. Apart from them, we can also integrate digital storytelling as tutorials for teaching certain tools.

b.      What areas of the curriculum could be most effectively taught through digital stories?

Digital storytelling can be used across subjects and curriculum. It really depends on how creatively we use it for different subjects. Digital storytelling can be particularly useful in role-play teaching strategies in History ( to talk about prominent leaders and their work), Science ( to talk about characteristics of various animal and plant families), English, Mathematics etc.

c.       What challenges would you face as you implement this instructional approach in your school?

Technical requirements and resources play an important role in digital storytelling. Adequate number of computers with the required applications and accessories, trained technical teams and enthusiastic students also play a pivotal role in this process. Also a school’s budget would decide the availability of these resources. These would be the major challenges for implementing this approach in schools.

Page 169 - Crane's Assignment - Part 1

     Review at least three or four types of digital stories. You can use the stories given as examples or check some of the other URLs in Table 8.1. On your blog jot down what you like best about each story, what you like least. Evaluate how well you think your students would handle writing a digital story. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWM7oua2k4

This YouTube video is a very thoughtful day of involving all the students in the class to remember a very prominent leader and celebrate his work for the country. This is a creative form of digital storytelling to recognize the importance of freedom in each of the student’s lives and to understand the importance of unity in diversity. The students looked very eager, enthusiastic and happy to be part of this creative assignment which enhanced the purpose of this digital story.

https://villagewiki.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/53704166/Mrs%20Warren%20Living%20Things%20Podcast.MOV

The students of this kindergarten class classified each of the images as living and non-living things by giving a reason. It is an interesting way to get them to learn about the difference between the both. This kind of video/picture podcasts helps them improve their language skills too. 

http://www.glogster.com/ryantstein/american-revolution/g-6mnkn665627670e96tab5a0?old_view=True

In this Glogster multimedia poster, teachers and students represented the different aspects of the American Revolutionary War. It is a good way of summarizing a piece of history by involving student’s creative ideas of that period in history.

I believe if the students are given the resources and guiding steps for each of the phases of digital storytelling, they would certainly engage themselves in the process and also enjoy the whole learning experience