MrB's Tech Corner: Digital Storytelling

Lately I have been thinking a lot about digital storytelling and what it really means. Here are some definitions found when Googled:

When students create a movie or interactive slide show to tell their story, learning becomes personal.
a short form of digital film-making that allows everyday people to share aspects of their life story.
the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories.
the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling.

Basically, I think DS is putting your "voice" into an idea you want shared with others. I could write it down and you would see my emotion, I could record the audio and you wouldn't see my expressions, I could record myself on video, but you couldn't see my visualizations... So what is the best way to tell a story? I don't know.

What I do know is that there are a ton of recourses out there for story tellers, teachers and students alike. In the coming weeks I will be working with my colleagues to build a story in my personal favorite tool: iMovie. I like iMovie because it easy to use, easy to teach and offers a great deal of flexibility and creativity in the production process. Mainly used for editing movie clips ad jazzing up still images, iMovie can provide a great deal of features if you can just spend the time "playing" in the software. Making movies is only one way to tell a story, though.

I find that students want to be different in some way when given an individual activity in the classroom To harness this energy and provide multiple means of interaction with the assessment process or community of learners, I offer the following tools: