Digital Storytelling

While at first I thought the burden of the time and effort it would take to make a digital story would not be worth it, after completing a digital story, I definitely see many benefits.  I decided to use a poem I wrote for my digital story.  This poem is about my life, so I have ample picture support to add to the poem.  I now see how my poem has really come to life through digital storytelling.  A poem that I have seen in my portfolio for a while on paper now is accompanied by pictures, music, and narration.  What a powerful tool that would be in the classroom.

I could use digital storytelling in my classroom during a poetry unit similar to the way I did the project myself.  I would have the students pic an event in their life and write a poem about it.  Then, I would have the students collect photos from their house about the event.  With upper elementary grades, the software was so easy to use that I don't forsee major issues in that area.  The students would be able to experience their poem "coming to life" just as I did.

Digital storytelling could also be used for the "Star student of the week."  When it was a student's turn to be the Star student, I would have them bring in a file of pictures of their favorite things, their family, and anything important to them.  Instead of doing a "me bag," the students could play their digital story for the class.  The students would then receive individual instruction on the software and their classmates would view an "all about me" video.


Students could use digital storytelling for many different projects as well.  Sometimes students are not comfortable getting up in front of the entire class and presenting a project.  Digital storytelling provides a way for them to document their work and even narrate their work without having a large audience.  When the story is finished, they can show the class their final video and feel more comfortable about the quality of their presentation.

Digital Storytelling can be adapted in many different ways to fit the needs of students as well as provide a way to assess student learning.  This type of alternative assessment could be beneficial to many students in your classroom.  The students also learn 21st century skills by experimenting with the digital storytelling software.  Although digital storytelling does take time to learn and create a meaningful project, I see far more pros than cons for bringing it into the classroom.

Webquests

As I was searching for a Webquest, I came across this one: http://students.umf.maine.edu/stephanie.fogler/public.www/Assignments/webquest.html

The page is formatted so that the students have links to follow to read about the directions, the task, the rubric, and resources for completing the task.  The task to be completed is a performance task that allows students to interact with different websites and produce a fundraising idea for the people of Zimbabwe.  The students are divided into teams and asked to complete research and propose an idea.  The instructions are clearly stated and the expectations are listed in a rubric for the students.

Along with information for students, the webquests provides a teacher page.  This page indicates the objectives, purpose, standards, and other information about the value of the webquest activity.  For teachers that are new to the concept, I feel that this page was extremely helpful.  The teacher can investigate the purpose as well as what the student is asked to complete before providing the webquest to students to complete. 

While I found the purpose and information provided in the webquest to be enriching and of quite a bit of value, the aesthetics of the webquest were less than pleasing.  I did not think that the font was easy to read in some places with various bits of highlighting and a black background.  That aside, the webquest is a great way for students to interact with the internet while producing meaningful work.

Virginia Trekkers

Attention 4th grade teachers in Virginia - this website is FANTASTIC!

http://virginiatrekkers.com/VirginiaTrekkers/VirginiaTrekkers.html

The Virginia Trekkers consist of four men who travel around Virginia and make podcasts in the 5 regions of Virginia.  The Trekkers are sure to incorporate the Virginia Studies SOLs, as well as various other SOLs throughout their podcasts.  I used this website as an introduction quite a few times when teaching the regions of Virginia to my 4th graders during Student Teaching.  Some of my students had never left their hometown, so seeing a podcast of Virginia Beach was equivalent to going on vacation for them!  I got to show students the inside of a coal mine and the Fall Line without ever leaving the classroom.  The students came to love my "friends" the Trekkers and really got excited about the podcasts.  Several students said that they went home and watched more podcasts with their parents!

Since the students latched onto this idea, I used this podcast theme for a review of the 5 regions.  I had the students form groups and each group was assigned a region of Virginia.  The students had to come up with their own "podcast" for that region.  The students were trying to convince their parents to take them on vacation to that region with their "podcast."  The students loved it! 

On the Virginia Trekkers website there are also games and activities that students can do to enrich their learning of the regions of Virginia.  The games are basic review games, but with the Trekkers everything is more fun! 

I highly recommend this website to anyone who is teaching 4th grade in Virginia!  Check it out, it will be worth it!

Clip Art!

As teachers, we are always looking to spice up our presentations or documents to capture the attention of the students, parents, or administrators who may be using them.  As stated in the Education World article, Clip Art 101, "Visual images can illustrate concepts, clarify content, create and sustain interest, and increase understanding and memory.  In addition, they just plain make you look good!"

One way to to get images that make your presentations stand out is to draw them yourself via a tool such as Microsoft Paint or Clarisworks.  For those of you who are not as artistic, upload pictures of your student work with a digital camera, or a scanner.  Take your camera out for a hike and get that perfect image to serve as a background for your geology presentation.  There are many possibilities when working with your own digital camera.

If none of these appeal to you, clip art is a safe bet for gathering images for various presentations or documents.  Most document software comes with clip art as a feature of the software, but there are also several free clip art sites you may visit to download other pictures.  Something to be aware of:  images on the internet are protected by copyright.  So, no matter how applicable that Google image is for your presentation, it is copyrighted unless it came from one of the free clip art sites.  If you are interested in someone else's picture, be sure to ask permission and always cite your source!

With Google images ruled out, I am sure that many of you are worried about where to get your images for your presentation.  I had personally not looked to closely at clip art that came with my software because I thought it would be boring or useless.  However, after reading this article, I took a closer look, and found that the clip art on my computer and the clip art on some of the free sites can easily be used to make a presentation feel fun and engaging.

If you would like to hear more tips about clip art, or need help searching for clip art read the article here: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech015.shtml

Google Earth

During my student teaching placement, I was teaching about the five regions of Virginia.  The regions of Virginia are an SOL for 4th grade.  I began in the east and worked my way west.  I was student teaching in the Valley and Ridge Region of Virginia.  As I began teaching about the Coastal Plain region, a student raised his hand and said: "Ms. B, I have never seen the ocean."  I was astounded and pondered this comment for the rest of the evening.  The next day, I came prepared to give the students a full picture of being at the beach, without being able to take a field trip to the coast.  As I presented pictures and videos many students remarked: "When I get home, I am going to tell my parents to take me there!"  I then made a project out of this motivation during which students designed an "ad" for the Coastal Plain Region.  The goal of the "ad" was to convince the students' parents to take them to the Coastal Plain Region.

It was during this time in my teaching career that I discovered Google Earth.

The Google Earth feature allows students to take a trip around the world without leaving their seat.  For many students, this is all they will see of a beach, the mountains, or other natural wonders of the world.  I used this feature especially to show the flowing of rivers, as I taught that many rivers start in the Blue Ridge Mountain Region of Virginia and flow through the other regions and on to the ocean.  This interactive visual was much more useful to students than even the simple maps I placed on their desk.

Some students proceeded to go home and experiment with Google Earth a bit more.  I had many students, and parents, approach me about their adventures on Google Earth.  While the experience of Google Earth does not begin to approach real life exploration of natural wonders or cities, I believe that it is a good tool for students to gain a better understanding of the world.

While the resolution of images needs improvement, and 3D imagery is not available everywhere, Google Earth makes online resources available for particular areas of interest.  Without leaving Google Earth, you can research all about a certain location using internet links as well as view maps of interest.

I found that Google Earth was informational and motivational for the students I was teaching at the time, and I would recommend trying it out in your classroom!