When researching digital storytelling, I came across a very helpful diagram that breaks down creating a digital story. It basically makes any story that you need to tell or any presentation that you need to make more interesting and more memorable. I found this really great and helpful site, http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/, that talked about digital storytelling from an educational perspective: "Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music. Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between two and ten minutes." I did not know that digital storytelling was such a big deal in the educations world. There is also a really great video on th
at site that I enjoyed.
When you think about it, digital storytelling is exactly what it sounds like. It is using digital effects in telling a story. I am starting to understand why this information would be so valuable to a teacher. A teacher has to talk all day long to their students, and if there is a way to spice things up and get everyone more interested in what is going on, I am sure that any teacher would jump at that chance. This class has definitely taught me more about how to use these digital enhancements. I feel alot more comfortable with alot of basic technology, and I feel like I have learned a lot of new skills. I guess that through my blog and glog,(which I didn't have or even understand until this class), I have been digital storytelling all summer.
How do we connect with global education communities? The internet allows us to do some remarkable things. It is the ultimate tool to connect with educational communities across the world and share your own educational community with others. Information can now be exchanged through a great many resources created to do just this.
Whom did you find for students to connect with? The best resource that I found was at nea.org, the National Education Association. This site had an extensive amount of information of educators and students and many links to different programs. There were opportunities to connect with education communities in Asia, Africa, and many other places that differ greatly from the United States and would greatly broaden perspectives of American students and teachers.
How did you find it? After searching the internet for a while, I found a great website that provided many links to connect with global communities. It is courtesy of the National Education Association.
How will your students/you connect? By accessing the website, students can get their hands on information about other global communities and teachers can contact other communities in order to arrange further communication. I had a hard time finding information on how specifically this would be done, but I think that this is wonderful idea because it is extremely important for Americans, especially, to keep perspective on their own lives and those in the rest of the world. I think that this is kind of like a 21st century version of having an international pen pal.
What are possible conversation points? I think that the first step would be to talk about recreational activities and basic everyday life occurrences. What kind of sports do you play? What kind of animals do you see where you live? What kind of weather do you experience? Then, I think that teachers could dive into sharing teaching strategies and students could share what they are learningand compare their classrooms.
I have been following the blog eLearning Technology, and found some very useful information this week. I really appreciated a model that was created concerning learning about new technology. I, myself, am not exactly a technological wiz, so this was very useful advice. The blog talked about considerations a teacher should make when approaching new technology and asked the questions, "Will the content remain roughly the same for two years? Or will it really be out of date in two years? Is the content I need applicable to a relatively large audience or do I have fairly particular needs?" I definitely need to focus my search when it comes to familiarizing myself with new technology. I need to think about practicality for the classroom I am in, relevance to promoting learning, and whether or not it is worth my time to invest in new technological advances. I think that technology is advancing at such an alarming rate that it is important to filter my search for useful tools and consider their relevancy and long term benefits. I think that this funny commercial depicts this concern better than I can:
Another post on this blog discussed how the effects of technology on education are vastly underestimated. I can definitely see this when I consider how I learned when I was a young student and how I and my peers approach learning as college students. For example, when I was younger, if I wanted to learn more about a topic, I would go to the library, check out the selection on the topic, check out the books that I thought would be most helpful to me, and go read about the topic. Now, if I need to find information on something, most of the time, I think I can speak for a majority of my classmates by saying that we walk over to our computers, type the topic into google, and look through the information online. I am somewhat old fashioned if you couldn't already tell, and in my opinion, this fact is kind of sad. Now, don't get me wrong; it may be a more effective way of learning when the information is so accessible, but I really learned a lot about changing my attitude about it after reading this post. I need to get on board because I am underestimating the alarmingly increasing influence that technology has on education. One thing I absolutely agree with is trying to enhance my teaching strategies for the students' benefit, and if technology is a way to do that, I have to be open to the idea. One question that the post asked that really hit home for me was, "If we are going to force students to sit through lectures, shouldn't they be the absolute best lecture?" I answered yes to this question, and I suppose that means that I am also answering yes to technology. However, let the record state that I put up a fight!
Another post that I found extremely helpful and that I will be referencing in the future is about evaluating the tools to bee used in the classroom and considering every factor. As someone with little experience in this area, I really would not know the right questions to ask when considering using new technology in my classroom. This post provided a list of questions that I think would be valuable for us to check off in this situation. The list includes:
Cost: Is the tool free or very-low cost to use? Trial periods wouldn’t count.
Question Types/Methods: Does the tool offer the ability to create a rich testing experience by offering various question types?
Multimedia: Does the tool offer the ability to include audio and/or visuals for questions?
Data Collection: Does the tool provide detailed statistics on individual and/or group performance?
Grading: Does the tool allow for several methods of grading responses? (i.e. immediate feedback, final results with or without which questions were missed, etc.)
Download Test Results? : Can the test data be retrieved for analysis or backup?
Layout/Accessibility: Can the layout of the quiz output be changed and does it handle accessibility issues?
Security: Are there security methods in place to catch/prevent cheating, hacking, or other similar problems?
Ease of Use: Is the tool well supported and easy to learn?
I think that without all of these considerations, a tool would become detrimental to the learning process. If it is going to suck up time, money, and patience by complicating the process of assessing your students, you are going to be frustrated, rushed, and disappointed. This goes along with what the first post talked about. I think that above everything I learned from this assignment, I have learned to ask myself, "Is this worth it in that it will greatly benefit learning?" I think that with these considerations in mind, I can more efficiently answer this question and therefore be a more efficient educator.
