Week 11 - Digital Story

Hello blog -

I wanted to take a minute to recap my experiences with the Digital Story assignment. I had never worked with a "movie maker" type of program, so this was all new to me. As far as I can tell, the process can be broken down into a few distinct parts: 1) write a script 2) gather photos 3) post photos 4) record script 5) add music 6) save as .wmv (or w/e extension is most useful).

I chose to do my story on my Study Abroad in Sikkim, India. Although it's not necessarily the most interesting/educational topic for the masses, I had loads of photos from my trip and I felt like if I chose less colorful photos it would fail to take advantage of the medium of digital video. Might as well capitalize on being able to display images that can convey as much as any script, right?

Anyways, at first I thought this project might be a bit much for the Elementary School level, as I wasn't familiar with the program we'd be using (Digital Story Maker). After completing it however, I think as long as the task was broken up over a long enough time-frame, and perhaps used in a small group setting for additional support/creativity, I think it would be a great classroom activity. Connections to any of the content areas (Math being the most difficult to relate) are possible, and the students can either be provided with photos, or (should the school or teacher have access to a digital camera) they could take their own. The main obstacle for this project is (as discussed in class) the recording phase. Students would have to find a suitably quiet time/place to record their scripts (I recorded mine in an empty computer lab and could still barely hear it with the volume set to max).

In any event, the students would surely enjoy the project, and the combination of ease of use and adaptation to various standards of learning make it something I will likely try in the classroom as soon as I'm able to.