CEDU 531

I have begun a new course and will now be adding to my blog again. Below is my reaction to digital stories:
This year I have worked with a 5th grade team and the students did create a digital story using Photostory. At the beginning of the year they had to create a story that told everyone what they did on their summer vacation. I was in charge of teaching the software and the teachers were in charge of helping them write their stories. Though I was fascinated at how excited the students were to learn this new presentation tool, I thought their stories were lacking. After thinking about what was discussed the first week I can see how creating the story first is the most important part of the story-telling, I don't think this was the main objective and that is why the stories lacked. I can see digital story-telling used in conjunction with reading/writing. Students could re-enact their favorite scene from a book putting their spin on it using digital story-telling. It can also be used as a way to present findings done in research. I personally created a digital story to showcase the efforts of the library program at one of my elementary schools. I took snapshots of the students working and of the library and talked about the goal/vision of the library program. My first time completing one definitely shows that I am an ameteur, but that is why I am so interested in this class.