Dream

For my masters class this week we are suppose to answer some questions describing our dream assignment that we would create as teachers that would require our students to create a digital story telling project. The questions and my answers are as follows:

1. What kind of digital storytelling project do you wish that one of your (current or future) students would be able to turn in as part of your curriculum?

I envision assigning my project at the end of the school year. I would have my students think about all the different topics that we covered in class and have them create a Prezi presentation about one topic that they wish we would have covered more in depth in class. I would require my students to research a topic that they wanted to learn more about. Then they would need to create a Prezi presentation in order to show the class what they learned. For example, if a student wanted to learn more about the women’s rights movement, then their assignment would be to research the women’s rights movement and create a Prezi presentation to show the class what they learned.

2. Describe the digital storytelling project. What media elements does it include? How would this project relate to your curriculum? (Make sure to tell us the grade level and subject area, so we're clear.)

I currently teach 11^th grade American History in OCPS. This would relate directly to the curriculum because the students would be researching the material that we have covered; only they will need to go more in depth with the curriculum. The current Sunshine State Standards for American History can be found by clicking on this link http://www.floridastandards.org/Standards/FLStandardSearch.aspx  

3.  Thinking back to Wendy Drexler's "Networked Student" video and the concept of "curriculum pages" introduced earlier in Chapters 3 and 8, brainstorm the kinds of Web resources that you would need to have your students review in order to produce the digital storytelling project that you've imagined. (Note: Consider "how to" resources as well as content-specific resources.)

I would have the students use Prezi to create their final project. I really enjoyed creating a Prezi presentation. I found Prezi to be user friendly and I understood how to use Prezi after watching the tutorial. I know my students would not have a hard time understanding how to use Prezi either so this would allow them to concentrate on gathering information for their project. 

4. Summarize the types of Web (and other) resources you would assign for students to access (you can list one or two specific sites if you'd like) and any learning activities that you think you might associate with these resources.

I would require my students to have three resources for their projects. Since our computer lab is in the Media Center, I would require one resource to be a book or journal article found in the Media Center. The other two resources would need to come from an internet source. I would ask my students use these search engines:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/

http://kids.yahoo.com/directory/

These search engines are great for students. They usually will only find websites that are educationally helpful, and they filter websites that are not relevant for students.

5.  In order to get students to produce the kind of digital storytelling project you've envisioned, are there any resources that you would need to create in addition to existing resources you hope to find on the Web? Briefly tell us about any such teacher-created resources.

I would create my own Prezi to model to the class. Hopefully this would allow the students to see what I am looking for in their projects. However, I am always hesitant to have a model because a lot of times students will copy the model they see and not be creative.

In conclusion, I think this would be a great activity for all classes. I think this would create several teachable moments for the students to reach further into subjects that we normally do not have time for in class. A teachable moment according to our class textbook, Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom, is “an open window of opportunity for the information to be comprehended in greater detail by students.” (Gunter, Gunter, & Shelly, 2010, p. 328) One of my goals as a Social Studies teacher is to get my students to care more about their work, not just study for a test and forget the information later. This project will hopefully help the students learn more about a topic that they are passionate about and help them learn something they can use later in life.

Resources

Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E., & Shelly, G.B. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6^th ed.). United States: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.