Digital Storytelling is a process for creating a story on video. Students are taught the steps involved to create a video and the subject matter and let loose to create. Step one is to develop an idea; this can include writing down a basic story line for the piece. This is followed by making a storyboard in single pictures (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008) . This can allow the students to visualize what they want to get across to their potential audience. It allows the student to make a list of what they are going to need to actually film their work. As the piece is further developed a list of the basic parts of a story is created so the film makers can check off their progress (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008). Using a video camera and a lot of prior planning the students can go on and create their video. Once filmed the video is edited using software. At this stage, Opening titles, ending credits and music can be added. This is a wonderful tool for students allowing them to get really involved and interested in an assignment. When I was in high school in the mid-1970s, a group made an advertisement that told a story for a made up product Harrison’s Hangover Pills. We wnt through the should process as the digital storytelling except we filmed in a room with a fime movie camera. When my son was in third grade he was in a GT class. One of their assignments was to create a variation on a favorite children’s book, David choose Corduroy. David wanted to make a film titled Fuzzy Finds his Button. With the help of family for the post production part (this was in the mid ‘90s) David wrote the story, got his sister to star in the movie along with his favorite bear and even got Miss Dixie, the owner of the local used bookstore to help with the story. Stop action was used and Fuzzy searched the house for his lost button. In my daughter’s Senior AP English class, they had an assignment to create something that combined at least two pieces of popular fiction (Film and/or novels). Katie’s group combined characters from Gone with the Wind, Little Women and The Notebook. They then went on to create and film a new story. Another group, Thomas and Graham, combined Harry Potter and Star Wars into a stop action film Clash of the Creators using Lego blocks, it’s really good! The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007 and is still there at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLk7R0kzbg. Take a look, it is a great example of what can be done for a digital story. This whole process would be a great addition to a more advanced Art class. The whole creative process would fit perfectly and movie making has been used in education for quite a while. Why not use something that has history behind it?
Visualizing various aspects of math has been used for a long time. In early grades children manipulate objects to represent number values, patterns, addition and subtraction for instance. Most days I volunteered in my children’s kindergarten classes for “Learning Center” time there was something that involved manipulation numbers, early math. There are learning software programs available these days that allow children to do this at a computer screen. Graphing calculators, for older students, helps them to visualize equations in the form of a graphical representation (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008). There is software that gives geometrical representations, as well, to help with the visualization of geometry (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008). There is also software that allows for the visualization of data and statistics, which would make the data represented more clear and more representative (Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D., 2008).
If someone can learn solely by watching the television would probably depend on what was being learned and how clear the television program was. Young children can learn various things while watching programs like Sesame Street but often have their parents to reinforce and fine tune a skill. When I was in elementary school Spanish and French were taught using PBS classes on TV every day. When I moved schools in seventh grade I could recall a few words in French when I began a traditional French class. The current children’s program on Nickelodeon, Dora the Explorer, which has aspects of teaching Spanish to pre-schoolers, is colorful, engaging and fun and working with young children may have a key to teaching language. Programs for older kids like Beakman’s World and Bill Nye, the Science Guy were good for helping reinforce science learning and possibly did some teaching as well. I have learned some things from watching documentaries but I already had knowledge of the subject. An issue could be the slant of the program, the writers and directors put their own spin on their work so as in most cases more research would be necessary to determine accuracy. Many documentaries, on say Global Warming take an absolute position, their view is correct, not if ands or buts. I wouldn’t take the word of a documentary as absolute fact any more than I would believe everything on the internet. If a skill is hands on, like painting or ceramics, I would think television would be more a re-enforcement than actual instruction. There is no way to learn how to throw a pot on a potter's wheel without actually getting your hands muddy with clay. The differences between watching actually doing are immense. I have always been taught the principle of learning that includes “tell me, show me, let me” there is no way for the television to let me, no guided practice with feedback and no way to ask questions. If a computer monitor is equated to a television, look at the Rosetta Stone language learning software. The have added to their programs an online communication where students can converse with native speakers, a “let me”.
References:
Howser, G, & Coleman, T. (2007, February 12). Clash of the creators. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woLk7R0kzbg
Jonassen, D, Howland, J, Marra, R, & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with
technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pesrson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Kris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the video link! :)
CK