Teaching With Digital Stories

The following is a sample of what my group has done with digital stories:

For my final lesson plan, I decided to incorporate digital stories. I feel that after using Photo Story 3 with my TE401 group, we were able to easily create a 5 minute lesson. Upon observing in my field placement, I have seen students use laptops and cameras at the 3rd and 4th grade level. They are fully capable of producing products to share with the whole class. I think that digital stories are a great way for groups of students to work together to form a better understanding of one particular focus.

If you are working on a unit with a lot of content, you can divide specific areas up amongst groups and have each group focus on one particular idea. They can use photos to upload onto each slide and move them according to how they want their story to flow. They can then click on each picture and record their voices very easily. This does require a microphone, but many laptops and computers have them inside the schools. Once the students are able to play back their recording they can decide to redo it, or move on to the next slide. If they want their voice to carry over multiple slides they just have to click on each picture as they go. When they are finished recording their voices, they can chose to add music as a background. Some of the music can be distracting, but others are fun for the students to include.

After their final presentations are ready, this is a great way for students to present their hard work. By showing each digital story to the whole class, students can engage in their classmates work and take notes on what they have found. This also covers all of the material needed and allowed each group to produce something rewarding. This can also be uploaded to the internet for parents to view from their own homes. Students can share their work with their families in the click of a button.