Everybody loves sharing stories -whether it is about something that they have read, seen or heard. It can be fact or made up.
I've been quite lucky through personal experience and radio training at University to be already exposed to tools that allow us to share stories in a digital format. For example I was taught to use a professional voice recorder and edit the mp3 file using audacity.
The big advantage of digital storytelling is that it allows for creativity. There are many ways that students can use the tools to express themselves as they learn.
I had a go with Animoto to create a photo slide presentation of Pyrmont which is used by Stage 5 and Stage 6 Geography students. It is often used as a case study as part of urban growth and development in their respective stages.
I was disappointed in what you could do with Animoto. For instance I wanted to add text to support the photos (all taken by me), but was limited in the number of characters that could be used. I could only use 30 characters for each slide. In the end I left it out.
Here is the video that I created:
I'm a big fan of Imovie. I created this short movie three years ago to give Stage 5 History students an overview of the Great Depression in Australia using a comic strip that I came across.
The students liked it. I think they were impressed by my storytelling skills.
From my experience, I have found that students do enjoy tasks that allow them to present stories digitally. They enjoy experimenting with the features that are available to them in movie making software. It allows for creativeness and is a fun method of understanding new concepts and knowledge. Also many are familar with the technology itself. For instance some enjoy making movies in their leisure time. It may be filmed on their phone, camera or laptop. They may edit it using Imovie to create a personal touch and then host it online on video hosting websites like youtube for the world to see. As teachers digital storytelling allows us to cater for student interest in digital technology and engaging in their interest and/or skills to express their learning.
