Week 4: Digital Stories

How will these skills help my students create? The whole point of this program is to have the students use their imaginations and create what they want to. Through these skills, the students will be able to portray several moods in their stories: emotional, humor, informational, etc. This program is wonderful because it allows the students to be creative in thinking what they would want to create. I know in my POD, our imaginations took off once we finally decided on a topic, and I would like nothing more than to have that same thing happen to my students. By being able to experience that feeling first-hand, I was reminded how it feels to be able to take what's in your mind and apply it to whatever you want, allowing yourself to show your creativity to the classroom and the world.
How will these skills help me collaborate with my colleagues? By using these skills, I will master them the more I use them. This way, I can share my knowledge with my colleagues and recommend this program to them to share with their students, and it will be able to spread throughout the school. I think this program can be used in any grade; either the students make individual stories (older grades) or the class as a whole can make one put together by the teacher (younger grades). This way, by sharing it with my colleagues, we could show examples made by other classes.
Why are these tools so popular with my colleagues? These tools are so popular with colleagues because they are usable in any grade, either first or tenth. They allow the students to be using their imagination, and that is so important today. If you sit the students down with worksheets about the Revolutionary War and a textbook, they can learn only so much. This involves no use of the imagination whatsoever. However, if you were to divide the class into groups and have them make group storyboards of the Revolutionary War using other resources other than the textbook, the students can use their imagination. I am a huge believer in having the students use their imaginations as often as possible.
In which ways might I employ these skills to achieve classroom objectives? I can apply these skills to any classroom objective, whether it's a spelling test or learning about the 50 states. There are many ways to achieve classroom objectives, and I would much rather choose a way that allows the students to expand their creativity and apply their knowledge of the material in a much more fun way than worksheets and tests.
What are the pros and cons of Digital Story? There are many pros of Digital Story, and the way I see it, there are much more pros than cons. As I've said repeatedly in this blog, Digital Story allows the students to use their imagination and be creative. It allows the students to explore the impact music has on a story. It also is able to be used in all age groups. The students can use it in any subject as well, from art to history to science. I feel like it is a more modern approach to a book report, and it allows the students to give their final product a personal touch. A con would be that not all students would be able to catch on to the technology as fast as other students, and if the students were to work on it in a group setting, all it takes is one person who doesn't know how to use the program and that person does nothing to help out in the group. In the same way, if there is one student who understands the program better than others, it is very possible that that student does everything on their own and the work is not distributed throughout the entire group.
Video Reflection: I really liked this video. I would totally use this in my classroom to show the students an example of a well done story. I would present it to my students in the same manner that Doc Waters did to us. I would ask the students about the mood of the video and how the music affected it. I would use this as an example of how music can completely change the feel of a story. I would play a portion of the video again but with happy music in the background, and ask them how the change in music changed the feel of the video. I think that would really make the students think about what music would be best to put to their story.