Week 6: My Digital Story

Seeing as we didn't have class this past week, I will reflect on what I did for this class outside of school, which was work on the digital story.
How will my digital story help me communicate with my students? My digital story will help my students learn the benefits of recycling. The way our digital story is set up is that we have a can that is decorated to look like a girl, Candy the Can. The students follow Candy through the process of recycling, as well as going through the garbage. In the beginning of the digital story, we ask the students/viewers "What would you do with Candy?" That's a good question to use overall in the unit of recycling. Teachers using this video can easily replicate Candy using any kind of can and can use it as the "mascot" for that unit. Using my video, the students could write their own comic about Candy or any other recyclable item of their choice.
How will my digital story help me communicate with my students' parents? The parents will be able to view the video from home since it would be online. They would know what their children are learning in school and what method is being used to teach them (i.e. using technology). Parents are very protective of their children and want to know what's going on while they are at school. A lot can be done through the digital story that can be Incorporated into the home and family. They can keep a weekly log of everything they recycle as a family.
How will digital story help me collaborate with my colleagues? Other teachers in my school could use the video to teach about recycling too. We would have a competition between the classes in the school/grade to see which class can gather the most recyclable items, and whoever wins gets to take a field trip to a recycling plant and bring all of the items from the school and watch them be recycled.
In which ways might I employ my digital story to achieve classroom objectives? My video can be used to achieve any classroom objective that teaches students about recycling. Since it shows the pros of recycling and the cons of throwing out recyclable items, the students will be able to learn how to make environmentally correct decisions. By the time I teach in the classroom, the environmental crisis may be so bad that it might be more important to emphasize recycling in the classroom. My digital story can help the students learn why it is important to recycle.
What are the pros and cons of my digital story? The pros of my digital story are that it takes the students through the process of recycling as well as throwing out garbage. That way, the students can see why it is important to recycle. Another pro of my digital story is that it is geared toward a young age level with Candy the Can being the focus of it. This way, the students are more engaged in watching the video. A con of my video is that it is low quality and some students may lose interest because it was "home made". Another con of it is that it isn't interactive. The video isn't a lesson in itself, but it has to be used in a lesson to learn more information.
Video Reflection: The Millennial Generation video wasn't very accurate. The group of people they interviewed was not consistent (mostly white males). However, the things they said hit close to home with me, because my mother and I have the same cell phone and she's always asking me how to put it on speaker phone or text pictures. My father, who has his AS in computer technology (but is now over 50) has a hard time with computers today. He says they are completely different from when he learned about them in college. With the rate that technology is going, it's crazy to think about the different kinds of things that our own children will be able to use in the future.