Read how these Indiana schools are examples of best practices in action as they promote learning in their classrooms.
Everyone has a story to tell. Over the years, stories have been passed down from generation to generation orally, through drawings and in written form. Many times, these stories provided children with a knowledge base they needed to survive as an adult. Today, technology offers a unique way to capture those stories electronically. Digital storytelling is the practice of turning a narrative into a multimedia experience for the reader or listener. The teller can creatively combine words, sound, pictures and video to engage the reader. Digital stories can be as simple as a four slide story about “My Favorite Pet” written and illustrated by a first grader using Kid Pix®, to a student-produced video telling the story of grandfather’s memories of WWII. Middle school and high school students use Storytelling Alice©, Comic Life™ and Microsoft® Moviemaker to create digital stories in their English and Spanish classes. Multi-media adds a new dimension to stories with illustrations from drawing programs, scanners and digital cameras. Voice can be recorded with a microphone or sound files and imported into the story, while video can be implanted in the story or the story can become the video with editing software.
First grade students at Lost Creek Elementary, Vigo County School Corporation, created a first person narrative about the life of a tree. After students developed the script and sequence of the story, they each created a screen illustrating their part of the story with Adobe® Photo Shop® Elements. Their narrations were recorded, and the story was combined into a video that was shared at the school’s Arbor Day program. Recently, fourth and fifth grade students completed a story project on unique facts about Abraham Lincoln. They researched the facts; used digital camcorders; downloaded pictures from the Internet, carefully citing their sources; and created the story in Microsoft® PowerPoint. With the help of Adobe® Premiere® Elements, they were able to turn their creation into video captured on DVD. Karen Wells, Lost Creek Elementary’s media specialist, explains, "Students have illustrated and animated all types of stories including poetry." In an after-school club called "PowerClub," students create digital stories about animals, recycling, weather and fitness. Wells emphasizes that students make their projects "informative along with being entertaining." Through the years, she has enjoyed working with all types of software and has found that "it is amazing what students can do as they share their stories."
This article appeared in the ETC...and More! volume 2, number 9 newsletter and is published by the Buddy
Project
(Corporation for Educational Technology), in
collaboration with the Hoosier
Educational Computer
Coordinators (HECC),
Indiana Computer Educators (ICE),
the Indiana Department of Education, and Promoting Achievement through Technology and INstruction for all Students (PATINS).
Visit our BTLC Partner Web Site!
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The life of a tree is illustrated in this digital story by a Lost Creek Elementary 1st grader.
A Lost Creek Elementary student impersonates Lincoln in a little known facts’ digital story about Abraham Lincoln.
Lost Creek Elementary "PowerClub" member uses the computer to illustrate and animate story creations.
Students use Microsoft® PowerPoint to create digital stories in Lost Creek Elementary "PowerClub."
