Over the past few weeks we have been discussing the many aspects and benefits of using Digital Storytelling in the K-12 environment. We have explored possible classroom applications for this technology and have looked at the various tools used in creating digital stories. Wouldn't it also be useful to have a digital storytelling lesson plan outline? In January 2002 a new series premiered on PBS called American Family - Journey of Dreams. This series tells the dramatic story of a Latino family living in America today. As a part of it promotion of this series, PBS is also encouraging students to tell the story of their own families through multimedia storytelling, which includes digital storytelling as well. Through this website, PBS provides a Teacher's Guide which includes objectives, materials, a detailed procedure, and assessment recommendations for a multimedia storytelling lesson plan. This guide is based upon the American Family project, but it is general enough to be used with any topic you wish your students to explore.
Would you use this guide in creating your own digital storytelling lesson plan? If not, why? If so, what aspects of the lesson plan do you think would be most useful to you and why?
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3 comments:
I would absolutely use the guide. I like that it is not so linked to the PBS series that teachers reading it would feel they need their students to watch the entire series to do a storytelling project.
And it is always nice when someone else finds the corresponding learning standards!
I also think that this guide looks like a great place to start a lesson plan on doing digital storytelling. Although some of what is covered in the guide is specific to the American Family program, much of it can easily be generalized.
Many of the steps in the "Procedure" section of the guide really just break down to what seems to be good advice for one's first digital storytelling effort. For instance, step one seems to mostly just be encouraging teachers to have the students start small. Certainly, this is good advice for anyone embarking on their first digital story, whether or not it's affiliated with the American Family show.
I would also use this guide. It really makes the process of teaching students how to create a digital story feasible for someone without having made one myself-though I would definitely make a few myself first!!
As a TL, I think this would be a great collaborative unit with a classroom teacher.
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