Last night, Stacey & I put together our first digital story. Although it is quite rough, a bit cheesy, and borderline ridiculous — the benefits far outweigh the potential embarrassing consequences of posting it. Between then and now, I’ve thought about the process that we engaged in while creating our digital story, as well as some of the rewards. Here it goes — in list form — because I have to leave for a session!
- It was FUN. I hesitate to list this as a reason, however, I believe it is a compelling one. We had FUN. Storytelling should be fun. Engaging in storytelling with another person should be fun. If, for some reason, the overall experience is not fun for my students, then that should be a red flag.
- It was CHALLENGING. I’d only dabbled in the program and it was the first time Stacey had opened the program. It was challenging to get it to do what we wanted . . . however, this was part of the fun. We were able to record our voices, make it longer, rearrange the photos. We weren’t able to input our video — but that is something we’ll figure out as time goes on (perhaps with one of the numerous online tutorials.) The challenge is a key to the fun. Our students need to feel challenged.
- It was a bit FRUSTRATING. When uploading to the web, we had to try many different avenues of approach. After completing the same form a number of times, we were frustrated. However, we took a step back, tried in one more time and CHEERED when we got it right.
Finally, through collaboration and the shared experienced, it made us closer colleagues. Perhaps this is often the missing piece in classrooms — this shared experience which links colleagues, friends, students in a classroom. I can’t wait to try this out when I return to Indiana.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 