Week 8 : Communicating Knowledge & Creative Expression (Digital Information)

Week 7: Communicating Knowledge & Creative Expression

This week, we've been examining ways in which we can help students communicate effectively and express themselves creatively. One common way of communicating in educational settings is digital storytelling (DST). Digital storytelling is like any other kind of storytelling, but it uses any of the hundreds of digital tools available.

Here is a story I created in Storybird for this week's synthesis:

Some students will gravitate more easily to storytelling, while some may be reluctant. We should aim to meet these students where they are; not all stories need to be dramatic page turners.

This is a YouTube video from a 2011 of 2nd/3rd grade classrooms using DST, (found on TED Ed)


In this video, we see students working on their plans for their stories, as well as the stories being recorded in Garage Band. We also get to see the students reflect on their favorite parts of the process. Their creativity and passions become clear.

Throughout discussions this week there were a few common ideas that came through, illustrated here through Storyboardthat (apologies for the size)



Made with Storyboard That

Overall, what Kathy Schrock says at the beginning of this week's lecture holds true: Digital storytelling must be about the story first, then the tools.

Students are the ones creating the stories, the teachers and librarians are available to assist with the tools. As such, we must encourage creativity by assessing more than just the end product. We must assess the process and the journey as well; sometimes the most important part of our stories are the journeys we embark on.

Week 6: Mobile Learning and Apps

Week 5: Curation for Teaching and Learning