Digital Storytelling

Reading the article, "Young Children and Computers: Storytelling and Learning in a Digital Age," inspired and excited me to find ways to incorporate different modalities to help students create stories in my classroom. As part of our Language curriculum, students write their own fairy tales at the end of the year. After much practice understanding the structure of the fairy tale, students write and illustrate their own fairy tales. I can see my students creating their drawings in various software programs, and then either writing the story or recording their story to accompany the illustrations. This would be incredibly helpful for students who struggle with graphomotor issues, allowing them to focus on their ideas, drawing, details, and story rather than on the writing/drawing aspect.

Last year our Social Studies curriculum was Community. We had students use Pixie to illustrate a Community Alphabet book: after reading this article, I think there is a way to take a project like this to another level by doing an audio recording to accompany the illustration. This year, we study Neighborhood. I could see my students creating their own story based an assigned topic (specific job in the neighborhood). They could record a story about the role of neighborhood worker, what tools they use, etc.

I was also intrigued by the idea of blogging as a reflection tool as set forth in the article, “High Tech Reflection Strategies Making Learning Stick," but am curious how this would work for students aged 5 & 6. I am still pondering how this would work, and how I would scaffold it. At Bank Street, we constantly about the importance of reflection, so the ability to incorporate technology as a means of reflection and assessment is extremely exciting.