Digital Storytelling

The creation of a digital story was one of the most rewarding projects that I have worked on during my Masters of Arts in Teaching. For this assignment, we were asked to create a story in our content area that was interesting. Although "interesting" was not the only requirement, it was the most important element covered. It is easy to create a boring story, but to create a truly compelling story, there must be conflict, and hopefully a moral learned at the end.

To create a story with these very important elements, a story map is a useful tool. When using a story map, changes in the plot are drawn out using visuals and main ideas. When a story begins with a good map, it is sure to be a success. As a teacher, using this in a classroom, I would require my students to have their story maps approved before production to ensure a quality end product.

When deciding to use technology in teaching, thought must be given to how the project will be graded. To help with this I created a rubric. This rubric would be handed out at the beginning of the project to give the students an idea of how they would be graded. I wanted my rubric to be specific enough to encourage the creation of good stories, but not so specific that the students would not be able to be creative.

This process helped me to understand the pitfalls that may effect students who would be part of a project like this in one of my classes. Some troubles I had were a poor camera to take pictures of my drawings, and also an out-of-order scanner at the University. This effected the quality of my pictures, and might be a problem for others as well.

Even with some minor problems in production, I was able to create a story that I am proud of called Bear Finds a Place to Sleep.