The first assignment in which I “created” a power point presentation, although not a “pure” example of digital story telling was my first foray into the world of digital media as a resource to impart information. In 2007 during my Masters in Curriculum and Administration, we were asked to create a project that would communicate our thoughts on leadership. I chose to compare the leadership styles of Star Trek individuals in command from Captain Kirk thru to Captain Janeway. I remember spending days – hours, creating that powerpoint. I could not wait for the time availability to work on the project and had great difficulty ceasing work and calling the project “done”. With the help of one of my grade six students I was able to add audio and video. I was empowered and proud.
For some of my MET courses I have been asked to create assignments using various media tools. I have experienced the same engagement and creative satisfaction that I experienced in 2007. Wonderful! This is what I want for my grade school students and for my teacher candidates.
There are those of us who love to write. I am one of those (given a topic for which I have knowledge and passion). As we experience in our classrooms, there are those of us who do not love to write. In years past those were the students who struggled through our classes and struggled through school. Now . . . the times have changed. No longer do students need to use the written word to demonstrate their learning and their creativity. Now, students can use all manner of tools to communicate.
As public education strives to provide individualized, differentiated, inquiry and project based facilitated learning and representations of learning, digital story telling and the multitude of tools which can be employed to accomplish the task are the engaging and transformative tools that will help us marry the learner of today and the world of today.