Digital Story
Why is this story worth telling? What does it contribute to learning? What is my pedagogical rationale for doing this?
The story I chose to tell was a personal introduction to use in my online college courses. I wanted to share a bit of “me” with my students, to begin the process of building relationships and opening doors for communication with my students. By providing a glimpse of my life outside of work, I hope to provide opportunities for my students to connect with me and get a sense of who I am. With online learning, building in opportunities to interact and share with each other helps to establish a more open and trusting learning environment. The more meaningful interactions that occur (as early in the course as possible!) the more students feel connected to both course content and to me. Establishing positive relationships with students provides an important foundation for learning to take place. By providing the story of my life outside of work, I hope to open doors for more personal interaction with my students.
Chickering and Ehrmann (1996) discuss principles of “good practice”. One principle is to encourage contact between students and instructors. My digital story, and the interactive discussions that follow, will help foster communication between my students and me.
The International Society for Technology in Education’s “Nets for Teachers” (2006) document identifies a variety of competencies that support my rationale for choosing a digital story to introduce myself to students:
- Facilitates and inspires student learning and creativity
- Models digital-age work and learning
- Promotes and models digital citizenship and responsibility
A digital story, such as the one I created using Animoto, provides a model for students in all three of these ways. Not only do I present information in a creative digital format, but I also provide an example of how to present digital information in an ethical way that respects copyright laws.
Anderson (2008) discusses the importance of online learning being community-centred. Social interaction is a vital part of online learning. I want to build more social interaction into my courses, and by providing my digital story at the beginning of my course, I provide a more powerful starting point for building community. If I model some risk taking, in terms of sharing bits of my life and my ideas with students, I hope they will in turn been encouraged to do likewise.
Why was this the right tool for me to use to tell my story?
When I first looked at Levine’s (2007) “50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story” I wasn’t sure where to begin. What an amazing list of resources! I looked at a variety of tools, and then settled on Animoto to tell my story.
I wanted to share a lot of pictures with my students. The old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words” can be oh so true! I wanted my students to get a sense of who I am. Animoto provided me with the framework to share a lot of images, chose from an adequate range of music, and add limited but powerful text to convey my story. It was easy and effective.
Before committing to using Animoto, I did analyze it using the “SECTIONS” model by Bates and Poole (2003). The decision to go ahead and use this tool for telling my digital story was supported by several sections of this framework. In particular, the following elements reinforce my rationale for telling my story using Animoto:
- Ease of use – Animoto is extremely easy to create and edit
- Cost – Animoto is free for a 30 second clip, and very reasonably priced for a one-year license to use
- Interactivtiy – Animoto allowed me to create a story to share with students
- Speed – Animoto enabled me to create my story in a very short period of time
What are the strengths of a storytelling approach? Limitations?
The strengths of a storytelling approach include:
- Creates a multi-sensory presentation (words, images, and sounds)
- Increases digital literacy
- Allows students/teachers to present information using their own learning style
- Encourages creativity
- Promotes self-reflection
- Provides a more memorable presentation than text-only
- Many free tools
- Can be very motivating
- Promotes community building
- Provides authentic material
- Can be published online easily
Potential limitations include:
- Technical difficulties
- Can be time consuming (I “played” for way too long!)
- May be challenging to use for complex topics
- Can be challenging to assess (developing good rubrics will help)
- Copyright issues
References:
Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and Practice of online Learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Retrieved June 14, 2011 from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/02 Anderson_2008_Anderson_Online Learning.pdf
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: A framework for selecting and using technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Chickering, A & Ehrmann, S. (1996). Implementing the seven principles: Technology as lever. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 49(2), p. 3-6.
International Society for Technology in Education. (2008). National educational technology standards for teachers. Retrieved June 6, 2011 from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-teachers/nets-for-teachers-2008.aspx
Levine, A. (2007). 50 Web 2.0 ways to tell a story. Retrieved July 13, 2011 from http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
