"The important question for educators to ask is, "What does digital storytelling offer education?" The answer is "a great deal" if we do two things: focus on the story first and the digital medium later; and use digital storytelling to enhance students' skills in critical thinking, expository writing, and media literacy."
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Digital storytelling, along with any other technological tool for the classroom is subject to how you use it. Just teaching the skill of technology is useless to students unless you also teach them how to use it to its full potential. Also, using technology is great for the classroom, but sometimes its easy to forget that technology is meant to facilitate the learning of the subject material, not replace it. Students still need to know the content they have always needed to know, in this case literacy. Just because a student can use every tool and graphic out there to make their presentation "cool" doesn't mean they have grasped the concept of the assignment. Digital storytelling is a tool, just like any other tool you would use in the classroom. Compare digital tools to school supplies. A piece of paper and a pencil will help you write down letters to better learn the alphabet, but just knowing how to use a paper and pencil will not help you with the task of writing letters. The content that is being taught through digital media is what is important in education.
I believe technology is a great tool we as teachers can use to facilitate our subject matter. But we need to remember, students need to understand the content of what they are doing before they can apply it to any form of media, digital or not.
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I think this cartoon is a funny example of how some students let their technology and digital media focus get in the way of the content they are supposed to be learning about!
Citation:
Ohler, J. (2005, December). The World of Digital Storytelling. Educational Leadership, PDF, 44-47
Glasbergen, R. (n.d.). Education Technology | Randy Glasbergen - Today's Cartoon. TODAYS CARTOON by Randy Glasbergen. Retrieved September 13, 2011, from http://www.glasbergen.com/?s=education+technology
Your response is lack of a better word, perfect. Honestly there is little I can add. Teachers need to be able to teach the material and also use technology at the same time. They can't just throw them an internet site that has all the information or a learning program that teaches them the material. They actually have to be a teacher and teach the material not let the computer do it for them.
ReplyDeleteYou make a really great point. Technology is meant to facilitate the teaching of content, not to smother it out.
ReplyDeleteI like your post. I mentioned something similar in mine. aiaf students focus more on the technology then they are learning nothing about the subject.
ReplyDeleteI really like and agree with your post. Technology can be so consuming that at times it's easy to forget that the personal experiences and stories need to remain at the forefront. As teachers, we need to always keep this in mind. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYou make a really good point. Teachers should stress the importance of using digital storytelling as a tool in making the assignment more creative. Good post :)
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent point! I agree with you completely, children will not succeed with digital storytelling if they do not understand the basic fundamentals of storytelling first. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYour comparison of digital tools to school supplies is very creative. Your response is well written and thoughtful. I'm glad you understand the importance of content and that technology is a tool to help meet content standards and objectives.
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