What's Your Story?!

Digital storytelling is something that I have previously seen used in the classroom. However, I did not further explore the concept and its various uses within the classroom. I was exposed to digital storytelling when I was subbing in an ESL classroom. The students were using Storybird to create their own stories and poems using pictures. It was very interesting and the students seemed to enjoy the activity because it allowed them to be creative and choose from all different pictures.

In the article, 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, I learned a lot more about digital storytelling including why its significant, what the downsides are, and also what the implications on teaching include. To begin, I would like to define digital storytelling according to the article as, "the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional content." This allows students to use dynamic sources of media to tell and create ownership of their own personal narratives. "People tell stories to teach beliefs and values to others." Through digital storytelling sites and tools, students can tell these stories of importance to other people. This would be a great way to boost implicit motivation within the classroom because students are creating something of personal value. However, this article does mention a downside of digital storytelling. This downside is due to the fact that creating these digital stories is more difficult than it appears and often leads to students copying or mirroring the stories of others. This is important to keep in mind when using digital stories in the classroom because it may take a lot of planning, time, and guidance by the teacher. An interesting implication of this tool as suggested in the article is the ways it allows technology to be applied to nontechnical disciplines such as history.

I also visited the site, Center for Digital Storytelling. This site was very interesting because it gave examples of digital storytelling which are very meaningful and emotional. Also, it provides assistance with the user's storytelling needs whether it be for education, advocacy, community, or more. They "partner with organizations around the world to develop programs which support individuals in rediscovering how to listen to each other and share first person stories." I think this site is a great way to look at various uses of digital storytelling and to discover ways to use it for teaching purposes.

Overall, I think digital storytelling is really interesting and it brings an emotional and personal element to the classroom. This is extremely important in the ESL classroom as students bring different cultures, experiences, and narratives to the classroom. Digital storytelling provides an engaging interface for students to represent themselves and their story through media and words.

Classroom Tweets!

This past week I have learned a lot about Twitter in relation to teaching. I gained a lot of important information from two articles titled, A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom and Primary Perspective. These articles each provided tips and examples of how to use twitter in the classroom.

In A Must Have Guide on Using Twitter in your Classroom, there are a lot of great ideas for ways to use Twitter with your students. The site notes different areas where Twitter can be useful, including communication, organization, resources, and writing skills. The site then demonstrates different ways in which a teacher can promote these elements of education using Twitter. There are a couple great suggestions for using Twitter as communication that I really liked. For example, using Twitter as a way to have open office hours at all times of the day. Also, it can be used to silence students who often blurt out comments because now they can tweet them instead. A unique idea provided on this site is to use Twitter as a way to keep parents notified and up to date on what their children are learning. I think this is a great idea because it allows parents to feel involved and it provides them a chance to be a part of their child's learning and also connect easily with the teacher.

In Primary Perspective, the author discusses how she used Twitter with her 1st grade class. She uses a lot of graphics with her writing in order to show exactly how she did different things with Twitter for her class. It was very helpful to see the exact ways in which she Tweeted with her students. It provided a lot of insight into making the classroom a global experience. I like that she used Twitter to contact both parents of her students and professionals in different fields that her class was studying. She specifically states that she uses Twitter to show her students that they have a voice and that the world is listening to it. I liked this idea a lot and I liked that her students were able to learn about various perspectives and cultures. I think this would be a great tool for the ESL classroom because it allows for a global perspective and can help facilitate intercultural competence through Twitter.

Overall, I would love to use Twitter with my future ESL students. I think it could make the classroom a really interactive place and allow students to form global perspectives. This would be a great idea especially in the middle or high schools when students most likely will already have Twitter accounts of their own. It is a great way to keep in contact with students and learn from professionals all around the world!