Thing 10: Digital Storytelling

Shawn's post inspired me to look at Thing 10! Shows the power of an RSS feed and reading other people's blogs!

I would say that history day is a time when many of my students engage in digital storytelling. The documentaries that they create show in-depth analysis of their topic. I've always wanted to assign a documentary project at the beginning of the year so that ALL kids are exposed to this medium. However, it is way beyond my comfort zone and so I have not yet taken the plunge. I know that my wonderful media specialist and my tech coordinator would be willing to help. I just haven't taken that step yet.

I thought that a couple of the sites mentioned in the directions for thing 10 sounded very promising. Awesomestories.com is a really interesting site for primary documents. They have different categories of stories including biographies, disasters, and history. I took a brief look at the story of Joan of Arc. These digital stories includes primary sources, so when it says that "Joan of Arc was put on trial" a person can click on "trial" and read the court transcripts. I put a tag on this site in my delicious account. Very promising for a history teacher!

I also could see myself using ourstory.com in the future. I would love for each of my advisees to create a story about themselves in the form of a timeline. they could include what they have already experienced as well as what they hope for the future in regards to their education and career. This will be a nice compliment to the new advisory curriculum that we will have next year. These timelines would be a great thing to share at student-led conferences.