The Power of Digital Storytelling
When I think how digital story telling might benefit my students, the possibilities are endless! I am a media specialist so much of my role is reading and storytelling to grade levels kindergarten through fifth grade. Our students in the 21st century are bombarded with technology moment by moment, from cell phones, TVs, cameras, and computers, to MP3 players and hand held video games. We as digital immigrants, must meet them where they are, as digital natives. In other words, we must use digital technology because it is engaging and relevant to the 21st century world our students live in. Digital story telling gets students’ attention, and helps them learn quicker, and retain more. When students themselves create digital stories, it can help with developing their writing skills, as well as their creativity. I’ve done research projects with students in the library where they make a final presentation and present what they learned in the form of a power point presentation, which is a form of digital story telling. I’ve even done digital story telling with students as young as kindergarten! It’s engaging and the students love it! Because they love it they really pay attention, get involved, interact, learn, and retain information. Here is a power point digital story I created for a “stranger danger” lesson I teach with kindergarteners.
