Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a tool I was not familiar with at all before this technology integration course. It seems like an extremely beneficial tool to get children involved in their own learning. Although our course assignment was to create instructional digital stories, I think my classroom implementation would be to have the students create their own digital stories. An assignment like that would build upon their 21st century skills, allowing them to be creative and active in their investigation and presentation of their project. I also loved the idea from one of our readings about developing an award show type event for the students to display their digital stories and receive awards in different categories. An event like that would encourage students to really get into the assignments and would also build on the school or grade level community. The idea of winning awards is also extremely encouraging to students.
There are many different ways students could approach the topic of their choice and I think we might find that this autonomy over their learning will really inspire them.

I found some sites that seem easy to use and would be excellent tools to implement this kind of lesson or project. Check out the "Useful Links" section below to find them!