As I have worked my way through the Educational Technology
program at UCF, several of our courses have focused on various type of Digital
Storytelling. We have covered Me Story, Digital Booktalk, and Change Story
while exploring effective technological techniques and processes to create
quality products. While developing our products, we learned the valuable
learning experiences and achievement benefits students gain by researching,
creating, and presenting their digital stories and evaluating the stories
created by their peers. For me, however, as a math teacher, I understood the
value of Digital Storytelling in terms of improving literacy, but had been
(until recently) skeptical about seeing such results with mathematical content.
However, after extensively researching the topic, I found evidence that story
could possible prove equally effective in a mathematics class; not just the
language arts.
The beauty of storytelling is the fact that most find high
levels of familiarity in telling a story; it is the way we talk, interact, and
often relay information. How this can be applied a mathematical sense is
integrating a story (maybe a personal experience) with a real-world high school
mathematical problem or concept. In my classes, I envision my students correlating
elements of story with a real-world mathematical concept to create a Digital
Story. Their end product should tell a story while applying mathematics to a
real-world problem while containing instructional value by providing a solution
to the problem. Difficult? Maybe, but not impossible.
The biggest obstacle to overcome will not likely be the math
concepts, but the creation of the digital story. My students, while in the
process of learning, are not as proficient in the media creating area, as we
will need. With that being said, I would incorporate progress checkpoints for
key pieces of the final project. These checkpoints would include a developed
story (with correlated real-world mathematics connection), a storyboard, the
associated audio piece, and a complete rough draft before the final submission.
Of course, each element would be evaluated for accuracy and content using a
predetermined rubric.
Keeping in mind the technology levels of my students, I
would plan to have a sub-lesson for each section of the project prior to the
checkpoint. The lesson must begin with some sort of explanation as to why we’re
doing this. (Not my favorite question to be asked, but important to answer
nonetheless.) This article
gives a quick and easy explanation
as to the value of using Digital Storytelling in the classroom to reach
students in the YouTube Generation. To ensure a high quality product, in
addition to teaching content, each piece of the Digital Story would have a
lesson involved to thoroughly explain its importance in the overall process. I
would include suggestions on appropriate tools to use for each portion,
examples of high-quality products in addition to self-generated “How-to” tutorials
of me using my preferred creation tools. While I would encourage my students to
use the tools I suggested, there is value in having them search for their own
tools, applications, and sites to support them in their process. Websites like Go2web20,
Discover Education, and Cool Tools for Schools offer NUMEROUS links to Web 2.0 tools
that will support them in each step of the creation process, and often have
instructions or tutorial on how to easily and effectively use their site.
