Digital+Storytelling+Unit

Digital Storytelling Unit Unit Overview : To allow you to 'tell your story' in an interactive and engaging manner, we will begin a Digital Storytelling Unit. Your stories will be non-fiction (of course we all know that means 'true') and will come from your own personal experiences or experiences of someone you know or meet. Think of something fun (or funny) that happened to you. Maybe you had a bad experience, but, it allowed you to grow or learn. Tell your story! We are ALL EARS! Do you have a relative or neighbor that is interesting or did something interesting? An army veteran? An unusual career choice? Did someone meet someone famous every? An inventor or scientist? Everyone has a story! Think about interview that person or tell your OWN STORY! Are you curious about something or someone? Do some research. We want to hear your story! What is Digital Storytelling? from Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_storytelling) "Digital Storytelling" is an emerging term, one that arises from a [|grassroots] movement that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally engaging form. These stories usually take the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes) and can involve interactivity.

Want to learn more about Digital Storytelling? Here are some GREAT LINKS: Web 2.0 Tools that we will use for this unit:
 * 10 things Learned from Digital Storytelling
 * Storytelling Center
 * Teach Digital
 * Mixbook - At Mixbook.com, students can create an online "digital scrapbook " to tell their story. Students upload images and enter text. Then also can add 'stickers' and 'extras' to decorate and embellish their page. The final product will be PUBLISHED! into a Wiki page for assessment  and to create a sense of ownership and engagement . Students can NOT record their voice in Mixbook. A login is required and will be provided for students. An example is below. To learn more about Mixbook go to the site or click here.
 * VoiceThread - VoiceThread is an online tool that has many applications. Students can upload one or many images to tell their story. Each image, or page, can include a voice recording for narration. Students can also use the 'Doodle' tool to annotate - or draw - on the image to help tell their story or describe something in an image. Additinally, in Voicethread anyone (parents, students, relatives...EVEN TEACHERS) can 'comment' on your work. A VoiceThread example is below. Final products can be PUBLISHED! into a Wiki page for assessment and to create a sense of ownership and engagement. A login is required and will be provided for students. To learn more about VoiceThread go to the site or click here.

How will this Unit work?
 * Student will first need to get a creative idea to tell about. One that 'excites' them will develop into a better end-product.**

Step 1: Students should use a graphic organizer (paper and pencil method, Inspiration or Webspiration - which is an online version of Inspiration - and it is amazing!) to begin to outline or graph their story. Step 2. Students need to get story written, edited and approved. Include in writing a focus (i.e., descriptive words, moral of story, ...) What is the focus of the unit. Step 3. Students will decide on Web 2,0 Tool and will get their login. To begin to add to their own learning students will explore their tool. Questions? Find an expert in the room. That could be you. Can you explore this tool at home? Yes, this is a web-based activity which encourages Anytime, Anywhere Learning. Step 4. Students will need to begin gathering images. Some images can come directly from a camera, or scanned images too. Images can be brought to school using a jump drive as well. Step 5. Students will begin to upload images and text (or voice) into their tool. Practice good communication skills if using VoiceThread: Speak Clearly and enthusiastically. ENGAGE your audience. Step 6. When you have a finished product, PUBLISH! your product to your Wiki page.

Examples of Mixbook and VoiceThread:

This is an example of Mixbook. The student who wrote this Digital Story told about a very humorous TRUE! story that happened to her. She learned a great lesson from it - find out what she learned from this experience: media type="custom" key="6524903"

This is an example of VoiceThread. The student who wrote this Digital Story told about a funny family vacation experience: media type="custom" key="6524889"