Creativity is the force that gets me up in the morning and keeps blood pumping through my veins. It is the horsepower in my engine that keeps me going to new and exciting places. However, I long ago understood that in terms of school, creativity must often take a backseat to the demands of knowledge and understanding. Now, I have always been able to study like a fiend, and discuss theories and ideas at length, but nothing makes me happier than actually creating something of value and worth beyond a term paper. This could be something practical (sewing together a new change purse), something silly (spray-painting plastic dinosaurs to act as Christmas ornaments), or even something nourishing (a hearty dinner of braised short ribs in red wine). All of these things make me happy because I am actually applying knowledge gained and skills developed. In the end of each of these things I have a product to look upon and be proud of. To that end, I have to admit this is the most excited I’ve been to do schoolwork in a very long time. This week, my job was to take all of the ridiculously informative and helpful information from the textbook, websites linked without our given module and wonderful examples, and somehow create my very own piece of digital storytelling.
What is digital storytelling, you ask? Well, before this week, I probably would have cribbed together some lame definition along the lines of a lecture on video or a PowerPoint presentation with an exciting soundtrack. In all fairness, I’m not entirely off, but I was lacking a lot of concrete understanding on the subject. Thankfully, this week’s module provided a fantastic little video to get the ball rolling for me. It is so good, in fact, that I feel it must be included here so that the full weight of my activity reflection can be felt.
Fantastic! One of the things I like most about this video is that it didn’t need a lot of complex elements to get the point across. From here, I dove into this week’s chapter to get a better understanding of why this foray into technology is at all necessary or important to my becoming a better teacher. After much discussion about the different media applications and education software, I was struck by this quote: “One of the main reasons for teachers to utilize digital media software in the classroom is that it appeals to a variety of learning styles. Helping every student learn in her own, unique way ensures success for all students. Digital media software applications assist teachers in meeting diverse learning styles by combining interactive software integrated with teaching strategies to enhance the learning process. Furthermore, digital media software is engaging and motivational for today’s digital students…Highly motivated students that are engaged in their learning have been directly linked to an increase in student outcomes and reduced dropout rates. Keeping students interested in learning increases student achievement” (Shelly & Gunter, 2010).
Clearly, I could never have said this better myself. One of the things that keeps me coming back to the education world is the sheer possibility of creativity. With digital storytelling, the options are just about endless. No matter what subject, grade level, student age, background knowledge or even time constraint, digital storytelling can bring knowledge and understanding in an exceptional way.
Now, the goal beyond this was to take this week’s reading, the video, and my own knowledge to create my very own piece of digital storytelling using a wonderful tool called Prezi . Should I have stuck with the familiar Microsoft PowerPoint? Pfft. A great tool for many, but I was in the mood for something new. I’ve never had the opportunity to make a presentation so visual, so fluid and so eye-catching. After watching the Prezi introductory video, and following the helpful steps to get me started, I began work on my own Prezi. Ahh, creativity; I can feel it flowing down my fingers and do its magic with my laptop. What should I include? What text/images/video? How to format and what path or flow to choose? Hours were spent typing, scrolling and inserting. True to my expectations, my confluence of creativity with knowledge was exciting and satisfying. I’m already itching to create new Prezi presentations for my other Ed. Tech. course and even beyond. I could easily use these tools for my everyday work, and even beyond that, like making a video to document my favorite recipes. Since my goal is towards Adult Education/Corporate Training, I honestly feel that the practice I had this week will seriously open up my creativity veins to change the way I teach from now on.
Now let me kill the suspense and embed this puppy in for any and all to enjoy (and hopefully learn from).
You stated "Creativity is the force that gets me up in the morning and keeps blood pumping through my veins. It is the horsepower in my engine that keeps me going to new and exciting places. " I couldn't agree more! I was also very excited about the chance to be creative with this project and in turn wondered if students feel the same way. Should we as teachers provide them with different and more creative assignment options to help foster a love of learning?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your Prezi presentation and felt it was very detailed. You gave a great explanation of what digital storytelling is and how to use it. You did a great job of seamlessly integrating pictures and video into the presentation. It showed me all the different things I can do with Prezi and perhaps I'll try to use it in the future myself!
Julie,
ReplyDeleteOnce again I am impressed with your creativity; I loved the colorful animation and what you had to say. It was a perfect way to explain what digital story telling is and how affective it can and how it’s used. Not only in the classroom but as you explained it can be used in corporate training as well. I was intimidated to use Prezi and so I opted for the traditional Power Point. For my next project though I want to challenge my self and use Prezi, I used Slide Share because it let me use Power Point and then upload it to their site. It was simpler and took less time, the end result though was missing more animation, and so the next one will be more animation and video in it. I hope that in doing a more challenging program, I can teach my class to challenge them selves and create a wonderful digital story that they would be proud to share with the rest of the class.
Nicely worded! I love your attitude towards this project for sure! I think creativity is the fingerprint that we leave behind. Without it, what a plain and bland world it would be. I know that this was all new for me, but it was so much fun. I learned words that I never knew existed. I love your digital story presentation. Your use of great fonts and graphics definitely makes for an eye-catching presentation. Your creativity is clear and shows that you are great at this. I'm glad you were in the mood for something new and can't wait to see what other creative things you can do:)
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