What is Digital Storytelling?

Photo by Jeff Mottle

What is Digital Storytelling?

The article( 7 things you should know about) is saying that Digital Storytelling is 'the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to creat a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component. And another article(The Education Uses of Digital Storytelling) is saying that Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-bease tools to tell stories.

In fact, every story has many effects to people's mind. That can pursuade other people, make them think about some subject and give some lessons. That means it has intention for pursuading or impanting their thoughts. According to the article of 'The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling', digital stories usually focus on a specific topic and contain a particlular point of view. Also the article of 7 things you should know about Digital Storytelling is telling that people tell stories to teach beliefs and values to others. Therefore this tool is a good way to spreading storyteller's idea because it includes various materials such as images, video, sounds, etc.


How can I use this tool in my class?

The most effective and strongest way for the students to improve their language skill is make them have interest about learning the language. How could we make this possible? I think one of the solution is using the digital storytelling. Children love stories and of course the adults love stories, too. If they can make their own stories about their own intrests, its result would be quite amazing.
Even though the students have to spend much time to make this Digital storytelling, I think if they can feel intrests, they would not care about the time. While they are making digital stories, they can practice vocabularies, listening, reading, writing and speaking skills in meaningful ways. Also teacher would enjoy reading the students stories and the students can learn many thing through reading other students' digital stories. Also this can be enhance the students' social interaction skills.
If I can teach the students, I will ask the students to make their own digital stories and share them within the class. The whole class give feedback to other classmates' digital stories and I will give the feedbacks too. And also we can find the most wonderful digital stories in a class, and then I can give the prize the winner. That can also give motivation for the students.

How I can use microblogs for my own professional development or for teaching

Microblogs( especially Twitter) can be the good way for teaching second language. When I am going to teach English, I will  use  microblogs  like below.

First, I am going to use Twitter for practicing translation like Ideas for Twitter in the Foreign language classroom. This can be a part of reading class. If I write one target sentence in the Twitter, the students have to translate it in their first language. Also I can make the students practice vocabulary and grammar with this sentence. For example, the students can write the new words in the sentence and they also can make the other sentences using this target structure of this sentence. With only one sentence, I can make the students practice a lot using the Twitter. In addition, I can give the feedback instantly in Twitter.

Also, I am going to use this  as a class announcement board like 28 creative ways teachers using Twitter. We don’t have to write down in the blackboard and we don’t have to say them in class. If some students miss the class or were absent, they could read the announcement in Twitter. The more fantastic thing is that we can change them whenever I need that. In addition, I can ask the students to give feedback of the announcement for checking them whether they read or not. This can be a very convenient medium for class announcement. Furthermore the parents can see the class announcement, they can help their children if they were young.

Lastly, I am going to use Twitter as a tool of communication between classes. When I do this, I can use hastag for them to discuss about the topics. If set up a certain hastag, the students could say their opinions there. Even though they are shy students, they can say their opinions without hesitation in Twitter. Therefore this is an wonderful tool for class discussion. Of course the teacher and other students can comment their opinions to the student’s opinion.

There are so many other ways to use microblogs, I will find out and try to make my own methods. Of course If I could think of new methods, I will spread this out using my Twitter.