When it came to producing my first digital storytelling project, My Educational Philosophy, I was somewhat intimidated by the boundary of length. I tend to be verbose and sometimes feel that I am not clear and succinct in my word/phrase choice. Much of my ways of communicating have been fostered and supported by the student populations I serve; in which I often have to repeat myself in different ways in order to best serve the students.
I overcame this challenge by planning via storyboarding my ideas. I considered first what my educational philosophy in one sentence was. How can I portray that sentence with image(s)? Once I expressed that philosophy, I questioned how I could add just two or three sentences to clarify or support that idea.
Images were the next issue. I knew I wanted to honor my work and those students I impact by including them in the video images. So therefore, I had to address the needs of confidentiality and media release forms.
In my media release form, I identified what the purpose of project was, what the representation would entail (identifying ideas developed through storyboard), where it would be published, and whether or not final approval would be required once the video was ready to be posted and shared.
Since, I had some experience thought “playing around” with windows movie maker, I felt less intimidated by using the program. Learning how to splice the sound, I felt like a child at Christmas time receiving that unexpected great gift. However, I had never known the appropriate use of editing tools. I learned through the process to make a sharper clearer project that would express my ideas through visualization with a more professional feel.
As a writer, I am both intrigued and excited about exploring the use of such programs to enhance my writing without distracting than the words and thoughts expressed through the written word. I look forward to taking my new skills and hopefully push myself to write and develop those writings in producing those writings with the theories and practices I am developing through the process of learning how to be a digital storyteller.
As a special education teacher, I often rely on my ability to modify and adapt curriculums and lesson plan activities to address the needs of students. The visual component, the use of technology and the creative elements of digital storytelling will be welcoming tools I utilize in my classroom more. Working with students on the Autism spectrum, the elements on projects like My Educational Philosophy production, will be a way to communicate outside the realm of the standard pencil and paper format.
Being able to communicate ideas with the use of visualizations and even incorporating music, transitional video elements and the like can be a very useful tool to a teacher who utilizes such programs like Board Maker and Picture This. The concept of Digital Storytelling addresses a need for teachers who work with secondary students to bring about more age appropriate tools to be used in the classroom.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
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