Playing with Digital Storytelling by Mary Morrison and Elisabeth Lawrence

I’m always looking for teachers that are willing to play with new technology. I love technology inte- gration as much as the students love working on technology projects. Every year I pick one project to play with and fine tune. I try to pick something that will work across the curriculum and then find a teacher who is willing to give it a try with me. This year I’ve been playing with digital storytelling.

My first attempt was in June 2009 with an elective class of thirty middle school students. A social stud- ies teacher planning to have her students investigate an historical figure from the 1960s and write a re- search paper approached me to help her update this project with technology. I viewed this as an opportunity to not only integrate technology but the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner, as well.

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Students researched their historical figure in the li- brary, cited their sources in NoodleTools and wrote a script from their research. We explained to students that they didn’t have to write a typical research pa- per and they could be as creative as they wished. Using Audacity, students recorded their script and then selected royalty-free music from Soundzabound that would complement and enhance their narra- tion. Next, the students went to the Internet and found pictures that complemented their score, cited their sources, and saved them. When all of these components were saved, they imported their files into Windows Movie Maker and edited it to make a movie about their historical figure. The first attempt was a huge success. Students worked collabora- tively in groups of two or three. Students were en- gaged throughout the whole process and at the end, when we shared each project, the class favorite was a rap written about Jacqueline Onassis. When it fin- ished playing the first time there was a hush in the room and then someone said, “Play it again!”, and we did…twice! As the students left the room, they were all rapping about Jackie O!

I was sold. At the beginning of this school year, Media www.mimame.org

“I viewed this as an opportunity to not only integrate technology but the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner, as well.”

an 8th grade math teacher wanted to give digital storytelling a try using her core curriculum class so we made a few changes. The students were to take a math concept they learned and create a children’s digital storybook that would be shared with elemen- tary school students. The students chose their con- cept and wrote a story using a storyboard graphic organizer where they completed a sketch of each pic- ture and wrote dialogue. The completed organizer was approved by the math teacher and brought to the media center where students illustrated their pic- tures using free software, Drawing for Children, which can be downloaded from the internet. Students re- corded their narration using Audacity and selected music to import from Soundzabound. They saved their narration and music as a single audio file in their source folder. Us- ing Windows Movie Maker,

students uploaded their digital drawings and sound track and edited their movies.

A Social Studies teacher heard about this project and decided it would be the perfect way to change up her Capstone benchmark. In this project, we introduced the ethical and responsible use of photographs from Creative Commons that would support and enhance their narrated story.

So you are probably wondering, how do I get teach- ers to join in on the technology fun? I stress to my coworkers that I will teach and assess the technology part of the project; they are responsible for the core content. I offer to join them in their classrooms to answer student questions. The first time we teach a project, I have the teacher sit in the classroom as a stu- dent so they can walk through the technology piece with their students. Finally, at the end of each project, I make sure to find time to sit down with the teach- ers and get an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the project. We talk about how we can improve the project for the next time.

This winter, I worked collaboratively with Library and Information Science student, Elisabeth Law-

Spring 2010