Digital Storytelling

I really enjoyed the videos on the digital storytelling.  I got really excited because I realized that it is something that I am already doing in my class. I first started with my own two boys.  (guinea pigs?) When my youngest son was in the fifth grade he had to do a report on the Plains Indians. He had to pick two areas to cover in his report.  He picked how they lived and how they hunted.  It was only suppose to be one and a half pages.  It turned out to be a 11 minute video.  He learned a lot but he also was able to put a picture with what he was saying.  He not only wrote about the Plain Indians he understood what he was writing about.  I feel that by the time he finished this video he really understood what he was studying.
When I started to try something similar in my own class, I was a little worried.  They were only second graders and still learning to read and write.  Its really hard to get some second graders to write. My first project was a I am poem. They wrote a poem about themselves and then found pictures to illustrate their poems.  It turned out so well that at Thanksgiving I had them write a poem about what they were thankful for and about Thanksgiving.  I had one little girl who worked on her project all by herself and was really quiet about it.  It was almost a secret.  When she turned in her poem it was so cute!  She had some spelling errors but she  was the first in the class to add a little voice over.  She figured it out herself.  She then became a little helper showing others how to do that.  She became the expert. I don't think these kids really knew how much writing they were doing!
I continued to do more projects.  I was really surprised that they students loved doing them so much.  I thought that they would get a little bored of making these movies and start to complain. They were always eager to start a new one.
The great thing about digital storytelling is that it can be used in so many different subjects.  I was able to use it in almost every subject I taught.  It helps kids have a deeper understanding of what they are learning.  Kids of every age can do this.  If my little ones in second grade can make one I think that just about anyone can do one.  We used iPod touches for making and editing the movies in my class. (great tool for a fairly low price)

Here is a sample of the movie my son made in the fifth grade (He's now going to start the 11th grade) and Thanksgiving poem that my student made (second grade-this year)