For this week’s activity, I would like to share my experiences with digital storytelling. Before reading about digital storytelling in my Master’s class, I had never even heard of such a thing. After reading about what digital storytelling really is, I realized that I have been using a form of digital storytelling with my many PowerPoints I have created for my classroom. I incorporate text, pictures, photos, video, wavs, music, and more into my interactive creations. I knew my perspicacious PowerPoint skills benefitted my students, but what I did not know is that I could be using additional programs made for digital storytelling to help me present my information. One of these programs is called, “Prezi.” This week I used Prezi.com to create a brief presentation on digital storytelling. You can view my Prezi by clicking the following link:
In preparing to make my presentation, I did some additional research on digital storytelling. One interesting fact I discovered is that digital storytelling resembles the storytelling of our ancestors. Before paper of readily available, storytellers (which was actually a job) told stories using lots of movement, acting, voice inflections, etc. to help their learners remember the information being told since they couldn’t write it down. Now we have, in a sense, reverted back to that old practice using the latest and greatest technologies because we realized that people learn best when fully engaged. Leslie Rule of the Digital Storytelling Association describes this with the following: “Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights.” (Barrett, 2009)
While making my Prezi, one thing that I learned is that I am not used to formats other than Microsoft. I felt like it took me an extremely long time to make a short little presentation. If I had been creating that presentation in PowerPoint, I most likely could have made it twice as long with more visuals and music in that same amount of time. Although it was annoying that I kept having to look around for everything (I even couldn’t find the “Save” button at first), I do think that practicing in another program was beneficial. I think if I just use it a few more times, I will become more comfortable with it and will be able to create presentation a lot more quickly.
Another aspect that I learned from completing this activity is that I should not be satisfied with the same programs I’ve been using for years. I really enjoyed the different format of the Prezi, and I think my students will welcome the change. I am going to make some Prezis to teach concepts in my class. After I become more comfortable with it, I am going to have my students create Prezis as well. (I want to know more so I can help them more efficiently first.) If I hadn’t tried this program, I would never use it in my classroom. I’m sure there are other programs out there that I don’t know about that could benefit my students as well. I am going to make sure that I don’t settle for the same old, same old and continue to try to learn new programs.
In conclusion, I enjoyed this week’s topic of digital storytelling. I learned what digital storytelling is and that I was already incorporating it into my classroom. I also discovered that digital storytelling is the 21st century version of ancient storytelling practices. In addition, I learned that I am not skilled in non-Microsoft programs and should continue to gain experience in new areas. Finally, I realized that there are many programs that could be valuable, but I need to look for them and try them out.
Resources
Prezi. http://prezi.com/.
Barrett, Helen. 2009. Digital storytelling. Retrieved on October 21, 2010 from http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/.
<div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_cvltvdcgopvi" name="prezi_cvltvdcgopvi" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=cvltvdcgopvi&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"/><embed id="preziEmbed_cvltvdcgopvi" name="preziEmbed_cvltvdcgopvi" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=cvltvdcgopvi&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="" href="http://prezi.com/cvltvdcgopvi/digital-storytelling/">Digital Storytelling</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com">Prezi</a></p></div></div>
I agree with a lot of the points you made about using Prezi. I found it to be very very different from any other Microsoft program I've used. It was nto too difficult after a little bit of tinkering around though, in my opinion. I really enjoyed the final product of mine as well as yours. I think you did a nice job on it.
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