Take Six: Elements of a Good Digital Story

This article was more of a guide to getting started with creating a digital story. It really goes into detail about the different elements digital stories should have. Also included was a checklist to guide the creators of the stories to see what they have or need to have in their stories.

However, this article may lead to be confusing to some that may not have background information on digital storytelling and why it is so important and beneficial. A good idea would be to show this to students AFTER reading "The Art of Digital Storytelling".

The Art of Digital Storytelling

by Bernajean Porter

This article was based on the core elements of creating an effective digital story. Porter explains and stresses that "telling stories together about things that really matter has an extraordinary effect on people". This is extremely important, especially when creating a digital story. One of the most important aspects of the story is not only the content, but the voice of the story as well.

A good digital story doesn't just tell what has happened, but the audience and readers may (or should) actually feel what is happening in the story. Through emotion, feeling, and connecting, digital storytelling is a very creative and sometimes challenging process.

I especially liked this article where it mentioned an example of a story transformation. A story was written, and then later 'beefed' up to really change how the readers would feel about the person telling the story (or the person in the story).

This article also mentioned the six elements of good digital storytelling:
1. Living Inside Your Story
2. Unfolding Lessons Learned
3. Developing Creative Tension
4. Economizing the Story Told
5. Showing Not Telling
6. Developing Craftsmanship

NETS for Students

This is a great handout for teachers to always have with them when creating a lesson based around or incorporating technology. The technology standards for students would also be a good overview for the actual students to see and take a look at, or even obtain a copy of (this would be most beneficial or helpful for the intermediate grades - 4th grade to high school).

Also, this may be a great resource for teachers and educators to help create a lesson, using the standards as a starting point.

NETS for Teachers

After all of this extensive research and overviews of standards in all content areas for various different subjects, I found it interesting to find standards for teachers.

Since technology is always changing, and even at a fast pace, I feel that having technology standards for teachers is extremely important. Of course, standards for teachers in every subject is important as well, but even more so for technology since it is changing so quickly.

I feel the most important (teacher) technology standard that every teacher should be keeping in mind when creating a lesson, are the social, ethical, legal, and human issues (standard 6). This is most definitely important in a TESL - Teaching English as a Second Language - class (and for any class for that matter). As educators, it is so important to "model and teach legal and ethical practice related to technology use" (standard 6.a).

21st Century Skills (A Partnership)

This article is about a non-profit organization - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - provides a deep overview of what they're all about.

"The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has created a new way of looking at teaching and learning today", in several different ways. For example, they focus on the core subjects and address learning and thinking skills.

The purpose for this article, or partnership program, is intended for students to learn new things in new ways so they can live and work in a changing world. Among other purposes, this Partnership has many useful ways of how students may succeed in this ever changing world.

Among the Partnership's framework, we can see that it includes the standards, curriculum, environment, and assessments that districts must implement.

This article was a great read for anyone entering the teaching/education field. I thought it was important when this article mentioned that "students today are partly shaped by their environment, which is media rich, immediate, fast, engaging, dynamic and instant. It is electronic and digital, a communication medium implying instant gratification."

Also in this article, we learn that 21st century learners are:
*collaborative, networkers, and communicators
*adaptive and creative
*information, media and technology savvy
*partial to instant gratification
*reliant on media in its various forms

So, when becoming a teacher or educator of any sort, we must ALWAYS know are students and where they are coming from. Things are always changing!!

AASL: Standards for the 21st Century Learner

This was yet another useful and practical guide to show educators, parents, and even students the standards for computer and technology uses and resources. I liked how this artical included "common beliefs" regarding technology or other sources of information. This artical/guide really emphasized on specific skills, resources and tools geared towards learners of technology use. Included in this are:

"1. Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.

2. Draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.

3. Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society.

4. Pursue personal and aestheic growth."

Throughout this resource and abundance of information, these guiding principles are clearly spelled out and defined, which also include key questions towards the end to wrap it all up.

I could definitely see myself, as a teacher, using this.

Copyright 101

This article gave a very good overview of what is okay and what is not okay for copyright use. Copyright 101 focused on intellectual property laws, which are “designed to encourage the creation of original works, to stimulate creativity in society in general, and to protect and promote the creation and use of products of the human mind” (page 10).

Also included in this article was the definition of copyright, the U.S. copyright law defined, and fair use defined. A major passage of the fair use was very beneficial for teachers and educators wishing to use resources of others for instructional purposes and personal resources. What I really liked about this article were the good and bad examples of fair use. Although I already have learned (quite some time ago) that it is not okay to photocopy an entire book or textbook (or any form of literature or “work”), there may be some people coming across this article that may not have known that.