By Paul Wasko
Many educators are beginning to explore digital storytelling as an assessment methodology within their courses or programs. The ideas behind “digital storytelling” are not new and began to emerge in the later part of the
20th century. (If you are interested, the Center for Digital Storytelling has a brief history at http://storycenter.org/history ).
As the former director of eFolioMinnesota, I am very interested in the use of digital portfolios to support digital storytelling efforts.
What is new in digital storytelling are the tools students and educators can use to author their digital content.
Historically, digital authoring tools often involved some knowledge of HTML commands. However, with today’s online tools, creating a simple photoshow is straightforward using tools like http://Flickr.com.
So, if digital storytelling tools have become accessible to the average digitally literate student/educator then why are we not seeing digital storytelling emerge in classes throughout our education community? The reason: the tools might be simple but we still have to figure out how to apply and use them. This takes practice and knowledge. (I know how to use a hammer but I still couldn’t build a house on my own.).
Helping you and your student’s proficiency using several different story-telling tools is a goal of the University of Mary Washington’s DS106 open class (http://ds106.us/ ).
For educators, an especially useful component of the course is the Assignment Bank. The course author’s have done a wonderful job pulling together assignments that build proficiency with a variety of web-based authoring tools and services.
For example, check out “Your Favorite Teams Mashup” assignment in the “Mashup” section. The instructions for the assignment are as follows::
“Combine the logos of two or more of your favorite sports teams. Don’t just create an image with the two logos next to each other! Make the final logo look natural and cohesive.”
For educators, consider using some of these assignments as a way to build student proficiency. It is a fun, straightforward way to help us return to the art of storytelling in the 21st century.
Note that not every assignment is appropropriate for all age groups so K-12 teachers may want to modify the assignment based on their grade level.
Special thanks to my friend and colleague John Ittelson, author of Documenting Learning with ePortfolios, for introducing me to DS106.