Digital Storytelling and eBooks

For me this course has been like going to live in a foreign country. I am definitely a digital immigrant in a increasingly digitally driven world and I fear not being able to keep up. I found the readings this week to be mind boggling and fascinating at the same time. Since it was a lot for me to digest please bear with me as I share my humble reflections on these topics.

The University of Houston's Digital Storytelling website was an amazing resource for those who are not at all familiar with digital storytelling. Though the information in our text was informative this site really gave me greater insight into the possibilities available through digital storytelling. There is no need for me as a teacher or future media specialist to reinvent the wheel and brainstorm possible uses for digital storytelling because they gave great suggestions in their power point. When we dabbled in digital storytelling during our last face to face I immediately thought about how it could be used to teach content or have students present research findings. I never thought about how digital storytelling could be used as a lesson hook or a way to facilitate classroom discussion. These are very simple things that could really transform a lesson. One digital story I viewed on this site was for ESL students and was basically a vocabulary lesson. Quick, simple and to the point. It was a great way to make information accessible to students. Since we have alot of ESL students in my school I can see the positive implications of using digital storytelling in this way. Another digital story I viewed was about a teachers' favorite books. A media specialist could do something similiar to promote a part of the collection or as a booktalk. I think digital stories can make a huge difference with in teaching and learning. They are totally within reach for someone like me and I look forward to trying out their use with my students.

I was first introduced to ebooks in another West GA course and am personally not a huge fan of them. In my school the only access we have to ebooks is Tumblebooks. This is largely due to the fact that my media specialist is not all that technologically savvy. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and she is totally smitten with print materials. When we first got Tumblebooks teachers and students were all aflutter with excitement that has since waned. Lack of computers in classroom for widespread use is one of the biggest complaints. I think that in schools with a plethora of computers or ereading devices ebooks might have a definite appeal. At a school such as mine with such a diverse student population the International Children's Digital Library could definitely be put to good use. For example, I currently teach a little boy from Nepal and the rest of the class is totally enamored with him and all things Nepali. Getting children to connect with literature from around the world is something I think they would find interesting but also beneficial. Too bad there are little objectives at the elementary level that deal with world views or culture but a good teacher or media specialist could find a way to make a connection.

Now this last part of this assignment really threw me for a loop. I don't think that ereaders such as the iPad or Kindle will have serious implications on reading at its core. But boy oh boy are they going to impact how reading is done. Like many of my classmates have already noted I do love to curl up with a good book and can't imagine doing it any other way. However, Mr. Lankes really opened my eyes to the possibilites of what an ereader could or in his opinion should be able to do. I am a very visual learner and have personally never experienced or even seen an ereading device in person so I am a little reluctant to share my thoughts. I do have an iPhone at the insistance of my husband and honestly don't see what the hype is all about. I mean I'm not going to run to the store but honestly I could live without it. So in my humble opinion right now at this moment in time if an ereader never made it to my media center I think I could manage. That doesn't mean that I'm totally closed to the possiblity of their use. I think that as teachers of digital natives we're going to have to learn to teach in their language so this is something that is probably inevitable. I can envision using ereaders in Literature Circles or with reluctant readers. I can also envision schools balking at the cost and security of using ereaders. To sum it all up. I'm not currently a fan but am open to learning more about how they could be used in schools.