Digital story telling.

Picture it, Sicily 1920....
Can you??? picture it is that is.
Unless you are a history major (and even then maybe not) you probally can't.  Now if that back ground is important to the rest of the topic then you have lost some of the class.  So this is where the advantage of digital storytelling comes in.  As you teach have pictures running of Sicilian village and Sicilian clothes so that when you start this again they will have something to work with and be joining you on the journey.

Another sad but true point for digital storytelling is that  in modern classrooms most students grew up with a TV from a very young age.  The level of visual stimuli that comes in is like drugs to the young minds... they LOVE it. The problem enters that they become accustom to level of mental stimulation and if a setting does not have that high level of changes and action it becomes "BORING".   So we as teachers have a big problem because no matter how excited about a topic we are if you are just talking it is "BORING" so with this little trick up our sleeve we can hook them because it has that moving picture and action that their TV watching has but we can slip a little knowledge in with it.

I think it is correct to use because we need to speak to them in their language, it would be amazing if every student that entered your room was ready to leave their mental state at the door and raise to your level but lets be honest...it doesn't happen.  So we either plow on with everyone being lost/bored or we can change our attempt to reach them where they are.  not surprising the latter gets better results.4


2 digital storytelling i checked out was
A) the most dangerous game - i had to read that when i was in school, i remember basics but this digital storytelling brought all detail back.  It covered the main points and used pictures and music to enhance the emotional connection to the topics.

B) energy and its discontent - This storytelling was very factual and had good graphics but the voice over could have been better.