Reflection: Week 13

What?

This week we started our project on Digital Stories. In class, we viewed examples of various types of digital stories and brainstormed ways to use them in our content areas. Next week, we are to have our script written and our storyboards completed.

So What?

Because this is the "big" assignment of the semester, I have been slightly nervous to take on the challenge all semester. But now that we have started the project I realize that, like most other activities we have completed in this class, creating a digital story is not too difficult. It simply takes a lot of hard work and creativity. It is beneficial to be completing this assignment right now as a student because it will help me get familiar with certain applications on my computer, such as iMovie. Hopefully, through creating this digital story, I will learn how to better use iMovie and use it in future school projects. As a future teacher, it is imperative to learn how to create a digital story because this is an enjoyable, intriguing way to introduce or discuss important class topics.

Another important reason why we are completing this assignment is to help and encourage us as future teachers to research and learn interesting facts about our content area. As me and my group have started to create our own digital story on domestic violence, I have been able to learn some interesting statistics and discover some shocking stories about celebrities who have experienced this type of violence by their intimate partner or another loved one. Doing this digital story has helped me become more passionate about my content area and I hope to create more digital stories in the future so I become excited and motivated to teach those topics through technology.

Now What?

I honestly believe everything we have done in this instructional media class will help me become a better teacher. I have learned a ton about technology throughout the semester and this last project of creating a Digital Story is the icing on the cake. Although my group has not come far in the actual creation of our own digital story, I am excited about our idea to make it a moving and interesting video to introduce the topic of domestic violence. I hope to think of more ideas and ways to create other digital stories so I can share those with my future classes as well.

In my future classes, I do not anticipate giving much homework to my students unless the homework is applicable to their life or a good, worthwhile project. The creation of a digital story may be advanced for High School students, but creating a similar and simpler project would be meaningful. As I mentioned before, this project has helped me, as a health education major, learn a great deal about domestic violence and I think students would enjoy picking an interesting health topic to learn about and creating a simple digital story. Their digital story would contain similar components to the one we are creating now. I believe this would be an enjoyable, challenging final and performance assessment.

Video Reflection:

The video this week was titled "NASA Digital Story." Space, astronauts, and the moon have always been topics of interest for me, so I really enjoyed this video clip. I liked how this video caught my attention with interesting visuals and facts at the beginning and then talked about various astronauts. The video did a compelling job at displaying love and compassion for those astronauts who have sacrificed their lives to helping mankind learn more about space travel. I found myself captivated by the music and explanation of some life stories in the video. In my opinion, the video ended too soon. I feel this video was beneficial to watch this week because not only was this video enjoyable, but it also helped me understand which components make up a professional, entertaining, and informational digital story.