Cross Post: Digital story telling – #coetail

via IFTTT

My immediate reaction on this week’s topic of digital story telling:

(Image via purestillness tumblr)

According to the Educause Learning Initiative digital storytelling is

“the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component.”

(Image by gifwave)

And then I realised that was the name for all those goofy videos I make of the children I teach (when I get the time)

In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I  think all teachers should be digital story tellers. In-class video can be a rich source of data for both future teaching and is so much more valuable for parents to see what really goes on in class.

For example of the types of videos I make here’s an example from the 3E conference I attended at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City last weekend.

I used final cut pro to put the footage (about 30 minutes worth) together.

A clear beginning, middle and end. The head of school’s voice set the scene with images of the classroom before the children arrived of what the aim of the day was but the likely course of events. The middle where the ‘deconstructed day’ took place and then a reminder of the intention of the day at the end.

Some drama – as the children were given their task I spotted a little girl freaking out at the prospect of putting together a computer without any adult help. I let the camera linger on her as I knew she was someone to go back to later in the day. I then used her reflection as a bookend for the day.

A clear focus on the learning story – how groups use physical space, research was something I felt was an important part of the day. I also looked for footage that showed how some groups were stealing ideas from others and the reasons for this.

Video provides a way for parents to get a true window in the classroom and is useful as a reflection point for children. Often what kids think happened is very different from their behaviour on screen. There were a lot of attitudes that I could unpack as a teacher – the initial response to having ‘nothing’ on the timetable, what collaboration looks like, emotional responses to challenges that would provide future teaching points.

from Teaching the Teacher http://ift.tt/1JMsznD