Weekly Blog 2

I found last Thursday’s class to be extremely interesting. Much of the class was spent with an engaging discussion on technology, notably the class as a whole tried to answer the question: What is technology? The second part of class was dedicated to learning about and working on digital stories. This subject was of particular interest to me, as I have always had a passion for storytelling, though my concentration in the area had always been through a film medium. So learning about this new method of storytelling, which uses still images and narration, was very appealing to me and I would say this was the most significant thing I learned about in class. My only real questions that were left over from class surround digital storytelling. Namely, what is the purpose of this assignment? I have found working on the digital story to be very cool, but I’m not quite sure how this relates to teaching. Is this merely an assignment designed to allow us all a chance to introduce ourselves to the rest of the class? Or are there educational applications to using digital storytelling? In an attempt to answer my own question, I’ve tried to think about just what are the classroom applications of digital storytelling. Like alluded to earlier, I could see digital storytelling as being a great way to introduce yourself. Sort of like a 21st century icebreaker. Teachers could use this method to help familiarize themselves with their students. It is also a way for students to use their creativity and engage in an assignment that isn’t necessarily considered a classroom norm.