Digital Storytelling - An Adventure in StoryJumper

In going through the readings assigned for the module, I came out a little blurry as to what digital story telling was, and what it wasn't. I decided, "Why not just try it for myself, to make more sense of it?"  A 3-4 page trial run of StoryJumper turned into nearly two hours of playing with the program, and putting together my own digital story on digital story use in the classroom, linked below.

I was not sold on digital storytelling to begin with.  It's easy to see where this technology fits into the elementary school classroom, with storytelling being such an essential part of language learning.  Often, lessons can be based around a story, so that students begin to think about the concept they are learning, whether it's sharing or how to properly use a verb.  It also provides a very relevant base point to relate lessons back to.  And, of course, with technology being more and more prominent in the classroom, it would be easy to throw a digital story up on the SmartBoard.  Every student could see and read along, the animations are there to make it seem like a real book, and the teacher can modify the content to suit his or her lesson plans perfectly.  This does require a little bit of extra creativity on the teachers part, but we all know that teachers are just teeming with that anyway!

However, it seems that, at least at first glance, this type of technology doesn't have much of a place in a junior high or senior high classroom.  In reading the various information we were given, it seemed to me that digital storytelling was all very juvenile, with lots of bright pictures and big words that would be easy for elementary students to use, but which older students may take as a joke.  Once I got onto the StoryJumper program, though, it became quite obvious that there are multiple uses for this in any type of classroom.  What most intrigued me was the fact that this has the potential to function a lot like a PowerPoint presentation, only with a few little differences.  It would be easy for students to put together an introduction about themselves to share with their classmates.  They could summarize what they've learned in a topic or unit, even come up with a study guide in online book form.  It would also provide a creative way for students to showcase work on a research project or presentation.  And of course, through English Language Arts, students could write a children's book.

I'm constantly baffled by the number of ways we are able to use Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.  Often, I feel like I need to become a bit more open-minded to truly see the entire scope of benefits that programs like StoryJumper offer to all classrooms.

Check it out!
http://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/1320694/evagorny