Reflection on Storytelling

The story that I told through images and vague captions was that of the children in Africa and some of the many struggles they are faced with in their daily lives. I feel as though the pictures speak a thousand words and could generate an endless amount of questions, which makes it useful for teaching.

This would be a great opener to a discussion on other areas in the world. It would really take the audience's attention and have them engaged and eager to learn more...and hopefully continue this learning afterwards to find ways that they can help people other than themselves. I like the idea of teaching about world issues because it makes students globally aware of the way of life in other countries besides the one in which they live.

I think this kind of a lesson accompanied by such a visual story would be extremely useful for students. Not only will it make them globally aware, but it will also teach them not to take anything for granted. It may also get them thinking about places that they wish to visit and why... It may be difficult for children to relate to such a video, maybe not so much for others...it may bring up past family history...it may touch the lives of students...it may trigger a need and want to help...it may make students cry...or question...it may bring up a story of their own, but whatever it does I think it would be impactful (if that's such a word), which is what learning should be.

I would have an end of a lesson assignment in which the students could explore a place in the world and make their own digital story with a writeup telling their peers why they chose the focus that they did. The story that I show could help students decide that they too want to pick a place that they would like to help, or maybe they would like to focus on a different struggle within the same country or within their own country...maybe they would want to look into a thriving country...I think digital stories are a great way to engage students and get them excited about learning.

I really liked the program that I used. It was my first time with it so of course it was a bit foreign, but it was very user friendly. I am sure there was more that I could have messed around with if I navigated further, but I was successfully able to accomplish what it was I came there for so I would say it was a good first experience. I don't know if it is possible to download your own music, but that would have been something I would've liked...some of the songs that I would have liked to play were not listed so I put in a music video from YouTube, but it gets in the way of the show (covering some of your captions)...I liked all of the different transitions and skins and that you could design your own! it was easy to upload pictures from several different locations, which was another plus. Overall I liked it and would use it again.