Week 8: Digital Storytelling

This week was focused on digital storytelling technologies, audio media, and how these different tools and Medias can be used for teaching, learning and communicating. In an interesting newspaper article from the New York Times, the irony of digital storytelling was explored. It seems that as digital technology becomes more advanced, many people yearn for the simple Polaroid period of the past. In regard to audio media, I learned about the history of audio formats and about the most popular digital audio formats used today. An audio format is a medium used to store sound and music. Today, music is recorded and then distributed using numerous audio format varieties. The first media format was the phonograph cylinder in 1877; it became known as “records” during its popular era. The most recent audio format since 2008 has been SlotMusic, which is a type of memory card that is preloaded with music in an MP3 format. An audio file format refers to a file format that is used to store audio data on a computer system. There are several different types of formats including uncompressed audio formats, lossless compressed audio formats, and free and open file formats. A well know proprietary format today would be mp3. This week, I also explored the Prelinger Archive to view a variety of commercials and images from past eras which allowed me to see societal changes in values and how technology has advanced.

Audio media is an important tool that can be used in several ways in the field of education. Last week I explored how digital storytelling can help to improve student’s analytical skills by presenting pictures and slideshows to enhance class lessons. Similar to this, audio media, such as podcasting, includes important tools that can be utilized in the classroom to enhance presentations and share information. Allowing students to create podcasts or listen to audio, can help to stimulate the imagination, evoke emotional responses and help those students who are aural learners. In addition, audio media, like visual media, can help improve student’s analytical skills. For example, an audio clip from NPR may be a useful tool to use in my classroom in order to broaden or add to a specific lesson from class.

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2005/digital_audio_formats.asp

I found the link to the website above to be informative and an easy way to understand some of the common audio formats for PC computers. Before, based on the articles from class, I was having a difficult time understanding the difference between the three main different types of audio formats. I now understand that uncompressed audio formats means that all data is available at the risk of large file sizes, while lossless compression doesn’t degrade the quality of an audio file. Finally, lossy compression has a small file size and tosses what is sees as irrelevant information. I took note of common Windows compatible audio formats such as MP3 and WMA. In addition, the key terms section at the bottom of the webpage also helped me to grasp a greater understanding of audio formats and the language that is often associated with the subject.

Digital Storytelling Blog Post

As a future educator, digital storytelling is definitely something that I can utilize and incorporate in my classroom. I can use various types of digital stories that focus on any particular topic; for example, if I’m teaching a history lesson, it can be useful to include a digital story with pictures and video clips from a previous time in history. This can help to strengthen my student’s knowledge and analytical skills. In addition, being able to visually see an artifact or piece of history is a great way to enhance a lesson and allow students to make connections with previously learned material. I can also use digital storytelling to strengthen lessons in subjects such as science or culture. A video or slide show about how the universe began or a clip about the diverse culture in America, are merely a few examples. Digital storytelling can also have many positive impacts on students by allowing them to tell stories, learn curriculum, and be creative and imaginative. Providing visuals in a classroom setting also caters to the students who are visual learners, and it is a great way to present information.  I think digital storytelling is an important technological aspect that I should strive to incorporate in my classroom.

Week 7: Visual Literacy

During class this week I learned more about visual literacy and added on to the previous knowledge we gained the week before about Photoshop. In addition, we began to learn about digital storytelling and how a digital story can be created through software such as Powerpoint or websites like Animoto. Expanding last week’s lesson, I gained a greater understanding of the different types of visual literacy and how a story can be told simply through an image. There are several different types of visualization methods including data visualization, information visualization and concept visualization, to name a few. Data visualization refers to visual representations of quantitative data, visual representation refers to data that is transformed into an image, and concept visualization refers to the methods used to elaborate on concepts through ideas and plans. Digital storytelling is also becoming increasingly popular and can be seen being used by the British BBC news in order to circulate stories around the world. Digital storytelling refers to a short video that combines narrative with any type of digital content including images, sound and video. I also learned about the significance of digital storytelling and how it can be used to teach values and beliefs to others.

Visual literacy and digital storytelling are relevant to my field as an educator and are concepts and practices that I can definitely use in my classroom. As discussed last week, visual literacy can be used by a teacher to help students study, decode and analyze photographs that often have a cultural or historical significance. Digital storytelling can be used by teachers to recount historical events, learn about new scientific topic and discoveries or explore life in a community of society. Digital storytelling has the power to increase the information literacy of a student and allow that student to create his or her own stories to show learning and growth.

This attached video is relevant to the topic of digital storytelling and it expands on the significance and benefits of using digital storytelling in the classroom. In this short clip 8^th grade teacher Lynn Zalesak talks about digital storytelling and how she uses it in her classroom. I think it is important for teachers to understand different aspects of technology and I liked how Lynn talked about how she use to be technology challenged but now digital storytelling has become an essential part of her curriculum and teaching methods. Digital storytelling allows students to tell stories, learn the curriculum, and be creative and imaginative. This is just one of the many ways in which students can express themselves and it allows them to see a story being told.