While exploring The Best Digitial Storytelling Resouces, I loved viewing the 1st grade digital report about Arizona. I hadn't quite understood how programs like iMovie could be used by the lower elementary level until I read about this teacher's assignment to her students. It is so simple that it had never occurred to me to use technology in this way. I could absolutely envision my Kindergartners illustrating their ideas and narrating them on camera.
The video 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story really broke things down for me in simpler form. It's amazing that there are so many resources out there, and yet most educators are completely unaware. Just today my Librarian was telling me how frustrated she is that she has to teach the 5th graders a unit about Waterbury and Connecticut and could not find a way to make it interesting. I was proud that I could share with her my Storybird and Animoto experiences. I hope that the more I learn I will be able to share with colleagues, just as the NETS teacher standard states, "Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership... by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources."
I love the little movie on Arizona as well. That is a great idea for using iMovie in the younger grades. In hoping to become more comfortable with iMovie I used it to create a book that one of my students had completed with me. I just uploaded it to my blog if you want to take a look. It of course does not utilize the many options of iMovie but it was an easy way to "publish" his work.
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