3 Digital Stories

Of the three programs I used to make the digital stories, the only one I liked was Animoto. It was very easy to use, and the final product was pretty cool. The only problem with Animoto is that I don't really see it serving a purpose in the classroom, it's more of a software to play around with. Scrapbook was my least favorite, as it was the most difficult to use, and it took me forever to make. Unlike Animoto, though, I think that one could find some use for Scrapbook in the classroom, although I don't think that I'll try it, as I found it difficult and kind of boring. Finally, there was VoiceThread, which was also a little difficult to manage, but is probably the one that could serve the most purpose in the classroom, since you can add your own voice to the story. The final product I made, however, was pretty boring, and I'm not sure if I would be able to keep students interested if I used VoiceThread in the classroom.

Voice Thread Digital Story

Scrapblog Digital Story

Animoto Digital Story

The Role of Digital Storytelling

Please click on the audio file to hear my thoughts about implementing digital storytelling in the classroom.

Growing Up Online (Week 5)

As someone who constantly uses the internet day in and day out, I can tell you that the internet has a huge impact on the lives of kids today. Kids have access to the internet in school, they use it in the classroom, and clearly spend a lot of time after school using the internet as well. Personally, the majority of my homework is done online, and, like pretty much everyone I know, I spend a fair amount of time on the internet looking at facebook, checking my email, or checking up on my favorite sports teams. There is no question about the magnitude of the effect the internet has on kids' lives today.

The question is whether this effect has been a positive or negative one overall. Personally, I would have to say that the internet has had a great positive affect on the lives of kids today. It acts as a great tool for socialization, as it allows kids to keep in touch with their friends, and even help kids who may not be as outwardly social in a normal situation to reach out to other kids and maybe make some new friends.

After watching the video, I feel like the video just tried to point out all of the negative sides of the internet's impact on kids. Yes, it's true that using the internet comes with its risks and downsides, but I feel like what is to be gained by the internet overall far outweighs its negative sides.

I personally don't worry about the internet's effect on kids, as long as we educate kids about how they should be using the internet. Like the video said, studies have proven that the majority of kids know that when some strange person they don't recognize starts asking them personal questions like where they live and if they want to meet up, they should just ignore them. The kids who realize this have clearly been educated on how to be safe on the internet.

But protection from predators isn't the only thing that kids need to be educated about. It's also important that we show kids how easy it is for anyone to find anything that gets posted on the internet, and that they need to be careful what videos or pictures they put up. I remember as soon as I got a facebook page, my parents immediately warned me to be careful of what pictures or information I posted. Before they brought this up to me, the thought of what I was posting never really crossed my mind, but I feel like just a simple enough act as this will often be enough to keep kids knowledgeable and safe on the internet.

Responses (Week 4)

Here are the links to the comments I wrote about other people's responses.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5577587331797661163&postID=3593444009065689949

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1685191015038864453&postID=1063659955374004846