Digital Storytelling

I just finished watching a digital story called "The Gift of Nonviolence" by Dr. Leroy Moore of the University of Colorado. He shared a story about his childhood that changed his view of violence forever. He was physically abused by his father and finally decided to stand up to the violence. Dr. Moore discovered a technique that caused his father to stop beating him without employing violence in return.

My overall impressions of the video were good. I really enjoyed hearing the soft spoken, gruffy words of Dr. Moore in his old age and the music he chose to use seemed to set the mood pretty well. The only thing I didn't really care for was the pictures and text he used. The pictures were not very high quality and the text seemed plain and boring. I feel if he would have given more forethought in these two areas he could have had a much more powerful digital story.

I could certainly see the relevance of using digital storytelling in the classroom because I believe it allows students to employ or discover their own creativity in storytelling. I think in a day where curriculum often seems rigid, boring and impersonal, we have to find vehicles for students to express themselves during the learning experience. I could see something like this working really well for assignments when students must give some sort of interpretive analysis of an assigned reading. They could respond in a creative and personal way how a particular piece of literature challenged or changed them.

I do feel something like this may be a little harder to assess though. While I think most students could benefit from something like this it may not be something that all students would be comfortable doing. And if you have students that are "technologically illiterate" it would be hard to knock them for not producing a high quality presentation. But I do think a project like this could be a valid assessment in trying to gauge a student's understanding of content material. Do they understand what they just read? Do they feel the mood and tempo of the piece? Do their visuals provide a good representation? Are they making parallel observations? I think having students answer these kinds of questions can foster meaningful learning as well as allow them to draw greater parallels between classroom learning and their individual lives.