#4 - Digital Storytelling (crowd cheers)

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Digital storytelling was a very rare treat presented to me in school. Beyond the standard PowerPoint (or Prezi, if you wanted to get really fancy), there were not many opportunities to explore different modes of storytelling in class until later in high school and only recently in college. Most of my experience is personal from watching video essays and booktalks or creating and designing infographics. Until recently, presenting information for an assignment was strictly completed through research papers (or if you want to get fancy again – short answer questions).  

The digital media examples I mentioned above have always appealed to me both as a creator and as a consumer of media. Video essays are informative and insightful while also remaining engaging, and depending on the narrator’s personality, can be humorous as well. Here is a link to a content creator whose video essays I enjoy. The same can be applied to booktalks, which provide a creative spin on book reviews. Infographics are a great way to let the designer simply design and go wild with the graphics, something that can be very appealing to students with a creative streak. Learning more about multimodality and how to incorporate that into a classroom, I can see the benefits of encouraging students to explore different creative modes to express their ideas.

There is a lot of merit to showing students how they can utilize different methods of presenting information. Chisholm and Trent touch on this in Digital Storytelling in a Place-Based Composition Course, “By pointing out and encouraging student authors to control such compositional devices deliberately, teachers can promote students’ metacognition as well as their interpretive reading practices.” (316). Encouraging students to use creative, multimodal methods while engaging with a text will potentially motivate them to continue to polish their reading and writing skills. I look forward to showing my students that writing does not need to be the typical, and often dreaded academic essay, but that writing takes many forms and they will have the opportunity to explore them.

Comments

  1. Ms. MorganMarch 3, 2024 at 7:30 PM

    "Prezi if you wanted to get really fancy" is hilarious 😂 You have some great ideas about how to include multimodality in the classroom, I think your future students are going to have a great time with the creative ways you'll have them showcase their learning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Grace WillerMarch 6, 2024 at 7:35 AM

    Hi Fatima,
    First of all, I love the photo you included, so relatable. I truly believe using multimodal forms for assignments engages the creator, as well as the consumer of the media. I agree that these media are great for creative students. I think the school system here sometimes stifles creativity, and these digital media are a great way to get the creativity going in school. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Melanie Camila AlfaroMarch 6, 2024 at 3:49 PM

    I absolutely love a good video essay as well!

    Also, it's unfortunate that not a lot of people have had the chance to explore digital literacies until college!! I think that's what makes this class so exciting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mackenzie ArndtMarch 7, 2024 at 8:12 PM

    I love that digital resources have enlightened the duality of assignments. We can have students explore their skills in ways that are low-stakes and non-stressful, allowing them to focus on the details of their skill development, not their assessment.

    ReplyDelete

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