VoiceThread-ing My Way into the Classroom

I chose to create a mock digital story that provides an example of something my students might construct as part of a lesson or unit in a course I teach. For example, with the VoiceThread above, as you watch it you will see that I have researched a city in Mexico, commented on each photo, and others have commented on the photos as well. This is an example of a project that I would give my students to do as part of their final portfolio and a good portion of the grade would be commenting on other videos. It is important because students would be able to utilize the Spanish language, complete research about the culture, products, government and politics of a foreign country that speaks Spanish, and also write in the Spanish language. They would then need to read other video comments as well as read the information in order to find good information to complete the project. This would be an all around exciting and excellent project for my students to complete. We could then post them online for their parents to view their work and see their progress in the Spanish language.

Creating the digital story was very simple, although I did have to work out a few minor kinks at first due to my own errors. At the time that I am writing this I do not have a microphone available, but hope to have one before the assignment is due (because I do have one at my parents' home) and will be there this weekend, so hopefully I will be able to see how my voice comments affect the outcome of the story. The doodling is an interesting technique, but I have yet to figure out how to incorporate that into my Spanish curriculum. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, please run those by me!

As you can see above, I can use the digital storytelling to showcase my students' research, but there are many other ways to utilize this unique technology. First, it is necessary to say that this is a fascinating technology and I believe that students will be thrilled at the prospect of learning how to use this. The students can use digital storytelling to have oral exams over book reports; students can actually have debates using digital storytellings over hot topics (of course they would use the Spanish language!); we can keep a running tab on how their language skills are improving throughout the year through digital storytelling; educators introducing new topics with digital storytelling to gain the students' interest, etc.; and finally, something that Ms. Sarah Wilson is focusing on that is an excellent idea is that of having students present themselves using digital storytelling. This is especially useful for students who are upper-level Spanish and can prepare and speak in full, complex sentences about their past experiences. It is an 'About Me' presentation in the first few weeks of class that would focus on bringing the classes together. I think it is an excellent idea.