In-Class Activity to Introduce Digital Storytelling

This activity served several purposes:

• The practice activity was an immediate follow-up to a class discussion on the week's readings and examples.
• Students practiced collaboration.
• Students were able to "warm up" for a larger digital story assignment due later in the unit.
• Students were taught some features of PowerPoint that most were unfamiliar with including narration and animation. We felt this was important because PowerPoint is a familiar tool, so it provided a small amount of security for students while at the same time, pushing them to try features they did not know. Later, features in other digital story tools were less daunting.

Hands-on tutorial guided by instructors

In-Class activity: small groups create brief digital stories

Sample of student work