Topics for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

Digital Storytelling: Our Panacea

Despite all the tangential thinking forced upon this technology integrator, I have come to the conclusion that digital storytelling may be education’s panacea.   Digital storytelling is the most powerful K-12 teaching and learning technique of our time.

Lately, I have been doing much more thinking and much less writing.  As I continue my constant research and networking, I feel the need to discover more connections and make more sense of my endless work.   It may sound simple to share stories to increase learning and literacy, but to effectively engage students and tell compelling stories is not easy.

However, we are ALL capable of teaching and learning through digital storytelling thanks to the hundreds (or should I say thousands) of web 2.0 tools that currently exist and will arrive in the near future.  Many of us get excited about the tools, but we are focusing more and more on the teaching and learning.  Eventually, everyone ages 4-100 who is technologically literate will be able to publish their digital stories from anywhere on the planet and beyond using the simple devices carried in their pockets.

Digital storytelling naturally includes thinking, reading, writing, communicating, collaborating, reporting, researching, etc. including the need to learn relative content to guide us as we move up Bloom’s cognitive domain.  Without an increase of higher order thinking skills in our classrooms, how are we going to raise students who will synthesize, evaluate, and solve the world’s problems?

We (teachers and students) must share authentic learning (knowledge, data) via social networks, unearthing and discovering connections, and learning how to apply our knowledge to other situations.  It is the chore of teachers and students to continuously redefine our goals and purposes.

We must celebrate and extend our learning beyond the classroom walls.  Sharing what happens in our classrooms is a most important step.  Our classrooms must also engage other classrooms.  Learning from different perspectives (preferably at the global level) will produce digital citizens who will help our world overcome societal differences and guarantee that education will make a successful transition into the 22nd century.

How will schools transition and how can we quickly make these changes?  This is a challenge that educational leaders must address.  We are already moving in the prescribed direction.  We have excellent, evolving collaborative and networking tools to foster this change.  Social media fosters change and encourages millions to lead/follow.

Digital storytelling in some shape or form can exist in every classroom.  When sharing digital stories in interactive ways, our schools will eventually become the dynamic learning environment in which every parent will want their children enrolled.

Digital stories are the nodes of a great teaching and learning system.  Everyone loves stories.  Let the stories begin!

What are the best digital storytelling tools?

• Videos (published via YouTube, etc.)
• Podcasts
• Voicethread
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Wordle
• Google Apps
• Slideshare

Please add any other favorites.