This multimedia archive on digital storytelling shares the results of a multi-campus study of student learning and digital storytelling in humanities classrooms. Digital stories are multimedia projects combining text, images, audio and video files into short film clips.

The Internet Archive, the Library of Congress and California Digital Library collaborated on a pilot in the spring of 2008 and a full-year program for the 2008/2009 school year, working with a total of 10 elementary, middle and high schools. We are looking to expand this program to new schools in the coming year. You can explore the collections created during the 2008/2009 school year on the Archive-It website here.

Use COLLAGE to quickly produce dynamic interactive panoramas with hot-spots. Use STUDIO to build a personalized media presentation... and, place it in your COLLAGE. Use EXPRESS to build presentations with dynamic content from RSS feeds and online albums. Tap into CUT-OUT Express to use your photos as frames for slideshows.

For the record...this is an implementation point, a discussion starter. Those of us that provide staff development around instructional technology have identified a need to share more than just tools with teachers. To evaluate them based on Bloom's Taxonomy is simply a way to connect the tools to those that would be identified with the Affective, Psychomotor, or Cognitive domains--specifically the Cognitive

My friend and colleague, Tech Director Jen Hegna over in the Byron (MN) schools developed this set of guidelines for the staff in her district. (She was motivated, she said, partially by posts here and here on the Blue Skunk. Cool!) Anyway she's given permission for me to share her work here and says readers are welcome to use and adopt as well:     Guidelines for Educators Using Social Networking Sites August 2009 (DRAFT, DRAFT, DRAFT)

The 2010 Census — a count of everyone living in the United States — is fast approaching! Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to every household in the United States in March 2010. We are working on lesson plans, maps, teaching guides, and other informational materials to help teachers and students learn about the importance of the Census.

Diigo  Need help in organizing your favorite websites? Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows users to save websites, as well as tag them, add sticky notes and annotations, and share them with other users in various groups. Tip: Sticky notes are an effective way to start a virtual conversation among teams of students on the merits of a website.

Our Story  Create your story! Our Story permits users to develop and save collaborative timelines that can be personalized with annotations, photos, and videos. Stories (timelines) can be printed in book format, archived on DVD, or even sent as postcards. Tip: Teach your students to develop content-specific timelines that are linked to the teaching of research and information literacy skills.

Primary Access  Capture your students' imagination with movie narratives based on primary sources. Primary Access is an online tool that allows students and teachers to combine text, visual, and sound elements, which are then combined to convey information about their chosen historical event or time frame. A library of Primary Access movies is available through a catalog by historical time period. Tip: Encourage active learning: have students choose a historical event or time frame to research and synthesize their information through a Primary Access movie.

The Rigor/Relevance Framework is a tool developed by staff of the International Center for Leadership in Education to examine curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The Rigor/Relevance Framework is based on two dimensions of higher standards and student achievement.