York Ed Tech Council

This was a workshop presented at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting in San Antonio (November 2008).

LIve blog from Discovery webinar with Jason Ohler

A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.

The process of digital storytelling enables students to tell their stories with a compelling and competitive voice. On this page, find links to articles and resources about the process of digital storytelling, and how to get the most out of this terrific learning experience for students.

At kitZu, you will find a collection of free, educational, copyright-friendly media resources. Students and teachers around the world can access pre-made collections, or "kits," of various digital assets - still images, background music, narratives, video and text. Each kit is built around a common theme, or curricular topic. For students, this becomes the construction paper of the 21st century --allowing them to create reports and projects filled with rich, immersive media for communicating their vision of whatever subjects they chose. AS they master the technology, they will progress from building projects with supplied materials to projects where they find or create their own resources -- a strategy that results in truly authentic assessment as measured by the projects produced.

This is a storytelling guide for a project to have you write a little story from some picture or a small group of pictures you already own. Most

This master site provides easy access to the many art and storytelling materials available through jasonOhler.com. Digital storytelling materials are divided into the four parts described below. All websites are cross-referenced and can be reached regardless of where you start.

Yodio offers an integrated, one-stop digital publishing service where anyone can go to self-record, produce, and share audio recordings (podcasts) and personal broadcasts (audio synchronized with digital photos). Using Yodio's free production system, most anyone can combine digital photos with their recorded audio to create rich media presentations. What is a rich-media presentation? Think voice narrated power point presentations or photo albums. Now think of them being shared in a player similar to YouTube, so they can be streamed throughout the internet or the player can be embedded in other websites, blogs, etc. This is personal broadcast with the sharing part operating on steroids! You can link, e-mail, embed, and in many cases download as an MP3 file. It's made to share memories and photos that are made more interesting and informative by adding your own voice.

Video in the Classroom was founded in 2003 by Mathew Needleman to focus on video production in the elementary grades. The site was recently relaunched to showcase the work of elementary educators from across the country and provide additional how-to information, additional links, and a complete redesign.

The National Archives Digital Vault poster and video creation tools allow students to drag and drop digital artifacts into a poster or video. The National Archives provides images, documents, and audio in an easy to use editor. When making a poster students can combine multiple images, change background colors, and create captions to make collages of digital artifacts. See the screen capture below for a demonstration of poster editing.

Digital tools categorized by use. Digital media may be used in the classroom in a variety of ways. Digital images can be used in a PowerPoint presentation, inserted in to Word, Excel, and even SMART Notebook. Digital video can also be used in a PowerPoint or Movie Maker presentation. Student produced video can empower students with the tools, skills and confidence to take creative control of their research and presentation projects.

Today, with digital networks and social media, this pattern is changing. Stories now are open-ended, branching, hyperlinked, cross-media, participatory, exploratory, and unpredictable. And they are told in new ways: Web 2.0 storytelling picks up these new types of stories and runs with them, accelerating the pace of creation and participation while revealing new directions for narratives to flow.

Exploring Images in the 21st Century Classroom