Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is telling a story using the technology available at this current juncture in time.  It allows students to create a movie, starting out with a storyboard, and then moving on into the movie making process using a desktop computer and movie making software, and finally finishing up with a final edited product.  Students can work in various roles, such as editor, actor, director, key grip, etc... I think it could make a very interesting how to video or some such to use in a physical education classroom.  I think it would be possible to utilize everyone in the classroom to make a workout video, or some other fun type of movie incorporating sports and physical activity. 

Mathematics is one of the more abstract subject-matter domains, visualizing the concepts is useful in helping students make math real.  Images that break down the equations in order to help students understand the why when it comes to math is key.  Graphic calculators can be useful when plotting out equations, it furthers the understanding of the relationship of the x and y axis, and shows the plot of each equation entered into the calculator. However, I would think there are websites to help further understand the use in real life application.  Being the questioner that I am, I have trouble with someone just telling me "that's the way it is."  or "because I said so" I want to know why and if I the reasons make sense to me.  Why is it important to know how to plot an equation on a graph. 

Technology is rapidly improving and there are many things you can learn how to do simply by looking it up on youtube.  However, I think it is impossible to learn to do something from tv alone.  Whether or not you are learning how to tie a tie, or cook a meal, it is impossible to watch something on tv and then be able to perform the feat impeccably.  Just like anything it takes a lot of trial and error.  Learning from your mistakes and getting better.  Learning from your mistakes means not learning from tv alone.  Plus, you can't ask the tv show host a question if you get stumped.  Then what do you do?  I do believe that it is beneficial in learning and the access of information is very simplistic.  Recently I purchased a game called GO, and the directions were incredibly difficult to figure out, so I hopped on youtube and followed along with the instruction manual and finally figured out how to play... I think I got it figured out. 

Jonassen, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology (pp. 192). Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Pearson.