EDLD 5363 - Personal Narrative

This week was hectic for me. It didn't help that I was offering the most difficult of the technology camps I offer to my students this week before school. I was having to prep for them and try to get a handle on this assignment. Finding a partner was daunting as so far in my courses I have not had a chance to build relationships with those in my classes. I threw out an invitation on the discussion board and was able to find a partner. We exchanged scripts and collaborated through google docs. The process of developing the story was eased with the help of The Digital Storytelling Cookbook. As a former history teacher, telling stories was a key part of how I taught students about the history of our country. I realized early on the impact a good video clip could have on the student's understanding of the era we were studying. I choose to write about my family. My parents have adopted fifteen children in addition to the two biological children. It was an interesting experience growing up and one I am asked about quite often. I enjoyed working through the details and gathering pictures of the kids at the age when they were adopted. It was difficult to get it down to 2 minutes. My first attempt was much closer to three. I often encourage teachers to have their students tell stories, so it was very interesting to participate as a student in creating my own. I choose to work with PhotoStory as I like the ability to add narration per slide. I could continue to edit and refine, but had to call it done at a certain point. I am pleased with the end result and look forward to share the resources I have found with the teachers on my campus as they continue to build multimedia stories. Shank, P. (n.d.) The Value of Multimedia in Learning. Think Tank Retrieved from: http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/thinktank/valuemedia/,Mar 5, 2009.