Digital Storytelling: Making More than the Grade
This ain’t your mama’s high school history class.
Education is changing from being lecture-based to emphasizing interaction and collaboration. No more absorbing and spitting out information to make a grade.
Take, for example, the American Immigration Digital Storytelling Project by students at Life Academy High School in Oakland, Calif. The project was sponsored by the National Writing Project and Pearson Foundation. Students interviewed a family member of friend about the immigrant experience, knowing their end product would be a voiceover narrative.
They didn’t just write an essay and turn it in.
Working in pairs, students brainstormed and pared their stories down to the most compelling parts. They composed storyboards, analyzed best practices on the Internet and constantly edited their writing.
“This process of recording, listening, editing, and re-recording allowed students to shoot for mastery over their voiceover narrative, rather than simply completion of the project,” teacher-consultant Clifford Lee writes.
How often do you see students concerned about writing and performance for its own sake? They examined the feeling of their language and how it flowed when written and when spoken. They thought about the audience that would interact with their pieces.
Let’s not forget the human interaction experience. Students learn conflict resolution when dealing with a peer partner they may not get along with. They manage the struggle to pin down interview times and acquire the sound bytes they need from interviewees.
Most importantly, from scratch, they tell a true story of human struggle.
“It’s a human being you’re doing the story about, so you put all the effort and all the time you can because we’re making it for somebody who has sacrificed, so he can have a better life here,” said student Israel.
Have you seen similar projects in your community that compel students to collaborate and think critically? Are you seeing a trend toward this type of learning?
