Digital Storytelling

Using visual media in the form of videos to introduce content to your classroom is not foreign to most teachers, but actually creating, editing, and producing that content usually is. Going into this project, I was unsure of what exactly I would create, but I decided to go with a subject which I had seen in action in my elementary practicum placement this semester - accountable talk.

I had experience editing videos because I used to run a webshow on YouTube in high school. However, I had always used Windows Movie Maker, and our directions for this assignment were to use iMovie. iMovie is fairly straightforward but as with all Apple software, takes some getting used to if you are a primarily a PC user. I decided to pair a voiceover about using accountable talk in the classroom with images of responsible classroom talk and instruction, and take advantage of the "Star Wars" themed title to sort of make it into a story for the kids - that they could "save" their classroom through accountable talk. 

Videos are extremely useful in order to get kids excited about a topic and to stimulate visual learners or take a break from the monotony of lecture, but I do think that it can be tempting to rely on video for more than is necessary.