Bookr: Me in Washington, DC

This is an example of how digital storytelling could be used for educational purposes. It was made using a site called Bookr, which allows you to use certain images from the photosharing site, Flickr, to create a digital storybook. As I mentioned in my previous post, I see a myriad of possibilities for using digital storytelling in the language classroom. In addition to some of those ideas, I think the teacher could have students create vocabulary books, with the words in English and their language. This would alow the students to demonstrate their knowledge of the language by labeling pictures with the appropriate vocabulary word. The students could write a story about their own country, which would hopefully make them feel more valued in the classroom. Also, the teacher could give the students all the same pictures and have them write stories illustrating a particular grammar point. Student could choose a song or poem in English or their own language and show what the song or poem means using pictures. Hopefully, these uses of the language will feel more authentic to them and thus will allow them to gain confidence in using the language. I think that digital storytelling has the potential to bring the language to life for the students and in turn affect their learning in a deep and positive way.