Digital Image

"Unwearing their masks to the last notes of summer"

Photo Attribution:

http://static.flickr.com/2280/1954120087_10434b6843_m.jpg
By: Peter Shanks
This site is created and run under a creative commons attribution 2.5 license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Before this weeks lesson with my students, I would have told them to use a search engine such as yahoo or google to find certain images they were looking for. In order to give the author credit for their image, I would tell them to cite the website. Since I have always used google when searching for images, I have learned that any picture can come up, so it is important to tell my students beforehand about this.

After this lesson, I would tell my students to use either Flickr or creative commons. I feel like these images are more reliable, and are more appropriate as well, at least for younger children. For my picture above, I used FlickrCC. I searched for "fall leaves" because I was planning a lesson to teach my students about the changes in colors of leaves during this season. With this image, I also found that the author created a poem about it, so I could also incorporate this aspect of literacy into a language arts lesson. After students search for an image that they are most interested in, I would ask them to create a poem about the picture they found. I would also stress to my students about the importance of citing their images. Since all of the information is on the page, it should not be difficult to find for my young learners. I believe that students should understand that in order for them to use the images they found, it must contain a license that shoes the attritubution of the picture that the author provides. I've learned that Flickr is the best way to search for the best, most professional and reliable images, so students should be sure to give the author credit.

Teaching About First Aid

For my digital story, I created a story that informs or instructs educators on how to provide their students with first aid care. At first, it took me a while to pick what type of digital story I wanted to create, because I originally wanted to create a personal narrative story. Even though it was easier to find images dealing with my own life, I found it difficult to come up with a voice recorded story that I liked that went along with my pictures. I decided that I didn't want to focus the digital story on me personally, but I would rather make it more educational instead. I also decided to make a story that would be useful to other adults including teachers or parents that want to learn more about first aid care. I feel like I had more confidence speaking about this subject over other ones such as social studies or science. When I was creating the story for first aid, the most difficult part for me was figuring out how I wanted to approach my audience with the information I was giving them. As future educators, it is important for us to learn about children and first aid care in order to apply it successfully to the students in our classrooms. I decided to structure my story through giving instructions because this topic deals with specific issues.

Depending on how teachers present them, I think digital stories can provide great learning opportunities for students. It allows students to be more engaged in lessons being taught, by providing them a variety of interesting images, texts, and voices. Digital stories can also be used to inform or instruct students on certain things, like the digital story I created. Students can also be part of the digital stories themselves, which could really give students a chance to learn more about themselves and their classmates. Especially with the personal narratives, student could create stories about their own lives like an autobiography, or about their vacations and different places they have been to, where they have been or what they want to go. These stories could also allow them to imagine themselves in the future by asking them what they want to be when they grow up and why. It is important to make these stories as meaningful to the students as possible. Digital stories should not be used for educational purposes only, but should also provide students to express themselves creatively, and learn how to connect with people through the web.