Technology & Topics for Educators
Mr. Becksfort
January 20, 2011
Journal Review
In the article "Digital Storytelling in Teacher Education; Transformations through Narrative" written by James R. Skouge and Kavita Rao they describe using digital storytelling to promote teaching core values and inquiry-based learning. Skouge and Rao work in the Special Education Department at the University of Hawaii. Digital storytelling uses a variety of techniques including things such as photographs, news media, video recordings, audio, slide shows, and music to name a few. They content that "digital storytelling provides an engaging way to bring lessons about community, culture, local values, and traditions into the classroom" (54). The idea is to use these varying types of technology to tell a story and then to share the "story" with others. Sharing the story should promote a better understanding of the person, issues, or concerns being addressed. Skouge and Rao state "Our technique may be summed up with tree swords: explore, reflect, and envision. Students explore with hands-on learning, reflect on their learning, and envision how they might apply the technology in their classroom" (59).
There are great ideas provided in this article. However, I would have liked to have learned more about how they used this with special needs children. They did discuss a college age girl who is in a wheel chair. She video taped aspects of her daily life and the challenges she faces navigating through her environment. The digital story revealed major problems with her handicap accessible apartment. The idea of the project was to share the video with others to enlighten the general public of what it is like to live and move through an environment in a wheel chair. Unfortunately, the article really did not give more examples of using digital storytelling with special needs children.
With that said, there are several ideas I though would work for this population of students. The first way I would employ this method in a special education classroom would be with nonverbal children or children with speech problems. Imagine handing them a video camera and letting them video their surroundings. A teacher might be surprised what the student would choose to tape. You may gain insight to what interests them or what does not interest them. This type of information could then be used to taylor lesson plans and/or aid in creating a reward system for desired behaviors.
It is common to see special education teachers use social stories to explain desired behaviors and desired outcomes. These social stories are written at their level and typically story board type medium. Digital storytelling would add a new dimension. It allows the story to come alive for the student and may help clarify what the teacher wants from them.
Special education teachers use the computer to enhance reading skills. There are programs to help children with word recognition, sentence structure, and phonics. It is also common to see picture icons and text written with symbols to enhance reading success. Digital storytelling could be another tool used to help students with concepts such as beginning, middle, and end. Setting up a project for the students to make their own book. The book could be about themselves or something that interests them. The student could use pictures, names, and settings from their own life. Engaging them in such a project could enhance their interest and encourage inquiry-based learning.
Finally,a special education teacher could share these digital stories with the community, other students, typical teachers and parents. The end goal of sharing is to create a better understanding and hopefully more empathy toward the uniqueness of this population of children. The visual medium is a powerful tool. With the advances in technology and the availability to teachers, digital storytelling has great promise in the classroom.
Source: Skouge, James R.: Rao, Kavita. Educational Perspectives, v42 n1-2 p. 54-60 2009. Database ERIC. www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ej858390.pdf
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