Digital Storytelling / Windows Movie Maker

Overview
Digital Storytelling is using the age old skill of creating stories but through utilising current technology. So instead of having stories only in books or through verbal recounting, teachers and students can now create stories through using a "variety of available multimedia tools, including graphics, audio, video animation, and Web publishing" (NSW Department of Education NSW Country Areas Program, 2010). It is in effect creating a movie or multimedia presentation to convey a story.

Windows Movie Maker is a great tool for Digital Storytelling, you can add pictures, music, webcam and other items to create a movie.

Strength
Storytelling is a means of combining literature and multimedia. Windows Movie Maker is reasonably easy to use and has lots of features including being able to time the introduction of different features and how the slides enter the feature.

Weakness
Time consuming, scaffolding and mentoring will be needed for some students, but when learned it is a skill that can transfer to other programs they will use later in life.

Opportunity
Great for English, History or any subject that students can create or narrate a story.

Threat
Time consuming and definite scaffolding needed to ensure satisfactory outcomes are achieved.

Compatibility to learning styles
Great for visual, interpersonal, musical and linguistic learners, but would suit most styles.

What learning theory it is most used for (links to this blog site)

Movie Maker can be used for Constructivism or Social Constructivism, and Vygotsky's ZPD would be a great method to use in teaching movie making. Also Situated Cognition as it relates to the real world.

Meaning to me
A great tool to use in the classroom, it can be used in place of oral presentations for students that feel uncomfortable with public speaking. Some features are similar to Power Point, but Movie Maker is more dedicated to creating a movie than a slide presentation.

I am going to need more practice with this because it has been trying to upload / process for about 4 hours now.

NSW Department of Education NSW Country Areas Program. (2010). Digital Storytelling. Retrieved 15 December, 2010, from http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/digital_storytelling/digital_storytelling.htm