As a favor to my super cool Cable in the Classroom editor-friend, Ellen Ullman, I'm posting the following question.
Comment and you may be contacted about including what your school is doing in the Cable in the Classroom magazine. (Be sure not to comment anonymously or if you do, e-mail me at coolcatteacher at gmail dot com with your contact information.)
I think it is great that magazines are including thoughts from the blogosphere.
Digital media can help teachers use the arts to enhance many areas of the
curriculum. How have you incorporated arts and media into your class
projects?
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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6 comments
We use both arts and digital media by having students particpate in videos using reader’s theater and create their own projects using iMovie as a way of motivating reluctant writers and English Language Learners.
My fourth grade classroom is creating podcasts about the different labs we are doing in science this year. We’re hoping to develop them into vodcasts before the end of the year. This is addition to the photostory montages that my scientists create for every lab we do as well. They are allowed to add as much content as they’d like and then we “review” the lab photo stories before we test. It’s made a world of difference in my class, as only the students who have their lab write ups completed and approved are allowed to become my pod cast professionals.
The great thing about digital media is that it is so ubiquitous. Digital images are easily obtained and combined into videos, videos are easily combined with sound. Images can be altered and animated or taken apart and reconstructed in new ways.
Our Digital Video class explores the ways in which these elements can be brought together. For example, in our current project, students are exploring surrealism by animating still images in multi-layered video.
The flexible nature of digital media also allows us to collaborate from any distance. My students, who are in China, will be collaborating on an animation project with students in New York. Each student will create a short animation that will be stitched together into a larger project.
Once students become engaged in using digital media in the classroom, it becomes addictive. When new projects come up in other classes, they not only consider the content, but they consider the form- essay? video? podcast? These are skills that help students become better communicators.
Hey, Amber– how may we reach you? Your profile is hidden!
Amber, what a great idea. In the course I taught this summer, computer supported writing across the curriculum, I had a science teacher that said it was hard to get students to do their labs. I would think that in addition to having an incentive in completing the written lab reports, the pod casts (and later the vodcasts) will help students to understand the importance of documenting experiments and doing so using different media.
I am a library media specialist. I have had my 3rd grade students create photostories in which they retell Japanese folktales with their own illustrations; 4th grade students have created book review podcasts; 5th grade students have created photostories in which they interviewed relatives about an object that speaks about their heritage. I will also have 5th graders using voicethread next month to propose a new American holiday; 4th graders using digital mapping stories as they research native americans and explorers.
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