One of my middle school English teachers had a critical thinking exercise called "Hot Potato" . She would place all 25 of us in a circle of chairs. She had in her possession a timer set to go off every minute. She also had a small squeezable Nerf ball. She sat the timer, began a story, when the timer went off she would toss the ball to a random student, the minute timer started. we had to add onto her story, no matter how bizarre or ridiculous it got. The timer goes off, the student tosses to ball to another student, the improvised story continued. No student got the ball twice. The game ended after the last student's time ended. The next day somehow the teacher had typed accounts of all our stories (tape recorded). Our assignment was to sort out a main theme, and create flowing story. Our participation and our revised stories was what we were graded on.
Which brings us to the concept of Digital Storytelling,, an effective concept collaborative learning. in the classroom. Students will use EdTech tools, such as video, audio and photos or other images. There should be no limits of what topics can me presented. Here are some project outcomes students can expect:
Offer explanations of unique topics.
Retell a personal event or life experience.
Re-creating an important page from history.
Advocating an idea and presenting opposing views (Debate).
These presentations don't have to be no more that 3-4 minutes long, but a lot of work goes into that time-span. Next, you have to write a Script along with doing some Storyboarding. You can do this manually, or use some of the many EdTech tools available online, like StoryboardThat, Boords, and Canva, just to name a few.
Collect all your media...which includes your Voice Over elements, Images and Videos, and Music and Sound Effects. Remember this is a collaborated effort of the students, observe how well they work together, disagree, and compromise.
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