NE OK teachers can learn about digital storytelling this summer

In the summer, teachers often spend time training for the rest of the year. Teachers in northeast Oklahoma have the opportunity to get some training in an area in which students already have a natural affinity: storytelling. An upcoming workshop on digital storytelling will be held at the Oaks Mission School on July 14-16, 2010.

Celebrate Oklahoma Voices

Engaging students with the traditional art of oral storytelling combined with the digital age is what Celebrate Oklahoma Voices is all about. This project, which began in 2006, is, as its website notes, “a statewide digital storytelling project empowering learners to become digital witnesses, archiving local oral history and sharing that history safely on the global stage of the Internet.”

The workshop provides teachers with a digital camera, audio recorder, memory stick, and all the instruction necessary to teach students how to create digital stories. One of the best parts of the instruction is that all the software that is used is free and available for download on the Internet, so teachers do not have to worry about purchasing expensive software when they return to school to implement what they have learned.
 

The Power of the Digital Story

Digital stories combine audio of students telling a story with pictures that they have taken or found. While video is another tool that teachers can use with today’s students, this medium often de-emphasizes the story itself, which is not the case with a digital story that focuses on the sound of one’s voice and the placement of images at various points along the soundtrack.

The COV learning community site has a wealth of information about the project. Some area teachers' videos and their students’ videos can also be found there.

Most teachers know how the words, “Once upon a time” can instantly captivate their students. Developing a love of stories and teaching how to create them are activities teachers of any subject can get involved in.

Reasonably-priced workshops are conducted all over the state, like the upcoming one at Oaks Mission School. Slots are still open for that and other workshops, so interested teachers can still sign up if interested.