Almost ready to start

I am almost ready to start with the Digital storytelling. I have spent a fair bit of time transforming the ideas into a concrete set of activities that the students will be able to follow and that will result in the desired final product. Kirk has spent time looking over what I have done, and giving me crash courses on how to design a program. We have completed the introductory section, where the students find out what they are to do, how to set up their folders to easily access and identify their work, and how to start recording their stories. We hashed out separating their stories into parts, recording them and then doing the audio editing of each part. Next comes the part where they transfer their story into Moviemaker, and make it a good sound recording of their voice, complete with emphasis, pauses, pronunciation and natural flow. Once the sound is good, enhancement of the story with pictures and images is the next step. I haven't found out how to properly cite these images yet-that's tomorrow's lesson. After all of the recording, editing, revision, adding of pics is done, the story should be a complete whole, ready to be submitted.

Because I am doing this with my senior students, I not only want them to complete a digital storytelling experience, but I also want them to do some final analyses. Throughout the experience, they will be keeping a daily journal. In this journal, there will be a record of what they did each day, what they changed or kept of their original story, and how they feel about all of that. This journal will be an excellent reference tool for them once they do the comparison part. The comparison part will be around 2 pages long, wherein they will compare their original written version to the final digital version. It will also include their growth process, from knowing nothing about digital storytelling, to being experts. Final analyses will also include peer editing, personal reflection of each of the steps, an explanation of their successes and prides, as well as their challenges and obstacles. There will be checklists, KWL sheet, entrance and/or exit cards, and a personal assessment.

I think I am ready to go!!