Banaszewski, Tom.“Digital
storytelling finds its place in the classroom.”(January/February
2002).Multimedia
Schools.Retrieved
Banaszewski incorporated the Apple iMovie video-editing program into his fourth and fifth grade
storytelling Place Project. He described the step-by-step process that he used and gave tips on best practices.
Students were asked to choose a place that was important to them, describe their feelings about the place, and tell what made
that place memorable. After writing, the students then needed to add graphics. Each student’s project was
limited to three minutes. Students worked as peer coaches.Banaszewski cautioned the reader that a
project such as digital storytelling requires the teacher to surrender control and become more of a facilitator. He said
that he recently spent over an hour searching the Internet for iMovie tip sites and found dozens of tutorials and
samples.What was lacking were suggestions for how to manage the project in a classroom. Consequently,
Banaszewski offered his
expertise in this article.
I chose this article because I enjoy doing a storytelling unit with fifth grade students. Typically, they read and
retell a Native American legend, which integrates with their social studies unit. Sometimes, I videotape them, and,
usually, I take volunteers to kindergarten to perform. Students respond enthusiastically to the unit overall because they
want to act out the story. They become intimidated immediately when I bring out the camcorder, yet they cannot wait to
see each other on the finished product. Since I am always looking for a new angle, I was interested in the title “digital
storytelling.” I am not familiar with iMovie, and I do not have a digital camcorder. However, I do know
that you can connect a camcorder to the computer. Banaszewski emphasized repeatedly that storytelling, not
technology, was the focus of the project. Nevertheless, it was apparent that the technology piece consumed a great deal
of class time. He recommended finding parents to tape the students as they read aloud their scripts. Also, he said
that he spent about two hours importing and extracting students’ clips of images. In my experience, many worthwhile
instructional units take a long time to complete, and they should not be rushed simply for the sake of time. The value
that I perceive of the digital storytelling is the whole review process that occurred because it was digital, and their peers
critiqued each other. They learned the benefit of voice and facial expression when retelling a story, and they found that
a story is told in sequence. They had to use concise and precise language due to the three minute time
frame. Thus, their writing improved as they learned new technology.