Week 12 Assignment 1

Integrating technology in the classroom is a great way to boost literacy instruction. Technology plays a major role in our students' lives and is present during most of their daily activities.

Including technology in the classroom will keep students motivated and engaged. Furthermore, integrating technology provides opportunities for authentic learning tasks. Students can use technological tools to construct their own knowledge, learn to to work collaboratively, and acquire and master skills they will need upon joining the workforce. 

Specifically, digital storytelling is a great technological tool to include in literacy instruction. Students can create digital stories in response to a teacher's open-ended question or task or even choose their own topics to write about. They can work in groups and increase their social skills or work independently and strengthen their adeptness at technolgical tasks. Additionally, teachers can differentiate instruction and appoint group members to different tasks based on their learning strengths. Digital storytelling is a great way to motivate and engage students. Students love to write about their interests and dreams and read books that they've created on their own.

Digital storytelling is full of authenticity since students present their stories to their peers, other classes, and even parents as a culminating activiy. Assessing digital stories can easily be done using a rubric. Rubrics are great since they specify expectations, providing students with a clear picture of what they need to do.

I'd like to integrate digital storytelling in my own literacy instruction. I'd have students create biographies on famous people and historical texts related to our social studies unit. Students would use digital cameras, video recorders and various software programs to create their stories. I'd have them create stroyboards before  completing their first drafts and peer critique other students' writings before publishing. Finally, students would present their stories to their parents ensuring that the writing activity is authentic.

Here is a lesson plan with technology integration.