As a librarian it is exciting to find different ways of engaging students and making learning fun. When I worked at the public library, we always had different themes for every month. One of the themes celebrated during the month of March is Women's History. And although we can use print and electronic resources to teach about women's history, using podcasts can really captivate the students' attention.
This is one of the reasons I like NPR. It has a variety of good podcasts and I particularly like the Tell Me More About Women's History collection. This collection of podcasts tell about the lives of influential women in history and the significance of their accomplishments.
I would definitely use this collection of podcasts to enhance a month long celebration of women's accomplishments in history. I would also have the students build on these podcasts by creating podcasts of their own, about other historical women.
While navigating through the ePals website, I kept thinking about global collaboration.
This resource gives a new meaning to the term "pen pals". In our technologically fueled world this FREE resource puts similar minds together, even while countries apart. And while ePals offers many opportunities for collaboration, I found an useful feature for learning about cultural differences.
The feature I found most useful was "Choose a project. Find a classroom. Collaborate!" It was wonderful to see how students can work together and learn from each other. There are many countries to select and the ideas for projects are very interesting. One particular project idea I liked was "why do we celebrate?". This project is a fantastic resource for teaching about cultures and foreign languages. With this project students can find out first hand about a cultural celebration by asking a student from another country.
As a librarian, this feature would be beneficial to assist students while they are learning about different countries. I would also take it a step further and integrate an ePals project with a class to bring awareness to multiculturalism. Having students establish communication and collaborating on online projects can enhance their technology skills and prepare them for working with more Web 2.0 tools.
In a previous post I discussed the many ways digital storytelling can be used in the classroom. Using digital storytelling is a great way to have your students acquire and use technology skills, practice on their writing and be creative. Web tools for digital storytelling include Animoto,Slideroll and Stupeflix. All of these sites are great for creating short stories with music, photos, and text.
There are many ways of using digital storytelling for teaching. Students in English class could re-enact scenes from a book and arrange them as a short story. (An activity such as this one would demonstrate their comprehension of the material being read in class). Include Poetry in your slides along relevant images to increase understanding of the writer's work. And instead of writing assignments, encourage the students to use digital storytelling when writing essays on vacations and class trips.
Include the students' ideas in what they would like to create with digital storytelling. Have them brainstorm in groups and create a "storyboard" for their project. If you are teaching History include photos from your travels and discuss the sights with your students.
Using digital stories in the classroom can open a whole new world for many students. Here teachers have the opportunity to bring cities and countries the students have never visited. It is a creative way of starting great discussions with your students. I guarantee they will love using these digital storytelling tools.
