EDUC 5333 Week 1 Blog

    Hello! My name is Danna Dougan. I graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce in 2012 with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. I have taught many grade levels throughout the years, including elementary and middle school. I am currently teaching 9th-grade English and Humanities. I currently serve as a curriculum lead and as a member on the advanced academic committee at my school. I am currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Educational Technology from Southeastern Oklahoma University.  In my free time I enjoy reading, thrifting, spending time with my family and dogs, watching football, and traveling.

    After reviewing several of the articles provided and browsing multiple digital storytelling platforms, I concluded that allowing students to tell their stories digitally can significantly impact their overall engagement, creativity, and digital literacy. Popular social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, which students engage with daily, are essentially forms of digital storytelling. By incorporating similar techniques into the classroom and empowering students to create their own digital stories, educators can make learning more authentic, relevant, and engaging for today's learners. 

I am currently creating the curriculum for my Humanities class. In this class, I use the scope and sequence of Advanced Placement Human Geography while still addressing the English 1 Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and researching.  In this upcoming unit, the focus will be on cultural patterns and processes. I have been brainstorming ideas for my students to create a project where they describe the aspects of their culture as well as construct a personal narrative that describes a moment in their lives when their cultural norms were juxtaposed with those of another culture. I was planning on having my students create and present using Google Slides or Canva. However, I think this topic of study would be the perfect opportunity to incorporate digital storytelling into my classroom. 

"Being literate no longer only involves being able to read and write. The literate of the twenty-first century must be able to download, upload, rip, burn, chat, save, blog, Skype, IM, and share. " (Mullen & Wedwick, 2008, p.66) This statement really resonated with me because, I feel like too often schools and educators are not adequately adapting to the readily available technology we have in today's society, but fighting it.  We, as educators, have a responsibility to teach students to read and write, but we must also help create responsible digital citizens that know how to use technology to enhance their own learning and that includes being literate in technology. When we, as teachers and schools, educate ourselves on how the new age of students sitting in front of us learn and absorb information with the help of new literacy practices, students will become more engaged, creative, and take ownership of their learning. 

Digital storytelling practices can impact students by allowing them to have an authentic way to demonstrate their digital skills while still ensuring that they are practicing state standards. By incorporating digital storytelling in the classroom, we can confidently build and enhance the skills students need to become college and career ready.  

References 

Shelby-Caffey, C., Úbéda, E., & Jenkins, B. (2014). Digital storytelling revisited: An educator's use of an innovative literacy practice. The Reading Teacher, 68(3), 191-199.