Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling

Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling introduces educators to digital storytelling and explores ways to use digital stories to enhance students’ learning experiences. The course is designed to be comprehensive yet fundamental. By comprehensive we mean that the course provides a solid foundation for all of the components of a digital story and illustrates these components with tutorials, example stories, and links to additional readings. The course also provides a hands-on opportunity for learners to create their own digital stories. The course is fundamental because it covers the basic process of creating a digital story starting with just a simple script and as little as one image. This course is intended for K-12 teachers in all disciplines, although it is open to anyone with an interest in digital storytelling. Course participants will use WeVideo (https://www.wevideo.com/), a free web-based video editing program, to create a digital story that could be shared both online and with students in the classroom. Teachers in the state of Texas may be eligible to receive Continuing Professional Education units if they complete the major requirements of the course

• Understand the fundamentals and components of digital storytelling
• Apply methods to enhance learning using digital stories
• Create simple digital stories using text and images
• Utilize multimedia to enrich storytelling
• Employ digital tools to enhance teaching

• Basic computer and internet skills
• Ability to read course instructions in English and complete short practice activities