Digital Storytelling

Well, maybe a dolphin or two or eight or ten. And the bluest water and widest range of blues you’ve ever seen. That’s professional development Florida DEN Institute style! It’s hard for me to put a strictly digital storytelling spin on the last six days of sharing because it’s really all about bringing it all together.

At the risk of playing favorites with team presentations, I am going to spotlight one project that not only tickled my funny bone, but fed my love of puns. Those who remember “The Dating Game” would love the bachelorette diamond (in the rough?) trying to blindly choose between (“don’t take me for”) granite, igneous (“we could have a hot time”), and sedimentary (“many layered personality”) in a multimedia lesson design to teach about rocks. After listening to and watching the presentation, students have to make the diamond’s choice for her based on scientific reasons.

And then there was one that used the credit card “priceless” format. What a great way to highlight or summarize just about anything. They focused on our learning experiences, but consider Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” - Conquering Gaul: 100,000 denarii; crossing the Rubicon and taking over the senate: 1,000,000 gold talents; trusting Brutus and ignoring the ides of March: priceless!

A cultural P.S. that may be a reflection of the times. On my only trip off the boat, Hall and I went looking for a steel drum band CD in Nassau. Nothing. Nada. Rien. Lots of blank stares until Hall found a guy willing to download some songs from iTunes, but he didn’t have any blank CD’s to burn them onto. Finally, some locals directed us just off the beaten path where we found one single album languishing in a stack behind the register. And then when Hall brought it back and played it, it sounded suspiciously like a synthesizer with sampled steel drum tones!