Okay! Here we go! Last year we decided to apply for a School of the Future Grant. We worked hard all year to write a grant that we thought aligned with our mission and core values. The challenge was finding something that could be integrated into what we already with in our curriculum. We have worked hard over the last several years to develop Units of Discovery that are rich and project based at every grade level. Since the Units of Discovery are the center of our program, we wanted an angle that would be accesible to all teachers and students while promoting 21st century literacy. We came up with digital storytelling and our challenge this year will be to integrate a Digital Storytelling component into one unit of discovery per grade level.
So far we have identified the units, given each teacher a copy of Jason Ohler's Digital Storytelling Book, created a teacher resource Wiki, hired a technology specialist to help manage the grant and hired a digital media expert to support the teachers. Additionally we have arranged for a Skype with Jason Ohler on August 11th and a 2 day Digital Storytelling Workshop with Silvia Tolisano who manages the Langwitches Blog and who has published a wonderful resource called Digital Storytelling for Educators.
We have loaded Audacity, Photo Story and Movie Maker on all of our HP Mini Laptops. Next we need to figure out what equipment to buy for the students & teachers. We are thinking Canon Power Shots for still images and Flip Mini's for the video. We are also considering IPOD Touches for capturing audio. We also need to get everyone speakers and probably one more multimedia projector. Oh and tripods and cases and external hard drives etc. This is fun!!!
So far we have identified the units, given each teacher a copy of Jason Ohler's Digital Storytelling Book, created a teacher resource Wiki, hired a technology specialist to help manage the grant and hired a digital media expert to support the teachers. Additionally we have arranged for a Skype with Jason Ohler on August 11th and a 2 day Digital Storytelling Workshop with Silvia Tolisano who manages the Langwitches Blog and who has published a wonderful resource called Digital Storytelling for Educators.
We have loaded Audacity, Photo Story and Movie Maker on all of our HP Mini Laptops. Next we need to figure out what equipment to buy for the students & teachers. We are thinking Canon Power Shots for still images and Flip Mini's for the video. We are also considering IPOD Touches for capturing audio. We also need to get everyone speakers and probably one more multimedia projector. Oh and tripods and cases and external hard drives etc. This is fun!!!
