We live in the era of modern technologies. The development of new programs and innovations is very useful in the process of education. One of the popular means to use a computer in teaching English is digital storytelling. Digital Storytelling is known as any combination of video, audio, texts, and images to create a non-fictional story as well as a fictional one (Saumell, 2012). This way of presentation is very interesting and captivating. How can students use it in the English lessons?
Everyone likes reading stories but listening sometimes is more captivating. There are a lot of programs that may be used by students to present their storytelling beginning from the simplest ones to the most difficult. There are no difficulties for students to make the presentation in the Microsoft Office PowerPoint but as for storytelling, the Windows Movie Maker Software should be used. Students may use music, videos, pictures, and narratives in their digital storytelling. There are a lot of advantages to using digital storytelling in English lessons. It develops communication and creative skills. It makes the process of education more interesting and engages the students in this process. Students may use their imagination and multimedia skills to present their knowledge (Karaoglu, 2009).
Let us cast light upon the variety of tools that may be used in digital storytelling. Voicethread is one of the most popular tools used by teachers as well as by students in presentations. This tool helps students to tell about the video or the story. A bubble is one of the means enjoyed by the students. It helps to create comic images using pictures from Flickr (Karaoglu, 2009). Xtranormal program allows adding text to the images and animations. Zimmer Twins is the program of creating animations, adding sound effects to them. Bookr creates books retrieving images from Flickr (Saumell, 2012). Storybird is a story creator with the data of images that may be used in digital storytelling.
It is easy to search for images that are available in his program by typing the keyword. Having found the necessary image students may add text to it. Students may also use slideshows in their digital storytelling. Imageloop, onetruemedia, comeeko, bubbleshare, flektor, sliderocket are also may be helpful for this task.
It is not difficult to create captivating digital storytelling. Firstly, the students should decide what the storytelling is about. Then, they may search for appropriate images or videos which help them to present their story. It will be easier to create slides when students can work with videos and images. Movie Maker Software is used to cut videos, add the necessary effects and combine videos using the voice to present them. If the students can not use difficult programs there are videos on the internet which are may be used as guidance.
There is a great variety of programs that may be helpful for creating digital storytelling. Everything is possible in the time of modern technologies and innovation. Students may try themselves at producing and creating. This method of teaching makes the English lessons more interesting and effective. Students develop their creative and imaginative skills and practice their language creating such digital storytelling. Teachers should not underestimate this modern method of teaching and the results do not make them wait for a long time.
Works Cited
Karaoglu, Ozge. Digital Storytelling. 2009. Web.
Saumell, Vicky. Digital Storytelling. 2012. Web.