Digital Storytelling with Minimal Clicks: Improving Reading and Writing Skills

http://www.scholastic.com/ just published an article stating that kids are reading more than ever due to the Internet: podcasts, blogs, social networks like facebook and myspace. On http://www.flickr.com/, the presenter has a group called "Tell a Story with 5 Photos for Educators". It is a place to post your student's digital stories. http://www.voicethread.com/ is a pay site, not very much as I remember, where you can create digital stories and post them there, some were very cute and moving. http://www.celebrateoklahomavoices.ning.com/ is a site where digital stories are uploaded based on oral history of the state.....very interesting. Maybe Lamping kids can interview grandparents etc. and create some oral history of their own...podcasts with pix? Tips for Professional Develpoment....Give teachers digital cameras, send them outside or at least away for an hour, bring them back, download pictures and create digital stories. You can use http://www.voicethreads.com/ for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Birthdays, Christmas, etc. You can use http://www.gabcast.com/ to phone in comments to http://www.voicethreads.com/ http://www.voicethread.com/ has step by step directions and it is free for teachers!