Reflection on Digital Story and Peer Review 9/13

Digital Story Reflection

The digital story projects instilled a sense of cultural pride in me. Through digital medium I was able to express creativity and my own personal story. I felt like I was given cultural capital by the advantages of where I was from. In a society that exploits my culture in the media as being uneducated and dangerous, I can understand how important cultural pride can be for self-esteem (O’Brian 2003). I was able to upload pictures showing family crafts and traditions, like sewing and reading. I think that the project helped the class reach a better understanding of each other. Cultural deficits like negative assumptions about personality due to where someone was from would have been challenged in a classroom doing this project.  I find that I was impressed with my classmates’ accomplishments and their devotion to their family or friends.

 The project allowed me to explore different learning styles and use untraditional resources. I was allowed to use technology that I was familiar with by using a computer. Peer reviews were helpful to me and it allowed me a glimpse into other opinions and insights. Peers and family served as funds of knowledge to make my poem accurate and make a clear, organized digital story. I connected to the combination of visual, kinesthetic, and reading and writing learning styles, because I am proficient in learning through both visual and reading and writing. This project introduced me to a new way of writing, and a variety of writing styles are useful in school and out (2011).

Teachers can learn from assignments such as the digital story, and they can adjust material accordingly. Teachers would learn about their students’ interests through this lesson. It is also an indicator of what things students need to work on like writing or organization. This activity opened up the possibility for my class to have more open-ended projects, because the instructor now knows what the class is capable of (2006).

Sources:

<O'Brian, J. (2003, May 10). Tall tales of appalacia. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html?pagewanted=1>

<Ncte beliefs about the teaching of writing. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/governance/writing>

<Principles for culturally responsive teaching. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml>