Wicked Project Part B: TPACK Application

Technology Pedagogical Knowledge

The use of digital storytelling though the use of iMovie supports the teaching and support of student writing development. Digital storytelling integrates written, oral, visual, and literacy into the use of technology literacy. "Creating digital stories acts as a motivator for students, thus they remain engaged throughout the project (Burn & Reed, 1999). Additionally, digital stories provide an alternative conduit of expression for those students who struggle with writing traditional text" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 284). My students have been struggling with writing and making their ideas focused and with a clear organization of beginning, middle and end. With the technology use of a digital story it connects with the world that the students are living in currently since they are enthralled with movies, video games, and the use of the Internet. "Students in contemporary classrooms are the first generation enveloped by sophisticated computers, video games, digital music players, cell phones, and other tools of the digital age. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics (2005) in 2003, 83.5% of students in the United States used computers in school and 67.6% used computers at home" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 286-287). Digital storytelling is a motivating tool that helps to slow down the thought process of writing that my students move so quickly through. Students still go through the process of using pencil and paper to create a whole class writing piece on fantasy but then technology motivation comes into play since the writing piece needs to be edited and revised before it can be published using iMovie. Students need to reflect upon if there writing was on topic and if there was a clear beginning, middle, and end. If not, there will be revisions made before editing can be done to select scenes to be illustrated and voices recorded for the final published product. The writing process is still in play the whole time but is slowed down since some time needs to be taken to reflect on the writing piece before it is published. "Struggling writers are seldom strategic writers; however, the components of creating digital story-telling may help them compose more strategically"(Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).


Technological Content Knowledge

The use of digital storytelling technology makes my problem of students struggling with writing more intellectually accessible. Students have had interactions with movies, books, and power point presentations that all have beginning, middles, and endings. The use of digital storytelling is another tool to organize thinking with visual, written, and oral representations that also have a beginning, middle and end. Since students have had these previous technology experiences of organizing thinking before publishing (such as using power point for a presentation) I can then scaffold their old knowledge to the new knowledge of iMovie. By students ordering their writing into slides on iMovie this will help with their organization of thinking with writing since a story needs to be in chronological order for it to make sense. Students will have many experiences to reread their writing since groups will be illustrating and recording their voices to the final product. This will allow them to continually reflect upon it to see if the writing is on topic the whole time and make sure that it does not stray from being a fantasy story.
I believe that motivation will also be a huge component in this use of digital storytelling. The technology as a whole is new to the students but the elements within it are not new to my students. They have scanned in their pictures before, typed, and recorded their voices using Voicethread. Putting it all together and sharing it with such a large audience will be new to the students (We are going to share it with families and the district technology page).
"Digital storytelling has the capacity to not only motivate struggling writers as they experience the enjoyment of creating stories enhanced by multimedia, but also to reposition themselves from struggling writers to competent writers" (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

The pedagogical choices are supportive of making the content in my problem more intellectually accessible to my 4th grade students. Knowing my students and their prior knowledge is an important factor to scaffold their development, since I have already exposed them to writing and then typing, recording voices, and adding illustrations by scanning in drawings or adding clip art. These are technology skills that they have been continuing to grow and expand on and using a new technology will support students seeing the transfer that skills are not only used in one medium whether it is with the use of technology or not.
Reflection and feedback will be another important instructional strategy as we will be writing our fantasy story as a whole class. Then we will then reflect upon our writing on to see if the writing is on topic and clearly organized. Students will give me feedback as to whether this is true or if I need to make corrections. In turn I will give them feedback to support any lacking areas when revising. When editing, students will then have to make decisions as to how to divide up the story to then be illustrated and voiced.

"Struggling writers are seldom strategic writers; however, the components of creating digital storytelling may help them compose more strategically. Students’ narrations of their stories reduce overt weaknesses in conventions such as spelling, capitalization, and handwriting. The process of storyboarding facilitates the introduction of events in a logical and orderly sequence thereby illuminating gaps or omissions overlooked in a traditionally composed draft. When these breaks in the flow of the story are realized, the writer can make necessary revisions in the draft before recording the narration. While competent writers employ sensory words, dialogue, and figurative language to make the story vivid for the reader, a struggling writer may overlook important details that are central to the story. Photographs, clip art, or other graphics may visually compensate for the details that the struggling writer inadvertently omits. When a digital story is composed to be viewed by others, it promotes the writer’s awareness of audience, purpose, and form, an awareness not always demonstrated by less capable writers." (Ruth Sylvester, Wendy-lou Greenidge page 291).