Our current assignment in CEP800 is to explore Digital Storytelling and how the components of good story telling can be tailored to an educational experience. Since my 'students' are the faculty at my school, I wanted to create a learning experience that would benefit them. Instead of approaching an academic topic, I picked a new iPad application called Nearpod, that I wanted to introduce to the teachers. I have actually modeled the application in a few of my Professional Development seminars to that the teachers can experience how the application and technology can be used to engage the student in the learning experience,.
I knew that I wanted to provide an overview of the app and show the teacher how easy it was to convert an existing powerpoint presentation, which nearly all of my faculty use daily. I also wanted to use the Digital medium to transport them and to provide an emotional connection to the material. I was happy with the way that the video turned out and though it was more instructional than 'story', I feel like it flowed well and draws the viewer into the content. I am hopeful that my faculty will use the video as a primer to get started implementing the application.
I did draw some inferences to Vygotsky's work and discuss how prior knowledge of technology use affects the perspective of the learner.
Take a look at the video (6 min) and please leave a comment about what you experience.
Teaching with Nearpod
