Digital Storytelling

When viewing examples of digital storytelling, what I enjoyed most was the examples of the moments in history clips. I thought it was a great way to entrench students in learning about where we, as Americans came from, and how it helps us to determine where we are going.  There were elements in each that I enjoyed, from hearing the voices of the past (Kennedy), music selected to coincide with the era, to seeing the atrocities of the holocaust in pictures.  Each of these elements invoked a sense of emotion within me.   What I did notice however, that in some clips in the Language Arts examples, the voice speaking, caused me to not view the entire clip, as it was dry, and did not have an ounce of enthusiasm to motivate the viewer to become involved with the piece.  Therefore, I learned a valuable lesson in how speech should be integrated with digital storytelling.   One other element I came across while surfing the net for examples, was interactive stories.  Although the subject theme was a bit mature for my class, I did find it interesting as it kept the viewer engaged, or as one with the piece.