A huge thanks to Bernard Robin for his fast response to my query about Digital Storytelling. His DS website at the University of Houston is a great starting point for any one interested in this aspect of education; it includes exemplars, powerpoints and links. It is interesting that in his email to me Bernard states 'there is not very much research data so far that looks at the effectiveness of digital storytelling. One of my former doctoral students, Bulent Dogan, will be presenting a brief paper next week at the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education conference.' For educators who are interested in this sphere I am sure that Bernard would be happy to share this information. Another place with very useful information and practical links is my friend Miguel Guhlin's wikispace 'Unleash the power of digital storytelling'.
My 'story' for today was a brisk walk along beautiful Mt Maunganui beach and I am happy to share the scenery of that with you.
This year sees the beginning of a new journey for me as an educator. I have been selected as one of 5 Microsoft Innovative Teachers' scholars. My host company is Core Education, based in Christchurch and I will be working with them on their 'Jane and the Dragon' website.
The work I am doing involves the use of a new (to NZ) animation software called Marvin, developed by inchain of Australia.
This photo is of the 2008 MINTS team - (l to r) Sue Parkes of Christchurch; Jan Foster,Whakatane; myself in the middle, Nathan Kerr, Onehunga; and David Olsen, Wellington.
The five of us have already had the privilege of attending the preconference workshop on Marvin at this year's Learning@Schools conference, and a two day workshop in Auckland facilitated by Pete Somerville from Heurisko and Nils Beehre from Microsoft.
In April we fly to Hanoi in Vietnam for the Innovative Teachers conference - from this one of our presentations will be selected for the worldwide Innovative Teachers forum later this year.
