Digital Storytelling With Animoto

La Ciudad de Oaxaca

The digital story I created with Animoto was intended to be a visual stimulating video that mixed photographs and vocabulary.  I chose to use my own photographs from when I studied in Mexico.  This way, students are not only being presented vocabulary words, but introduced to concepts of another culture.  In a classroom setting this video could be used for various purposes.

For example, most simply, this digital story could be used as a way for students to review vocabulary on their own while outside of the classroom if given the URL.  Additionally, during an actual class, the story could be shown and used for students to practice recognizing pictures of vocabulary words and saying those words out loud.  For instance, (for reviewing) I could show the video, but stop it before each vocabulary word is shown and have the students guess out loud what term matches the picture presented.  I could also stop the video while the word is shown on the screen and have the students repeat it after me several times, for introducing the vocabulary terms.

For a more advanced level Spanish class, I could use this digital story as a precursor to writing.  It would serve as an “anticipatory set” to a writing activity.  After watching the video I could have the students write short narratives about “a day in the city of Oaxaca..” and ask them to include things like: What did you see, hear, taste, smell?, Where did you go?, What did you do?, and Who did you see? (based on the visual stimulation from the digital story).  A writing piece like this could also have a focus on using the past tense.

I could also create a lesson of comparison/contrast between this Mexican city and the area we live in (where the students live).  A more advanced level Spanish class could write essays of this nature in the target language. 

I think digital stories that integrate photos, videos, and music are great tools for teaching BOTH culture and subject area content! They also have the ability to engage a variety of learners, including visual, musical, linguistic, and naturalistic.



Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.