Using Bubblr in Teaching

My First Bubblr Story - "La Ciudad de Barcelona"

There are various ways for me to use Bubblr (using Flickr photographs) as a teacher and even more ways for my students to use this tool that will promote engagement in second language learning.

The story I created with Bubblr is about the city of Barcelona in Spain. All photographs used depicted real places in the city.  Each page showed a different scene of the city and the text explains what the place is/the name of the place/what you might find there.  I could use stories like this in my future classroom in order to show students what different Spanish speaking places look like and how they compare to where they live/cities in the United States.  An objective for a lesson/activity involving this might be:

·         Students will be able to compare and contrast the city of Barcelona to the city of Buffalo. 

I could also use a story like this one to practice/introduce/review vocabulary for PLACES.  As we read the story out loud in class, I could highlight the places vocabulary and have students repeat the words after me and define them in English (for review).  To extend the lesson, and depending on the grade level, I could ask students to tell me what things they might find in each of the places stated throughout the story.  Objectives for an activity like this would be:

·         Students will be able to identify and orally state review places vocabulary.

·         Students will be able to recognize places depicted in pictures and orally state what items you can find in that particular place (in Spanish).

Students could also create their own stories like these after doing research about a Spanish speaking country/city and present them to the class.  Other Bubblr story topics that students create might be based on a vocabulary or grammar theme.  Objectives for these story creations might be:

·         Students will write a short story correctly in a specified tense.

·         Students will write a short story correctly including specified vocabulary words.

·         Students will write a short story which includes the word/phrase (ex: “hay”) at least 5 times.

Sharing Bubblr stories in class in front of an audience will also motivate students to show their best work and encourage student ownership of their work!

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a new literacy practice that is highly useful in the educational setting.  As stated in the article 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, “digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digi­tal content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component.” Basically, it lets a person tell a story by using computer-based tools. I think the best thing about digital storytelling is that a story can be created with any sort of path, combination, and media integration. It gives the author a limitless amount of resources and allows for maximum creativity.  Another great point made at the site called Center for Digital Storytelling is that literally anyone has the ability to create a digital story.  It explains that a digital storyteller is, “Anyone who has a desire to document life experience, ideas, or feelings through the use of story and digital media. Usually someone with little to no prior experience in the realm of video production but time to spend a few days attending a workshop and developing a story with creative support and technical assistance from compassionate, highly experienced facilitators.” This means that any student can create a digital story with the guidance and support from a teacher (the facilitator).  Making a digital story promotes confidence and encourages ownership of their creation.  It lets students express themselves through literacy and media in a way that pencil and paper does not allow.

                According to 7 Things You Should Know About Digital Storytelling, “A digital story typically begins with a script. The storyteller then assembles rich media to support the ideas and emotions in that script, including music or other audio effects, personal or public-domain images, animations or video, and other electronic ele­ments. The storyteller pieces together and edits the digital story, creating a short movie, usually about two to four minutes long, in one of various file formats.”

                The uses of digital storytelling in any classroom are endless, especially in a foreign language classroom! Digital stories can take on any kind of topic and contain different points of view. The website The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling mentions that, “The topics that are used in Digital Storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in one's own community to the search for life in other corners of the universe, and literally, everything in between.” In my future Spanish classroom, I can use digital storytelling for multiple topics.  For example, students could create digital stories about Spanish-speaking countries/cultures/holidays, make children’s books based on a specific topic, and write a digital story using a certain tense (events that have happened in the past or what they hope to happen in the future).  There is room for digital storytelling in any curriculum.  All you need is a little imagination!

Photo by umjanedoan (Flickr)