Unit 6 - YouTube & Digital Storytelling

In Unit 6 our technology exploration focused on digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is something that I am somewhat familiar with as my students often like to submit their “book talks” in a digital storytelling format. In addition, we were also required to create a YouTube video for a previous course in this program that focused on two books with similar themes. I have to admit that while creating my YouTube video, it seemed as though nothing could go wrong! I created what I had thought was an EXCELLENT book talk that was about 18 minutes long. I tried to upload my video to YouTube only to have it rejected. After some research, I found that videos submitted to YouTube needed to be 10 minutes or less. So, I had to redo my entire project, cutting out many important aspects in order to be able to post the video.

The fact that YouTube would only allow videos that were 10 minutes or less was annoying to me simply because I wanted to have my project finished; however, I started to think about the benefit that this time limit may have with my honors students. For some reason, I have found that honors students believe that the more they submit for a paper or project, the better their grade will be. Perhaps they believe this because if they submit more than the required amount, it shows that they put more effort into their presentation. However, as the teacher, I have found that “more” is not always better. Most of the time the added work takes away from the purpose of the assignment and hurts the final grades assigned. With this in mind, I have recently started putting restrictions on my honor students. I am trying to teach them that “less can be more” and “to make their words count.” For writing assignments, I tell them that the paper must be three pages in length. If it if over three pages, I will not grade it. At first, they didn’t take me seriously. It wasn’t until I handed the papers back and told them three pages or less that they got the point. Doing this truly made them think about their writing and whether or not they were “making their words count.” In reality, it was and editing strategy that I was helping them learn.

Having a limitation of 10 minutes on YouTube is another way to keep students “in check.” Often, I allow students the option of creating a video to go along with their projects and book talks. The majority of the movies are typically 30 minutes or more. Having students submit a project via YouTube would make them revise their projects until they met the 10 minutes or less stipulation. However, I will first have to convince my district to allow access to YouTube if I plan to use digital storytelling in this manner. At this point, all YouTube videos are blocked to teachers and students and cannot be accessed on any computer throughout the high school.

Perhaps presenting success stories from other schools may soften their opinions about YouTube in general. In the article “YouTube Comes to the Classroom,” the authors discuss how students “have a desire to be heard and this site gives them that opportunity” (Adam & Mowers, 2007, p. 22). Interestingly, Adam and Mowers go on to suggest that educators can turn their heads and ignore YouTube or “can use it motivate students” (2007, p. 9). The article goes on to explain that while YouTube may contain inappropriate material, it allows students to explore their creativity and gives them a forum to express their opinions. Finally, the article encourages educators to use YouTube and start by visiting the site’s education group: www.youtube.com/group/K12. Here, in a safe searching and viewing area, videos submitted and created by educators and students can be found. Thus, the entire site does not need to be blocked. Instead, districts need to look at ways to access YouTube and digital storytelling in a manner that is safe and acceptable to district guidelines.

The last article that I read regarding YouTube and digital storytelling was entitled “Avoiding the Digital Abyss: Getting Started in the Classroom with YouTube, Digital Stories, and Blogs.” Here, authors, Mullen & Wedwick, discuss the use of YouTube, digital storytelling, and blogs in middle school language arts classrooms. They explain that using any of these new technological tools helps minimize the digital divide. Also, they suggest that it is not about the end product, but the process that students use to create their projects using these new technologies. Furthermore, they go on to state “Educators must rise to the challenge of closing the digital divide in education. The resources are available and the information is at our fingertips” (Mullen & Wedwick, 2008, p. 69). As technology increases throughout the world, students must become comfortable using it. What better way to encourage technological growth and exploration than by promoting it and using it within the classroom!

Adam, A., & Mowers, H. (2007). YouTube Comes to the Classroom. School Library Journal, 53(1), 22. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Mullen, R. & Wedwick, L. (2008). Avoiding the digital abyss: Getting started in the classroom with YouTube, digital stories and blogs. Clearing House, 82(2), 66-69. Retrieved December 1, 2009, Academic Search Complete database.