I really enjoyed this week's assignment, creating a personal digital photostory. I never thought that it would cause me to dive so deep within myself to come up with a part of my life that I felt comfortable sharing with others. At first, I thought I could tell the story of meeting my husband; another idea was to tell the story of my Grandmother's influence on my life. A difficult story would have been one about a loved one who suffers from addiction.
As you see, the most personal stories are close to my heart, and I ended up choosing the story about music and how it has shaped my life. I recently saw My Fair Lady on stage, and I actually cried while Eliza sang "I Could have Danced All Night," remember my beloved Grandmother singing the song with a huge smile on her face. The thing about music is that it relates to all of the other stories I considered. My husband and my church choir are included, while my loved one is also included, although I may be the only person who knows where in the video that occurs.
I hope that as a teacher, I can allow the opportunity for my students to learn more about themselves. This is one of those assignments where the real lesson is the one about one's own strengths, weaknesses, hopes, and dreams. “Media production offers a means for students to talk to whomever they think is an important audience. It does all this because students want to say things that have meaning to them - authentic production comes from authentic learning.” (Garrison, 1999)
The technology is just a springboard to a final product that they can share with pride.
Resource:
Garrison, Andres (1999, Winter). Video basics and production projects for the classroom. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved April 6, 2009, from http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article3.html
