Journal #5

"Storytelling in the Web 2.0 Era" by Glen Bull

The article is basically discussing how this discovery is being used today for everything social, commercial and political. They are calling this the Web 2.0 Era. Because of its easy access, sharing, and affordability, the Web 2.0 Era is available to almost everyone. It then goes on to discuss Web 2.0 Storytelling, and how beneficial it can be to educators. Creating the same story in so many environments can offer the student many different storytelling tools to work with. Some tools may also be more effective for different subjects. For example, time lines and mapping may be more appropriate for a history class. The Web 2.0 Era has software that is available to schools at no cost. As far as the future goes, more applications will become available, and through thoughtful integration, Web 2.0 storytelling will continue to facilitate learning.

Questions:

I. Try and think of a storytelling idea, and how you would implement it into your classroom.

I'm not really sure what the scrapbook tool is, but I think it would be great to have the students use it to help them write an autobiography. With the scrapbook, they could record their memories, pictures of loved ones, special animals, and favorite memorabilia, etc. Then they could create their autobiography from their scrapbook, and maybe even read the story while they are displaying their scrapbook. Or they could turn their autobiography in, and do an oral presentation with just their scrapbook. Either way, they would be getting a lesson in writing and in technology.

II. Since these storytelling tools are free, and available to all educators, do you think that they should become a staple in today's classroom?

I absolutely do. I am not familiar with this technology at all, but from just reading about these applications, I would be very interested in seeing how they work. The slideshow tools seem like they would work with any subject, and comic as well as media would be great to use in English classes. The media would also work for drama and political science. They all just seem like they would be very fun and interesting, and those are two terms that I think should be involved in education.