Learning Through Engagement

My name is Katie Minger and I have been an English and Digital Media teacher at Pottstown High School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania for the past 13 years. I have also served as the Department Chair for the English Department in our building for the past 3 years.

The story that I am planning on creating during this course is about how allowing students to have true choice and voice through authentic learning opportunities allows for true engagement and learning to happen. I am going to start documenting the work of my Digital Media students to show how students who are not normally engaged in their regular education class or their daily educational activities can become engaged and even form a family with students that they normally wouldn’t talk to on a regular basis. The students in Digital Media are responsible for creating our daily morning announcements, marketing student-made products and student-run events, creating fun content to share on our daily morning program to help aid in a more positive building atmosphere, a full-length video yearbook that will be shared with the entire student body at the end of the school year, and their own short film and other video projects.

Kubravi, Shah, and Jan discuss how students who actively research, plan, write, and create a digital story not only more deeply understand the material that they are engaged with, but also learn through the creation process which in turn allows them to retain the material that they are engaged with (789). They go on to explain that creating digital stories also engages students in a very collaborative approach to learning as well as motivates them to stay engaged in the learning process because they are in control of what they are creating (790). I have seen this firsthand with my students and it is why I love teaching Digital Media classes. Students come into class ready to work every single day and are shocked at how quickly the class period goes by. They tell me almost daily that they love the class and can’t wait to sign up for it again next year. However, it isn’t all about having fun. They are creating their own video projects with only minor facilitation from me. They in turn collaborate with one another through team meetings, write scripts together using whichever technology they see fit, location scout, create storyboards, rehearse, plan all costuming and makeup, gather props from various resources, film their production, edit and soundtrack it, and then play it for other students to view after a post-production meeting with me. They learn how to listen to constructive criticism and keep a list of what they need to improve on during their next project. So much work takes place, but it never seems like work to them. This is the type of education that we need to give students all day every day. I have been trying to start bringing some digital media activities over to my English classroom this year for the first time, and so far they seem to be enjoying some podcasting, Canvas video creation using AI, and some music production work.

I am excited to start planning my digital story to share how effective the role of digital storytelling is in the classroom for student engagement. Let the pre-production phase begin!

References:

Kubravi, S. U., Shah, S. O., & Jan, K. (2018). Digital story telling: The impact on student academic achievement, critical thinking and learning motivation. International Journal of Research in Engineering, Science, and Management, 1(12), 787-791.