The Costs of Digital StoryTelling

The saying goes, "Time is Money," which refers to those in the working world. However, for those of us in the education field time and money are major factors that predict how a classroom can conduct itself. Time, being the most valued and difficult issue for a teacher and money, being the factor we have no control over. Consequently, teachers use time as if it is money. We conserve it, plan what we can do with it, sometimes use it foolishly, and most importantly we invest it into some project that is personally valuable and beneficial for our students (at least once in a school year hopefully). Unfortunately, time is a form of educational currency that is mismanaged or underused because of administration demands, curriculum constraints, etc... Because of these reasons it makes it very difficult for teachers to provide the time needed for students to have an opportunity to participate in a digital story telling event.

"The subtext here is that teachers are already slammed for time, and anything that is going to make that situation worse is unwelcome. Ultimately, the conversation turns to considerations of time spent versus benefits derived, which is something teachers deal with all the time as they address ever-expanding content areas and demands for student testing."

Jason B. Ohler. Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: Ne Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning and Creativity. Kindle Edition

In my opinion, time is the greatest challenge for teachers who want to implement new technologies and digital storytelling into their classrooms. Ohler addresses ways to overcome this obstacle by providing solutions. For example, Ohler wants teachers to realize that length of time for a student who is required to produce a digital story will take twice as long to create. Teachers should keep video times down to a maximum of two minutes, so that more time can be afforded for production purposes. Personally, in my classroom I sometimes forget that set up or time needed for explanation was overreaching into the time I expected students to begin and complete a project. Although this solution seems obvious, teachers sometimes overlook it. Ohler refers to this type of time management as economy, which can also apply to students as well. In fact, teachers need to make requirements specific and clear so that students do not waste their time either. Often students get too wrapped up in amount of pictures included, or music used, and will forget to make sure that their core content is well-written and delivered. If students are directed to use their time wisely to meet specific requirements, than everyone involved with the digital storytelling event will have better quality of work.