New Project

One thing I want to try next year in my classes is a digital essay.  Here is a post I wrote last year about introducing the digital essay in my classes, but as so often happens, I never found time.

But this year, I will.  Or so I hope.  It's too cool not to do somewhere.

This post that I just came across via Twitter takes the digital essay one step further.

First, we could develop a digital essay of our own via a blog I would set up for the class.  I think we'll choose a topic together.  Maybe, "What needs to be improved in TRF?" or "What does school pride mean to us?" or "What is learning?"

I would have students go out and capture pictures.  Then they could email them to Flickr and stockpile them.

Next, I'll select a series of images and post them on our blog.  Then together we'll choose which images work the best and then together we'll write about them.

Finally, we'll create a new blog entry and write a final draft of the digital essay.

Then I think the next digital essay we'll include will be a video one, as in the first link on this page.

Here are some examples of various other digital essays I found on the web.

This one is interesting.  It's a student's definition of "The American Dream."  We could do this in Lit and Lang 11, as "The American Dream," is a key theme we analyze quite a bit in there.


Find more videos like this on Classroom 2.0

Here is another one analyzing the Tsunami in Japan and the potential hazards of nuclear energy.




Here is another interesting take on the digital essay.  This is an analysis of Black Boy.



Along the same lines as the Black Boy digital essay, here is one created for Night.




I found this great article on using the digital essay.  It features a sample digital essay from Jim Burke's class (he of the classic The English Teacher's Companion).  The student's example is on Heart of Darkness.  The student uses a Prezi to create his digital essay.

Heart of Darkness digital essay on Prezi

This reminds me of a multi-genre narrative research paper that Nathan, one of my seniors from last year, created.  It was awesome!

The Piano in Me on Prezi

Now you can see why I can't wait to get back to work in the fall!