Digital Storytelling PSA

Creating this PSA was a blast.  I have never had more fun working on a group project than I did while making this PSA.  Granted our subject was a little somber since our topic was cyber bullying, but we still had fun and learned some along the way.  I don’t have a Mac and that is what we used to put our video together, so I learned a little bit about some new technology that I had never used before. Our group spent about two hours planning and producing our PSA.  Once we figured out what we wanted our topic to be it didn’t take long for us to decide how to make the video.  We decided to take still photos and put them together to make our movie.  I think that was a good idea for us because we probably wouldn’t have stopped laughing long enough to make an actual video on this somber subject.  I think this project was very relevant and helpful to us as future teachers because it taught us how to collaborate.  We didn’t always have exactly the same idea on how to do something, but we talked it over and as a group decided what the best route to take would be.  As teachers, you may not always agree with your colleagues on something that you are working on, but need to come to a place where you are all happy with the end product.  I didn’t necessarily enjoy being the victim of the cyber bullying in our video, but I knew someone had to do it.  We were all happy with the way our PSA turned out so in the end that is all that really mattered.  Putting together this PSA also taught me a little bit more about cyber bullying and digital citizenship in general.  I didn’t realize quite how prevalent cyber bullying was or how long it had been a problem.  Now I can use what I learned while doing this project to teach my students how to be good cyber citizens and how what they say online can hurt just as much as saying it to someone’s face.  Sometimes I think kids don’t realize that it doesn’t matter how you say it or where you say it, it’s just the fact that you said it that hurts.  PSA’s are great projects to have students do on a subject that they may be learning about in school.  Now that I have had some experience using the technology I will be better equipped to help students who may have questions about how to proceed.  Over all this project was a lot of fun and even though it was a lot of work I’m glad I did it because I learned a lot.

Link to our PSA