Digital Story Assignment

My Digital Story is the story of nuclear energy in the 21st Century.  It would be used as an introduction to a unit on Nuclear Energy in Physics 11, as part of the required curriculum in British Columbia.  An even better use of the digital story would be mid-unit, used as hook prior to assigning a critical research paper on the pros and cons of nuclear energy.

The pedagogical rationale behind is encompassed by the nature of the dialogue.  The students are exposed to a typical pro/con debate around an important topic that these students are not only required to learn through a Ministry Prescribed Learning Outcome, but also as a contributing member of society (Social Justice and Responsibility).  The students in Physics 11 will be 17 years old, which is one year from being a voter in Canada.  As such, how they see this a method for approaching an important scientific and socially important issue is important for their growth as a learner.  There are also Meaningful Learning aspects in the learning, as key words such as terrorist, bomb, disaster and greenhouse gases should trigger previous knowledge (either correct or mis-conceptions), and hopefully help set a context for the students to learn new knowledge.

I believe the xtranormal animation is a good tool for this purpose.  There are also some decent videos that can be used for the same purpose, which is what I have used in the past.  However, I recognized that the students were not terribly engaged with the topic on nuclear energy even though I found the videos to be very interesting.  Therefore I wanted to find a new tool for telling the story, and I wanted something that was either intervactive or funny.  My general sense from teaching a bit is that humour, when used correctly, can be an effective way to commmunicate.  I also realize that just because a student is laughing and is engaged does not mean that they are learning.  While investigating tools to use, I found that very few are truly interactive.  However, xtranormal is an easy way to incorporate humour.  So I set out to develop a funny story.  Recognizing the limits of what can be learned, I wanted to limit the scope of the tool: it could be used as a hook or brief overview, but should not be relied upon to deliver depth of knowledge.

Another problem with using videos in the above scenario is that videos quite often use language that can be a bit difficult for students who are still learning scientific literacy.  For example, the term “enriched uranium” may seem trivial to adults but to a 17 year old, especially ESL students, this can be confusing language.  Therefore I think the animation hits the key points which I would want to demonstrate, while maintaining a relaxed and simple interface that shouldn’t intimidate students.  As well, the animation is comedic in nature and should be somewhat engaging.  Xtranormal can be compared to another effective way of telling this story such as the timeline tool xtimeline. While xtimeline could tell the same story, it may be considered to be “boring” by a 17 year old whereas xtranormal should be at least moderately more engaging.