In the article "7 Things You Should Know About... Digital Storytelling," it mentions that digital storytelling is instructional, persuasive, historical, or reflective. I truly agree with these adjectives because of my personal experience creating a digital story on social justice using IMovie as the main program. I had taken a course on how to implement social justice in the classroom, and we had to create a digital story to reflect on all the activities and readings that we had on equity, multiculturalism, etc. It was a much more personal and fun way to complete a final project. As a result of it, my classmates were able to learn from my reflections without having to read a paper that I might have written! I still look at the video once in a while to see how far I have become as an educator with social justice in mind. As the article writes, with digital storytelling, we can tell a story that highlights specific events or characteristics.

If using digital storytelling in the classroom, teachers can provide students with not only enjoyment in producing work but also confidence. I can imagine working alongside with my first graders to create a product that shows what they learned about a firefighter. Many of them are still learning how to read and write so by choosing or drawing pictures, and using a microphone to speak, they can present the knowledge that they learned without feeling frustrated that they can't write. For schools that enforce literacy, teachers might help them type the words or even have them use invented spelling AFTER they create a digital story. With much thought, standards can be incorporated while being creative!