Ds106 and ‘Dog it Out’

I love anything that is totally fun, out there, and sparks creativity. Ds106, also known as a course on digital storytelling, is the perfect place to go for this. It’s all about forging your own identity on the internet through different activities or assignments (that are totally awesome if I do say so myself). All you need is 20 minutes (or less), a computer, and a way to share your projects to get your creative juices flowing and have a little fun. The ‘assignments’ vary greatly, which means there is something for everyone. Being the bookworm I am, the Fanfic assignments are my favorite. There is an assignment where you get to write the way something should have been in a novel or movie, and for any Hunger Games fans out there, lets just say I have some things I want to fix when it comes to Finnick Odair. I also really like the writing assignments tab- writing through the eyes of a Disney villain (personally I’m thinking Hans from Frozen) is gonna be so much fun.

A second thing that is great about ds106 doesn’t have to be just something for everyday creativity, but it can also be used in the classroom. There are so many different assignments that can be integrated into lesson planning; I have already seen so many different assignments I want to bring into my history classroom that will help make the content I will be teaching fun for the students. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the assignments under the Writing tab have a lot of great prompts that could be used in English classrooms as quick writing assignments students can share with the world. Furthermore, by sharing these assignments, the students will be able to share their work with people from all over the place, and maybe learn more by looking at the projects that other people have done. I really believe that ds106 could really be revolutionary when it comes to how we teach in our classrooms. It gives us the opportunity to find fun activities to use when we can’t come up with them on our own and provides a network to share that experience through.

In closing, I figured it a great way to show what ds106 is all about was to provide my first assignment! The assignment is Dog it Out, and basically you just had to edit a photo of your pet in a fun way that makes people smile. It was a simple but fun project to get me started on my digital storytelling!

Here is Hank, participating in one of his favorite pastimes: