This blog is designed as a resource for CURR 501, Media Literacy, Popular Culture and Education at Rhode Island College, summer 2014. The course is driven by the essential question: How is new media and digital culture produced and consumed in ways that help us understand ourselves and each other in the context of the current educational landscape?

Monday, July 7, 2014

Fwd: Story Map JS




Link to this tool:  http://storymap.knightlab.com/ 
What can you do with Story Map?  Story Map is a tool that allows you to tell a story using maps to highlight major events in accordance with a location.  Story Map has also added a new feature that allows users to tell a story using large image files such as historical maps, works of art, or photographs.   The link below is an example Story Map of Arya's journey in "The Game of Thrones" series.




Rating and Ease of Use:  Story Map is free, but to use Story Map,  you have to have a Google e-mail account.  The Google e-mail account is where the Story Map is saved.  This creates an obvious problem if the user does not have a Google e-mail account.  Additionally, the Google e-mail account must support public Google drive sharing.  My personal google e-mail account does not support public Google drive sharing and after spending some time trying to make my Google e-mail support public Google drive sharing, I was unsuccessful. Therefore, I experienced difficulty when trying to create my own Story Map and give the tool a grade of a B. 


What does it bring to the table in an educational sense?  This digital tool is very creative, visual, and highly engaging.  As a Geography teacher, I can see endless possibilities to use this tool.  I picked this tool becauseI h onestly thought that I would have my students use it next year.  However, the google e-mail requirement unfortunately will prevent that from happening as my students do not all have Google e-mail accounts and setting up e-mail accounts for all students requires district-level approval that I am not sure I would get.  I really do love the idea of this tool because it allows the user to participate in the process of mapping in a modern and relevant way.  I can also see how this tool could easily be used in all subject areas.  

Jayna -- Sent from my iPad

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jayna,

    I did the same thing with the email address! I am interested in trying Story Map with my Spanish 4 students when they research Jorge Luis Borges! Looks like a great tool, and I liked the way it looked in class as well! Thanks for the great information.

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  2. Thanks Jayna!

    Btw... don't name your project something with a "apostrophe" it doesn't like ' in the title... just found that out the hard way :)

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  3. This is a great tool to use with students. I can definitely see my ELLs benefitting from this type of activity.

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