Before taking Literacy in the Digital Age, I have never heard of ds106. My goal of this post is to teach you what ds106 is and some key points of this website. All of the information I will be sharing with you can be found of their website (ds106).
First off, what is ds106? Well on their website it says “Digital Storytelling or ds106 is an open, online course.” This online course if offered through the University of Mary Washington and can be taken at any time! Ds106 allows students to build and design their own online identity. This is cool because it allows you to be whoever you want. There are things you can control so not everyone can know about you.
Something a found really cool is the assignments that ds106 gives you. On the website, you go to components then assignment bank. (Picture for help) When you click assignment bank, you get so many different options for assignments. These include: visual, design, audio, video, web, mashup, writing, fanfic, animated gif and 3D printed. This just adds to the coolness of ds106! It gives you so many different ways to express yourself. This also can help you become super savvy with the internet. These ten different subjects can make you very skilled in the different parts of the internet. The assignment bank is by far my favorite part of this website.
As a future teacher, I could use ds106 with all ages but in different ways. For high school, you could allow your students to create their own digital storytelling project and they can personalize it to their own taste while still meeting the requirements of the assignment. With younger kids, I would use ds106 as a visual aid. I would more than likely create my own projects and share them with students to help them get a better understanding of the lesson.
Overall, I find ds106 very cool. Personally, I would use this course for more personal reasons than teaching reasons but it is a helpful website that provides options for both! I find the internet to be a very interesting thing because of how much freedom we have and ds106 only expands that freedom. If you love the internet and want to have some fun while expanding your knowledge about it, I would highly suggest checking out ds106. Once again, you can go to their website by clicking HERE.
Until next time,
-Rachel
Rachel's Mind 
Hi Rachel! I was interested on what you had to say about how to use in the classroom, and you had some good ideas, the older kids would love to do this assignment any type of DS. As far as younger students I agree it would be a great visual for younger kids, it will keep them engaged.
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Thanks! It is cool that teachers can use it in pretty much any classroom.
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