Digital Storytelling

Using webtools to create short digital photo stories, comic strips or even simple mini-movies like this one created using GoAnimate is a great way to get some creativity flowing into traditional conversation practice activities like role playing. Letting students create their own characters and backgrounds or choose from those available on some of the sites can be a lot more fun than simple writing dialogue on notebook paper and acting it out in class.

One of the advantages to creating a digital story of this sort is that once something like that is published or saved, it can be added to a portfolio, instead of just being forgotten as a classroom role play might be. This would be a great group activity or project, and the students could even develop the characters throughout the semester or school year, creating a series of comics or videos as different topics are addressed in class.