"Michael Hernandez's new book on digital storytelling is a must-have for educators. It's a clear, practical guide for infusing storytelling in any subject. Hernandez outlines the essentials of digital storytelling with easy-to-follow steps and relevant examples. This book is perfect for teachers aiming to integrate more multimedia into their lessons and empower their students as creators. It's an invaluable resource for enhancing classroom engagement and creativity." -- Monica Burns, Ed.D., author of EdTech Essentials and founder of ClassTechTips.com
"Storytelling With Purpose is a much-needed resource for today's educator. Through stories and examples from his experience as a teacher, Michael brings us on a journey to understand ways to support storytelling in the classroom and to empower the voices of youth by design. Readers are able to explore different types, forms, and purposes of digital stories and then are guided through a creation process positioning students (and teachers) as thoughtful observers of the world, creators of stories, and messengers of perspective, experience, and action. Inspiring and inventive, this book will be one I can return to again and again!" -- Jennifer Williams, ISTE Author, Global Educator, Co-founder Take Action Global and TeachSDGs
School Library Journal, Laura Fields Eason
VERDICT: Highly recommended.
This book connects the elements associated with conventional storytelling with the expansive elements of a digital story. Both use questions and story lines to captivate audiences, but it's the power of technology that transforms a written story into a multimedia experience that engages both creator and audience. Digital storytelling adds inquiry and design to traditional storytelling. As a bonus, students work -independently and then collaborate to develop real-life work skills that can be put to use in school and on the job. Digital storytelling also promotes design thinking in which students tackle problems and develop solutions. Since storytelling can also function as an assessment, teachers have an additional option for students to demonstrate their learning. Through countless examples, embedded case studies, and teacher profiles, -Hernandez demonstrates how digital storytelling can be employed across curricula. The last section of the book features an -in-depth exploration of project ideas including anthologies, documentaries, advocacy messages, and podcasts. This book is full of useful -information and concepts, but it is not overwhelming; the layout uses color, pull-outs, and tables to focus attention on shorter blocks of information. Hernandez gives teachers everything they need to get started and carry out a project. Back matter includes a bibliography and index as well as three useful appendices: A Toolbox for -Digital Storytelling, Ethical Storytelling, and Teaching and Learning Resources."Michael Hernandez is a master storyteller and a master teacher, and this beautifully designed book is a perfect example of his craft. Through the range of practical ideas and the illustrative examples in Storytelling With Purpose, every teacher, storyteller, and creator who aspires to refine their approaches will benefit from engaging with Michael's latest work. This is one of those rare books where you can benefit from reading it linearly from front to back or jump around to the areas that interest you the most (at first-- you'll be compelled to read it all no matter what!). This is a wonderful contribution to the body of literature that focuses on purposeful, student-centered education." --Dr. Reshan Richards, Lecturer, Columbia University School of Professional Studies
Co-Founder, Explain Everything (acquired by Promethean, Inc.)