Digital Creativity

Where to even begin? Going to the Ds106 website was definitely overwhelming. So much media, information, and activities that you can choose from. Basically, in a nutshell, Ds106 stands for digital storytelling. The University of Mary Washington provides this as an ongoing course so that participants can “come” and “go” as they please! Also, instead of there being a traditional teacher for the course, there is no leader, and is open for continuous collaboration and coordination with other students in the course. You might have already guessed, but if you are to be a digital story teller in the Ds106 course, then you will have to utilize online digital resources to complete your tasks.

Being very obviously new to the Ds106 world, I figured that you could just dive in and start in on projects with no needing to enroll, I was definitely wrong. Upon further exploration and reading How to be an Open Participant in ds106, I realized there are really two different routes that you can plunge down. The fast in easy, is basically what we would be doing for this class. This is basically just a casual introduction into what ds106 offers and what it’s all about. The other option is The Blogging way. This is really more in depth approach. This is for you if you want to continue to be a ds106 participant even after this class has ended!

Ds106 is truly a unique experience, and not just a class. You are able to jump in and out whenever you feel like it, there is no traditional teacher, and you basically join a community. This is an awesome resource that can be utilized in the classroom very easily. If something fits within the parameters of your already planned out lessons, then you can just add this on top of it! If it doesn’t, no problem! You can just skip whatever it is, and find another assignment that does fit, or simply ixnay on ds106 that week. This is such a great way for students to show their creativity and out of the box thinking. There really are absolutely no limits to what anyone can accomplish within this digital story telling platform!

The daily creates are something that could easily be implemented into a classroom that has a 1:1 setting already in place. These could be the daily bell ringers, assignments that you work on in extra time, or all of the above. The great thing about these, is you can pick and choose which ones you want your students to participate in, and which ones you don’t. You can simply scroll through all the daily creates that have been invented since 2012, and you can also see what other people have already created!

As a student I am beyond excited to get started and really understand what Ds106 is about besides a superficial skimming. As an educator I am excited to see how I can use Ds106 to help implement a technologically rich experience for my students in the classroom.Go ahead and explore the assignment bank, and you will find everything you need to get started!