An online storytelling curriculum empowers students to create
‘vision videos’ that reveal their dreams for the future. No
disrespect to readin’, writin’, and ’rithmetic, but Jim Amaral
has quite a whole other notion in mind when he speaks of the
three R’s. “It’s about trying to get the relationship,” he
declares, “to get the relevance, to get the rigor.” Amaral’s
three R’s underpin the work his students do with digital
storytelling in his seventh-grade Global Concepts class at Oak-
Land Jr. High School in Lake Elmo, MN. Into his classroom
curriculum Amaral has incorporated Tel.A.Vision, an online
program aimed at inspiring students, particularly special
education and at-risk kids, through the creation of their own
“vision videos.” The videos are three-minute, self-made tours of
a student’s future hopes and dreams, made with multimedia
resources such as animation, still images, and music that are
all available to the student on the Tel.A.Vision website.
According to the program’s creator and founder, George Joh