Can the age old art of good teaching learn a lesson from new media?

The key to effective teaching can be summed up with one word; motivation.  Effective teachers from every era and any discipline have found that if you can motivate students than you can essentially turn them on to learning.  But how do you effectively motivate students who are not intrinsically motivated?  Teachers have had and continue to develop various methods that have helped to engage or motivate their students. One of the most effective if not the most effective motivational method is the good old fashioned storytelling.  Why is the film industry so successful, maybe it is because they are so good at storytelling.   I remember way back in United States history class, when we had a WWII veteran tell his story or oral history.  The dull dry dates and events we had been learning about began to come alive, and me and my other teenage classmates were on the edge of our seats and did not even notice that the bell rang and class was over.  

Can the art of storytelling and its ability to help motivate students be successfully integrated into the ever changing world of new media?  David Huffaker, in his journal article entitled: The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom, makes the point that storytelling is a valuable tool to enhance learning in the classroom and promote literacy.  One such tool that can be used to facilitate storytelling is the weblog.  Huffnaker states that, "Weblogs resemble personal journals or diaries and provide an online venue where self-expression and creativity is encouraged and online communities are built. Therefore weblogs provide an excellent tool where storytelling and literacy advance for both individual expressions and collaborative learning."  

As someone who falls between a Luddite and a cutting edge technology pioneer, I feel that weblogs can be very useful for both teachers and students in facilitating learning through interactive storytelling and helping to motivate a generation of students that have lived completely in the digital age.  To be honest I never even considered using the weblog in the classroom, yet now I see that they can be adapted for any age group and across content areas.  The fact that I am even writing on a blog now is a big step for me.