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Digital storytelling is the art of using digital content--still images, video clips, voiceovers, sound effects and music--to create short and compelling narrative movies. As an expressive medium in the art classroom, digital storytelling can be used to integrate subject matter knowledge and skills from many years of the school curriculum. If one wants to demonstrate that students are learning and applying twenty-first-century skills, there is no better method than an e-portfolio and a digital story, especially when the portfolio includes documentation of the process, reflection, and assessment. As the 2008-2009 Davis Digital Storytelling Challenge begins, it might be helpful for other teachers who are considering taking part to gain insight on how last year's winners produced their digital stories. In this article, Kirsten Smith, an art teacher of fourteen years from Washington Township High School in Sewell, New Jersey, gives some insight on what it takes to guide students through this project. (Contains 3 online resources.)

The world of fine arts can seem a bit intimidating to a student, and it is part of the teacher's role to help ease students into that world. One of this author's goals as an art and design educator is to bring the world of his students into classroom projects, providing a sense of comfort and familiarity in the context of learning something new. In this article, the author describes how he connected the traditional subject matter of portraiture with the current trends of students, inhabiting the digital realm in the form of digital avatars. (Contains 2 online resources.)

In this article, the author introduces the concept of flat pack toys. Flat pack toys are designed using a template on a single sheet of letter-sized card stock paper. Before being cut out and built into a three-dimensional toy, they are scanned into the computer and uploaded to a website. With the template accessible from the website, anyone with access to the Internet can download the toy template, print it, and build their own flat pack toy. This project connects strongly with students, engages them in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional aspects of art and design, and utilizes technology to display their work, as well as fosters community within the school and the greater public. (Contains 3 online resources.)