‘Digital Storytelling ties together all the concepts of the uses of technology in emerging literacy and numeracy and combines those understandings with certain technology examples’ (Howell, 2012). I support this view and believe the reason the growing popularity of Digital Storytelling in education is due to the fact that both students and teachers benefit greatly from its uses.
However, Robin does not share the same belief, as she says ‘tools needed for digital storytelling have become increasingly more affordable and accessible’ (Robin, 2008). Logically this makes more sense but I firmly disagree that their affordability over effectiveness is the cause for such difference over the ‘the last few years’. Firstly, Digital Stories enable the development of creativity. As Robin says, ‘it is not just information-gathering, but information-creating as well’ (Robin, 2008). In this way digital storytelling enables users to take on the role as creative storytellers. They do this through what the Centre for Digital Storytelling (CDS) calls ‘The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling’. Each Digital Story must hold these aspects and are summarised in the video below:
Once these points are weaved together, a digital story is made. Caralee Adams’ article works in conjunction with Robins’ and both agree that digital stories are most commonly used for the purpose of personal narratives, stories that inform or instruct and stories that examine historical events.
Personal stories enable the development of creativity among students as they are using a technology most would feel comfortable around so they may present information in a way that is familiar and which means something to them. ‘Students show positive aptitude towards technology’ (Howell, 2012) and I think this is because they grow up surrounded by different forms of technology, and so are comfortable being drawn into using it. As Adams says, ‘Storytelling is a natural fit for kids immersed in movies, television, and video games’ (Adams, 2009). I think the more personal a teacher allows the task in creating a story to be, the more engagement of students will be achieved. I think this is because personal stories and historical events of a student work hand in hand and provide students with a voice, especially those who are shy in class.
‘Digital storytelling helps transform the attitude of teachers toward technology and of students toward themselves’ (Adams, 2009). In creating stories, teacher and student are working on a more personal level and teachers will gain a more detailed insight into a students’ strengths, individuality and uniqueness by understanding their personal backgrounds and quality of mind. ‘They can be emotionally charged and personally meaningful to both the author and viewer’ (Robin, 2008). Historical event stories on individuals from the past can assist in allowing students to understand different concepts and contents as well as when students use their own historical events to tell a story. This allows teachers to understand the student more personally, or even other students if they were working in groups, building on or creating a stronger teacher and student or student to student bond. ‘The concept of collaboration and student teamwork is evident in student productions’ (Joseph, 2006).
(Tolosano, 2008) Accessed From: http://langwitches.org/blog/2008/07/10/digital-storytelling-what-comes-to-mind/
This view ties in to a story being able to assist students who may be struggling with concepts or language. The same way a shy student’s own story provides a deeper understanding of the way they think and communicate, so too does the way students convey their knowledge on academic concepts they may not understand to a full extent. Writing and the way students present information can be a major issue in English and the way students present information. Digital Storytelling presents certain skills that promote ‘student organization, communication, and learning’ (Joseph, 2006) and assists this in that students do not necessarily need to physically write to convey their views as their work can be researched (information literacy) and more importantly published online (global and digital literacy) in a technological environment (technology literacy) (Robin, 2008).
With this in mind I think Digital Storytelling could be said to be alternative to the traditionally written worksheets in class and assignments in both (English literacy and visual literacy) (Robin, 2008). From that point one would hope that the resulting satisfaction and the final product these students produce will increase their confidence in putting pen to paper and improve their quality of work in other learning areas where these skills from ‘inventive thinking to digital-age literacy’ (Adams, 2009) are needed.
My Thoughts
Among all of the ICTs we have covered so far in this course, Digital Storytelling was the one that really appealed to me personally. As I intend to one day be a teacher, specialising in the areas of English and Ancient History, I found that Digital Storytelling proved to be very helpful, especially when the implementation of this technology into lessons on these topics is considered. In our tutorial for that week we had a closer look at a program called PhotoStory, 'where photography meets multimedia storytelling' (Erp, 2011). I was able to experiment and play around using different types of multimedia to form a final work that would assist in my teachings. For example for my History class I could combine a personal narrative and historical event so students can study a historic identity or for English I could create an instructional story to break down steps on how to write an essay.
Whether it is helping students develop their literacy and creative skills through writing using technology, using stories of historical events to better the student’s knowledge on past individuals or events or personal narratives to improve relationships within the class, Digital Storytelling truly would be an asset to my classroom, benefiting my teaching in many ways. I think it is all in the way that it is used; ‘They can be wonderful learning tools if used well, or they can be boring experiences if overused or used badly’ (Howell, 2012). I would gladly use it but ONLY in the correct manner.
References
Adams, C. (2009). Digital STORYTELLING. Instructor , 35-37.
Erp, H. v. (2011). Multimedia Photostories. The British Journal of Photography , 84-85.
Howell, J. (2012). Teaching With ICT: Digital Pedagogies For Collaboration And Creativity. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 154-156
Joseph, L. C. (2006). Digital Storytelling. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools , 13-16.
kvnblndng. (2009, October 24th). The Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling. Retrieved May 23rd, 2013, from YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1f-_FXgJZM
Robin, B. R. (2008). Digital Storytelling: A Powerful Technology Tool For The 21st Century Classroom. Theory Into Practice , 220-228.
Tolisano, S. R. (2008, July 10th). Digital StoryTelling-What Comes To Mind? Retrieved May 23rd, 2013, from Langwitches Blog: langwitches.org/blog/2008/07/10/digital-storytelling-what-comes-to-mind/
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