Digital Storytelling

Prior to attending the lectures and tutorials of EDUC1049: ‘Learning Tools for the 21^st Century’, Digital Storytelling was somewhat a vague concept to myself. Although I have touched upon it in my previous learning experiences, I still wasn’t aware of its functionality and how it can benefit student educational outcomes and learning environments.

In a nutshell, digital storytelling enables the processes of selecting a topic, conducting research, writing a script, and developing an interesting story (Robin, 2009), transforming computer users into creative storytellers and giving traditional stories life. With its availability to incorporate various multimedia, sound files, video clips, graphics and text, digital storytelling advances students knowledge in more ways than just creating the classic narrative. Even so its ability to also be played on the computer, uploaded onto a website, burned on a DVD (Robin, 2009) or even its ability to be processed on either Apple (iMovie) or Windows software makes the software an accessible facility and teacher/student friendly. 

In regards to reading the Robin (2009) article, it was brought to my attention how by incorporating Digital Storytelling in the classroom students will be given the skills needed to ‘thrive in increasingly media-varied environments’ (Robin, 2009). With the integration of visual images, enhanced by text, students reap the advantages in student comprehension. All the more, the facilitation of digital storytelling engages students and promotes discussion on the content, enabling abstract and conceptual content to be equally understood. Essentially, in agreeing with the Robin (2009) article, Digital Storytelling is an efficient learning technology tool for collecting, creating, analysing, and combining visual images with written text.

However in stating the above, the only problem found was the unrealistic perception that all schools can afford the equipment needed for the application to function. Even though Robin (2009) suggests that these tools have become more affordable and accessible, it is naïve to believe that every school is provided with such funding. On the contrary though, in the case that this is evident, it could be asked that the students capture pictures, audio recordings or videos in their own means and bring them in on a USB, as done in the tutorial workshop I attended.

As my experiences in using digital storytelling are minimal, I found throughout the lecture the meaningful ways in which teachers can use this tool. Originally I thought that digital storytelling only had one purpose or function, but I soon learnt that this technology is more flexible than just simply communicating a narrative. Other ways in which teachers can use the tool is through personal narratives, stories that inform or instruct, and stories that examine historical events. Due to this flexibility it is evident that digital storytelling can be used across all curriculums. Another point I found valuable was how user friendly and comfortable it was to use, I personally adapted to the application quite easily and I’m sure in future my students will too. Regardless of the technology being a little different by then, digital storytelling will encompass students in 21^st Century Literacy, Digital Age Literacies or 21^st Century Skills (Robin, 2009).

Digital Stories in the Classroom - YouTube Video

References

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom.YouTube. Retrieved May 27, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufVnMDVskLo

Digital Storytelling in the Elementary Classroom. YouTube. Retrieved May 27, 2013from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUZXBc6yRhU  

Improve Learning Through Digital Storytelling. YouTube. Retrieved May 27, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mNQaR50FUE  

Robin, B.R. (2008). Digital Storytelling: A powerful technology tools for the 21^st century classroom. Theory Into Practice, 47: 220-228.