EDU 552 - Multimedia Authoring

The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

This last week of school, I spent quite a bit of time trying new digital storytelling tools, such as GIFs, flip-books, visual poetry, etc. I thought it would be great to get some experience with few of these so I could accurately reflect on them and how I use them in the classroom.

Over the last few years, I have searched and experimented in several new ways to engage students. Not only are we raising the standards in education, but also children seem to losing more and more interest in the simple idea of learning. Support for education from parents is growing less and less each year and if our students are not constantly being “entertained” it is very unlikely that information will be retained. According to this article, digital storytelling is a great way to break down barriers that often prevent people form engaging in technology use. It is very common for people to have fears, time concerns, and even language needs in the educational field, and digital storytelling can assist in all of these areas. Digital storytelling is simply a way to educate, relate, and create in a visual way for all people alike.

In this article, Rafferty and Boster state that motivation for connectedness and the inherently personal nature of stories is why digital storytelling is so powerful. It is human nature for people to want to feel connected and involved with what is happening around them. Everyone has a story to tell and as a teacher, I truly enjoy providing my students and colleagues with tools to bring those stories to life.

From every article I have seen, the greatest downfall to digital storytelling is the inevitable countless hours of preparation that must take place for the process to be successful. Even though time is a factor, there are still way more benefits to inclusion of this process.

Some of the benefits of incorporating digital storytelling in the classroom include learning how to communicate and tell stories through different types of media, examine the value of different types of stories and methods, help build an understanding of technology, provide collaboration opportunities, and so many more. The benefits go on in our world that relies so heavily on technology. It is the world we live in. It is our present and it will be our future.

Digital storytelling is the future to everything kids today will be working on. We have already started using digital storytelling through resumes, job interviews, etc. These are the skills that will be valuable, as students grow older and need to tell stories on college applications or to their employers.

My plan is to evaluate my own curriculum and consider how digital stories are already being incorporated and if there are more/better ways to integrate them into my classroom.