Digital Storytelling

http://langwitches.org/blog/2008/07/27/digital-storytelling-part-ix-wordle/

Digital storytelling is a powerful tool to use in 21st century classrooms as it engages both teachers and students (Robin, 2008). As you can see from the Wordle above, a digital storybook is a creative and fun way for students to tell their stories through the use of different multimedia such as video, sound, image, etc. Howell (2012) describes a digital storybook as a "collection of digital images, placed in a particular order to tell a story, which is accompanied by audio narration". There are many web-based and other readily available software programs that can be used to create a digital storybook, i.e., MovieMaker (Howell 2012).

According to Robin (2008), there are seven elements of digital storytelling that must be considered before you begin creating your own digital storybook. These elements are as follows:

1. Point of view

2. A dramatic question

3. Emotional content

4. The gift of your voice

5. The power of the soundtrack

6. Economy

7. Pacing

These seven elements were developed by the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). The CDS provide help for people interested in creating a digital storybook, whether it be a personal or professional reflection. Below I have included a video which goes on to explain the seven elements in more detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1f-_FXgJZM

The use of digital storytelling for educational purposes is not a new concept, however, it has become increasingly popular due to the expansion of technologies such as computers, digital cameras, scanners, and high quality audio systems (Robin, 2008). Due to these technologies becoming rather inexpensive, schools are more willing to pay for these affordable tools that assist digital storytelling. (Robin, 2008). Furthermore, these new technologies are exactly what the education systems need to enhance today's classrooms and encourage both teachers and students to adopt various ICT skills that are sought after in the 21st century. Robin (2008) states that the focus is to provide students with these skills so they can apply them to a diverse range of multimedia environments. The skills that students acquire when creating a digital storybook are as follows:

• Digital literacy 
• Global literacy
• Technology literacy
• Visual literacy
• Information literacy

As you can see, digital storytelling is an integral aspect of education and an important learning experience that both teachers and students will benefit from. Furthermore, digital storybooks are not limited to telling personal narratives; they can also be used to produce instructional, informative and historical documents, making them an even more powerful educational tool to utilize (Robin, 2008).

In addition, TPCK can be used in accordance with digital storytelling (Robin, 2008). TPCK stands for technological pedagogical content knowledge and the term is "gaining a great deal of attention in the field of technology and teacher education as it focuses on the relationship between knowledge about content, pedagogy and technology" (Robin, 2008). Through the use of a digital storybook, teachers are applying their knowledge which is assisting students to use this technology in a creative yet responsible and critical way. This then both develops and enhances TPCK (Robin, 2008).

I believe the incorporation of digital storytelling into the education system is an effective way to teach students about new technologies whilst still delivering content in a visually stimulating manner.

Wordle taken from:
http://langwitches.org/blog/2008/07/27/digital-storytelling-part-ix-wordle/

Video taken from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1f-_FXgJZM

References:

Howell, J. (2012). Creative technologies and play. In V. Rainer (Ed.), Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity (pp. 87-109). Australia: Oxford University Press.

Robin, B.R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory into practice, 47(3), 220-228. doi: 10.1080/00405840802153916