Why Storytelling History is simply a series of stories that, when told correctly, can be one of our most powerful teaching tools. Storytelling can be found in nearly every civilization throughout history, and is an integral part of spreading a people's culture, customs and traditions (Mello, 2001). Stories are also used to relay messages, provide entertainment, give insight, develop character and to shape the beliefs and values of people (Meyer & Bogdan, 2001). Stories help us form relationships, glimpse into the lives of others and allow us to see ourselves better.
Digital Storytelling Storytelling is an art that has been around since ancient times and continues to be a major part of our lives today. Advances in technology have brought a variety of tools to digitize and broadcast stories for a global audience and paved the way for a new form of storytelling referred to as digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is a form of short narrative, or personal story, that simultaneously combines voice, images, music, video and print to tell a short, 3- to 5-minute, focused story (Ohler, 2013). Educators have rediscovered storytelling as a highly effective strategy for engaging students and are seeing that a digital story can activate and stimulate students in ways that the written word alone cannot (Suwardy, Pan & Seow, 2013).
Digital Storytelling in the Classroom Digital storytelling in the classroom is a powerful teaching tool that supports students’ engagement in authentic learning experiences. A digital story harnesses students’ emotions and amplifies their voices by connecting them to global audiences. Utilizing digital storytelling with authentic learning experiences engages students in projects that can potentially impact their personal world, their community and others around the world (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000). Digital storytelling also engages students in multiple literacies, such as digital literacy, media literacy, visual literacy and information literacy to support student success and motivation (Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas, 2008). The power of implementing digital storytelling in the classroom goes beyond students simply retelling facts. Digital storytelling provides students with the opportunity to have their voices heard. It helps students in bridging personal experiences and new content. It equips students with many of the 21st century skills needed to be successful adults. Lastly, digital storytelling engages students in identifying and proposing solutions to problems that surround them.
Why Use Digital Movies in the Classroom? Students in today’s classrooms think and learn differently than students of past generations, primarily because the environment they are growing up in relies heavily on accessing and transmitting information in digital formats. As a result, learning experiences that capitalize on a student’s fluency and preferences regarding digital media are more likely to produce higher levels of student performance.
Movies Have the Power to Reach the Net Generation Today’s students differ fundamentally from the students of the past. Some researchers believe their brains are actually wired differently. These differences can be directly attributed to the availability and usability of technologies that allow students to be consistently connected and constantly entertained.
Many teachers recognize these characteristics of the “Net Generation,” as highlighted in the online book Educating the Net Generation (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005).
Net Generation students:
Learn by discovery, possibly as a direct result of video-game playing.
Have fast response times—they live in an environment where speed has more value than accuracy (text messaging, for example). They are fast and expect fast response times in return.
Rapidly shift their attention from one task to another; can multi-task.
Lack attention to tasks that do not interest them.
Refuse to read large amounts of text and perform better when text is replaced by graphics.
Possess an advanced ability to interpret 3D video and use visual images to communicate.
How have today’s students developed such traits, apparently unique to younger generations? Consider these statistics from the same source noted above:
20% of today’s college students began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8.
Of the age group from 8–18, the report cites the following statistics:
96% have been online
61% go online daily
71% use instant messaging
80% use e-mail
56% prefer the internet to the telephone for communication
73% prefer the internet to the library for research
Children 6 and under spend an average of two hours per day on screen media, including TV, computer and video games. In the same population, 27% spend one hour per day on the computer.
More than two million children (ages 6–17) have their own websites.
Cell phones are always connected and always on. In a survey of 1,000 teens, 30% play video games on their cell phones while at school (Burns, 2005).
Schools are struggling to educate this fast-paced generation of digital, visual students. In a study of high school seniors conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics, 28% reported schoolwork was often or always meaningful, 21% reported their courses were very interesting and only 39% thought school learning would be very important in their lives (Wirt, Choy, Gerald, Provasnik, Rooney, Watanabe & Tobin, 2002). Such findings seem to indicate a disconnect between today’s students and the activities occurring in today’s schools.
Meaningful, authentic projects involving the use of digital media and movie-making tools can offer students opportunities to express themselves in ways not available in traditional classroom lessons. These types of lessons allow students to work with others and to communicate visually. Digital video provides a medium for building the skills identified by the U.S. Department of Education as “21st Century Skills,” which include effective communication, digital literacy, inventive thinking and productivity. The production of digital media can promote visual literacy—the ability to interpret and use images for communication. It can also give students practice conveying messages with other skills, including the use of color, proportion, pacing, shape and movement. In addition, the use of digital media can increase technical literacy—the ability to use new technologies in ways that increase higher-level thinking, creativity and problem-solving. Digital media can tap into the characteristics Net Generation students bring with them to the educational setting.
Movies Address Multiple Learning Styles Effective digital-video lessons have the ability to reach students with various learning styles. Schools traditionally focus on the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities, as categorized in theorist Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences. Digital-video lessons can give students with visual-spatial, musical-rhythmic or other strengths opportunities for success because good digital-video lessons open up new ways for students to demonstrate what they know.
Movies Motivate Students Movie-making allows students to create and communicate in a medium familiar to them and can therefore be a motivating experience. The Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project in classrooms in California’s Silicon Valley engaged students in project-based learning supported by multimedia. The project began in 1996 and concluded in 2001. During this time, the teachers of these students reported that one of the primary effects of the project was an increase in student motivation and engagement (San Mateo County Office of Education, 1998). References Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Eds). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2008). Best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. New York: Guilford Press.
Mello, R. (2001). The power of storytelling: How oral narrative influences children’s relationships in classrooms. International Journal of Education and the Arts, 2(1).
Meyer, J., & Bogdan, G. (2001). Our "First Education." In L. Berry, A Pilgrimage of Color: 2001. National Conference, Social Science Monograph Series. Morehead, KY: Morehead State University, 205-228.
Oblinger, D. G., & Oblinger, J. L. (Eds.). (2005). Educating the Net Generation. Educause. http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/pub7101.pdf Ohler, J. (2013). Digital storytelling in the classroom: new media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin, a SAGE Company.
San Mateo County Office of Education. (1998). Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project.
Suwardy, T., Pan, G., & Seow, P. (2013). Using Digital Storytelling to Engage Student Learning. Accounting Education, 22(2), 109-124. doi:10.1080/09639284.2012.748505
Wirt, J., Choy, S., Gerald, D., Provasnik, S., Rooney, P., Watanabe, S., & Tobin, R. (2002). The Condition of Education 2002. National Center for Education Statistics. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/2002025.pdf