Digital Storytelling

What is Digital Storytelling?

According to The University of Houston, digital storytelling is “the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories”. Digital storytelling focuses on a topic that typically has a point of view and it can vary in length. According to educause, “ Digital stories can be instructional, persuasive, historical, or reflective.”  Digital stories can be used to tell stories by combining various aspects of media to create a story. Digital stories can be comprised of images, texts, sounds, music, and video clips. Digital stories are basically a "mash up" of materials that all relate to a single topic in order to tell a story. According to educause, people who are not technologically savvy can successfully make a digital story because there are many simple applications that can be used for their creation. Digital stories work on learners digital literacy, global literacy, visual literacy, technology literacy, and information literacy.

Implications for Teaching

Digital storytelling can be utilized in an ESL classroom for individual or group presentations, because according to educause, anyone can make them. Digital stories can be used for creating original stories, giving information on a historical event, re-telling a narrative story, or exploring a topic of interest among the students. The use of digital story-telling will allow students to explore a topic and present it in order to demonstrate comprehension on the topic. The internet has an abundance of resources that can be used to compile a digital story. Using the internet as a resource can be beneficial for ESL students because they can use online dictionaries to help them translate words (as they work) if they become confused while on their journey to create a digital story. Digital storytelling is also a task that can differentiate instruction. While students work on their digital stories they can work independently and at their own pace. Digital storytelling also includes many aspects of media which allows different kinds of learners to pick which outlets of media they enjoy the most (text, music, video, etc). The University of Houston states, "This type of activity can generate interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" students in today’s classrooms." This motivation will make for a positive atmosphere and successful learning to occur in the classroom. This project idea helps students become an agent of information while utilizing the internet as a resource.