Taryn

  Digital Storytelling

After reviewing various articles discussing the use and integration of iPods, iPads and Digital Storytelling within classroom instruction I have chosen to complete my multimedia presentation on the innovation of Digital Storytelling. Sadik (2008) describes the art of “storytelling as the original form of teaching” (p. 489). He references research which states that, “It is a simple but powerful method to help students to make sense of the complex and unordered world of experience by crafting story lines” (p. 489). Sadik also discusses how “digital storytelling is the social practice of telling stories that makes use of low-cost digital cameras, non-linear authoring tools and computers to create short multimedia stories” (p. 490). Robin (2008) describes digital storytelling as “the combination of powerful, yet affordable, technology hardware and software meshing perfectly with the needs of many of today’s classrooms, where the focus is on providing students with the skills they will need to ‘thrive in increasingly media-varied environments’” (p. 222). The benefit is that, “Digital storytelling allows computer users to become creative storytellers through the traditional processes of selecting a topic, conducting some research, writing a script, and developing an interesting story” (Robin, 2008, p. 222). Students have reported that “the process of digital storytelling made them aware of the purpose of voice in the construction of an argument” (Oppermann, 2008, p. 180). Oppermann also reported that “Students felt that the digital story format allowed them to write back to an existing body of theory in their own voice in ways that a traditional research paper did not” (2008, p. 180). The potential use of this innovation is “that educators at all levels and in most subjects can use digital storytelling in many ways to support students’ learning by encouraging them to organize and express their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way” (Sadik, 2008, p. 490). I selected Digital Storytelling over the integration of iPods and iPads into the classroom curriculum because, honestly, there were more valid research and diffusion studies available on this topic to present a thorough project than that of the other two innovations. This is partially due to the use of both innovations being so new to the education arena that adequate research of their effectiveness is still being conducted, as well as, digital storytelling having the time to go through and completed the steps of the innovation-decision process as discussed by Rogers (2003, p. 20). Oppermann sums the ideals of digital storytelling perfectly by stating that “digital stories have become a contact zone for the confluence of novice and expert knowledge, a site where personal perspective and affect intersect with disciplinary knowledge in the most generative ways” (2008, p. 180).

References: Oppermann, M. (2008). Digital Storytelling and American studies: Critical trajectories from the emotional to the epistemological. //Arts & Humanities in Higher Education//, 7(2), 171 – 187. DOI: 10.1177/1474022208088647.

Robin, B.R. (2008). Digital Storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. //Theory Into Practice//, 47, 220-228. DOI: 10.1080/00405840802153916.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). //Diffusion of innovations// (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
Sadik, A. (2008). Digital Storytelling: A meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning. //Education Tech Research Development//, 56, 487 – 506. DOI: 10.1007/s11423-008-9091-8.