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| Image by pikisuperstar on FREEP!K |
By Amber Scroggy
Technology
has advanced rapidly in the past twenty or so years. Today’s digital world offers
countless creative digital presentation tools at our fingertips, allowing
stories to go beyond pen and paper. Storytelling has evolved into a dynamic
blend of creativity and technology providing endless opportunities and
inventive ways to communicate and share ideas, (Dreon et al., 2011). Through
learning what digital storytelling is, why it’s beneficial, who uses it and how
they use it, we can better understand the process and impact of digital
storytelling.
What is Digital Storytelling?
Digital storytelling is a dynamic presentation tool used to
combine a narrative with digital media, (Robin, 2008) bridging the gap between
traditional instruction and the digital culture of learners today. According to,
Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community, by Joe Lambert,
as sited by (Dreon et al., 2011, pg. 5) there are seven elements for creating a
digital story. These elements are point of view, a dramatic question, emotional
content, the gift of your voice, the power of soundtrack, economy, and pacing. Through
the incorporation of these elements and digital presentation tools, a digital story
can go beyond traditional instruction creating a more meaningful learning experience
that encourages connection for contemporary learners.
Take a look at this video to learn more about digital storytelling:
Who Uses Digital Storytelling?
This is really a quick answer. Anyone who wants to create a digital story!
How is Digital Storytelling Used?
To answer this question, I will briefly discuss how librarians, teachers, schools and students have use digital storytelling.
Librarians - use digital storytelling to share library resources, highlight events, engage readers, promote literacy, teach information literacy skills, and to enhance the learning experience. They accomplish this through the creation of digital booktalks and book trailers, (Dreon et al., 2011). Librarians create these digital stories using various presentation tools (see my previous blog A Look at Presentation Tools Used by Librarians), incorporating images, sounds, videos and more to make content more accessible and appealing, (Dreon et al., 2011). Similarly, teachers and schools use digital storytelling as a tool for collaboration and integrating technology into curriculum including general education: math, literature, history, and science, or to introduce projects and assess student outcomes. Finally, Students use digital storytelling for projects assigned in any course including interdisciplinary projects (Dreon et al., 2011), to demonstrate their understanding of concepts through demonstration of their written, organizational, and creative skills, (Dreon et al., 2011).
Take a look at this video to see how elementary students used digital storytelling:
Why Use Digital Storytelling?
Digital Storytelling is
exercise for the brain. Creating Digital stories helps to develop a range of
skills including research, writing, storyboarding, video editing, and critical
thinking skills, (Dreon et al., 2011). Additionally, digital storytelling alleviates
accessibility issues for diverse learning needs in a number of ways including
video, audio, pictures, writing, and other interactive elements reducing barriers
to learning.
Thank you for reading!😁
References:
Robin, B. R. (2008). Digital storytelling:
A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory Into
Practice, 47(3), 220–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802153916
Dreon, O., Kerper, R. M., &
Landis, J. (2011). Digital Storytelling: A Tool for Teaching and Learning in
the YouTube Generation. Middle School Journal, 42(5), 4–10. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23047749
