Tim’s Blog

Reflecting on all me readings and discussions I have had with fellow students I have come to realise how powerful Digital Storytelling can be in the primary school classroom. Digital Storytelling has the power to engage students and motivate them to tell stories they would perhaps not have been able to tell.

According to Fredius and Hlubinka, through digital storytelling individuals learn to tell a story and in doing so they become more efficient actors in a collaborative work environment. I feel this statement is of particular worth and is a fantastic advertisement for the use of digital storytelling in the classroom. Fredius and Hlubink are stating that students become more confident contributors to their environment and learn to work as a team through the use of digital storytelling.

The work of Banaszewski also supports the use of digital storytelling in a most powerful manner. Banaszewski explains that before he facilitated an iMovie task with his students, 60% of his students claimed they were storytellers whilst on completion of the iMovie task 99% of his students stated they were storytellers. This displays the impact digital media can have on students not only from an e-learning perspective but from a wider educational perspective. This statstic I feel is most powerful and has assisted me in coming to the realisation that digital media encourages students to tell stories and really pushes them to levels they could not reach without digital media.

The Six C’s of motivation brought forward by Wang and Han tie in well with the use of digital storytelling and can be used by teachers when designing a digital storytellig component of their program. The strategies known as the “Six C’s” are: choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning and consequences.

Through the use of digital storytelling teachers can open students imagination and let them express feeling and emotion through a wide range of media outlets including: voice, image, video, music and sound in ways that pencil and paper storytelling cannot. Digital media will extend students as storytellers and as human beings.

Reference List:

Banaszewski, T. (2002). Digital storytelling finds its place in the classroom. Multimedia Schools, 32-41.

Wang, S. & Han, S. (2001). “Six C’s of motivation”

Freidus, N.& Hlubinka, M. (2002). Digital storytelling for reflective practice in communities of learners. ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin archive. 23(2), 24 – 26

The Digitization of Learning, Leslie Adams, SVP Worldwide Marketing Services, Pinnacle Systems

Levin, H. (2003). Making history come alive: Students interview Holocaust survivors and publish their stories. Learning and Leading with Technology 31(3), 22-27.