The Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Taken from: http://faculty.coe.uh.edu/brobin/TLA/pages/03.htm
Educators at all levels can use Digital Storytelling in many ways, from introducing new material to helping students learn to conduct research, synthesize large amounts of content and gain expertise in the use of digital communication and authoring tools. It also can help students gain expertise in writing down their ideas in a script, going through the revision process and creating a storyboard of their plan as they create stories for an audience and present their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way.
Digital Stories can be used:
for Teachers:
When students are able to participate in the multiple steps of designing, creating and presenting their own digital stories, they increase a full complement of literacy skills, including:
Educators at all levels can use Digital Storytelling in many ways, from introducing new material to helping students learn to conduct research, synthesize large amounts of content and gain expertise in the use of digital communication and authoring tools. It also can help students gain expertise in writing down their ideas in a script, going through the revision process and creating a storyboard of their plan as they create stories for an audience and present their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way.
Digital Stories can be used:
- as an anticipatory set or hook for a lesson;
- to enhance current lesson plans with the use of a digital story within a unit;
- to support student research on a topic from a particular point of view.
for Teachers:
- Appeals to the diverse learning styles of the students by using Digital Storytelling as a presentation tool;
- Generates interest, attention and motivation for the "digital generation" students in our classrooms;
- Capitalizes on the creative talents of students as they begin to research and tell stories of their own; and
- Allows student work to be published on the Internet for viewing and critiquing by others.
When students are able to participate in the multiple steps of designing, creating and presenting their own digital stories, they increase a full complement of literacy skills, including:
- Research Skills: Documenting the story, finding and analyzing pertinent information;
- Writing Skills: Formulating a point of view and developing a script;
Organization Skills: Managing the scope of the project, the materials used and the time it takes to complete the task;
- Technology Skills: learning to use a variety of tools, such as digital cameras scanners, microphones and multimedia authoring software;
- Presentation Skills: Deciding how to best present the story to an audience;
- Interview Skills: Finding sources to interview and determining questions to ask;
- Interpersonal Skills: Working within a group and determining individual roles for group members;
- Problem-Solving Skills: Learning to make decisions and overcome obstacles at all stages of the project, from inception to completion; and
- Assessment Skills: Gaining expertise critiquing their own and others’ work.