{"id":211,"date":"2018-10-15T16:04:19","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T21:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/msideedtech\/?p=211"},"modified":"2018-10-15T16:05:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T21:05:11","slug":"active-learning-strategy-digital-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/msideedtech\/2018\/10\/15\/active-learning-strategy-digital-storytelling\/","title":{"rendered":"Active Learning Strategy – Digital Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks back I wrote a post about using Padlet<\/a> in the classroom to help facilitate active learning. \u00a0Susie also facilitated another workshop on ways to incorporate active learning into your classrooms that gave a number of different strategies and tools both high and low tech. \u00a0This week I introduce another active learning strategy that incorporates some of the power of technology: Digital Storytelling. Digital storytelling is not a particular form of technology, but rather a strategy that uses the multimedia benefits of technology. \u00a0Digital storytelling requires learners to tell a story using digital means. These stories might be creative stories that students have created themselves, little autobiographies, documentaries, or even stories reflecting their progress on some large-scale project.<\/p>\n

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The art of storytelling requires the creator to understand the purpose of the story, organize important details, explain in clear language, and blend visual and verbal elements together in a meaningful and powerful way. \u00a0A good story often creates a mental image for the listener when crafted well. Multimedia allows for the creator of a digital story to present the visual image along with the verbal description. The cognitive skills needed to tell a good story are very complex and when a good story is told, there is evidence that the creator has deeply processed and understood their topic. What I tend to find most satisfying is when students can create an engaging and relatable story with the complex information that they have been learning in their classroom. \u00a0If these stories can be understood and appreciated by people not in higher-education, I think that is a significant gain. It\u2019s a way for students to engage in \u2018giving away\u2019 their particular discipline to others and to demonstrate how their field is relevant to the general public in an engaging manner.<\/p>\n

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In a 2017 Inside Higher Ed Op Ed article, Kari Smalkoski, Linda Buturian, and Scott Spicer<\/a> describe how they saw digital storytelling as a mechanism for transforming learning in a very powerful way including helping students to improve civic discourse and communicate multiple perspectives on an issue. \u00a0It does require instructors to break from the more familiar recipe of the traditional research paper, but allows for more student creativity and voice within the project. Here is a link to an initiative so-lead by Kari Smalkoski in the Twin Cities area in MN that presents a number of digital stories created by high school students on issues important to them (MN Youth Story Squad<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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There are several resources available to those who might be interested in learning more about this strategy.<\/p>\n