We Learn in the Form of Stories

Abstract

This article discusses the use of digital storytelling to enable pre-service teachers to develop critical digital literacy skills. Digital storytelling and new literacies share the same set of abilities: 1) finding, evaluating and consuming digital content; 2) exploring identity and cultural landscapes; 3) creating new digital materials drawing from multiple media; and 4) communicating what was found or created with an audience. The study is based on the essays of pre-service teachers enrolled in Cultural Foundations of Education, who produced two digital stories. Responses showed that they believed the assignments helped them become more reflective, culturally aware and media savvy, and led them to a critical and practical knowledge of multimodal content production. Digital storytelling, then, utilizes almost all of the critical digital skills and literacies pre-service teachers are expected to bring to diverse, globalized, and technology-infused 21st century classrooms.

A History Lesson Designed with the Digital Storytelling Method: Kara Fatma Example

“…These solutions found by the students seem to have encouraged them to test the reliability of the evidence and to use their critical thinking skills. The results of some studies have shown that digital storytelling improves students' critical thinking and research skills (Ünlü & Yang, 2020;Walters & von Gillern, 2018;Gernes & Belanger, 2019). Students highlighted Kara Fatma's patriotic, fearless, and warrior characteristics.…”

Authentic learning across disciplines and borders with scholarly digital storytelling

“…Students learn to "communicate and express their ideas" digitally (Chan, Churchill, and Chiu 2017, 1), understand underlying processes and choices, and develop a "critical and practical knowledge of digital text production-a critical digital literacy" (Pangrazio 2016, 166). This knowledge can foster new awareness of the media students consume inside and outside of the classroom (Walters and von Gillern 2018) as students learn to create content through visual narratives. Students engaged in scholarly digital storytelling acquire a "full range of digital literacies," including "innovative multimodal literacies" (Gachago, Barnes, and Ivala 2015, 182).…”