Digital storytelling involves 'combining narrative with digital content to create a short movie' (Educause, 2007). It's a perfect fit for a range of genres - instructional, persuasive, historical, reflective...or in this case, children's narratives!
The students are tasked with helping K-2 children become confident readers and writers through the co-writing of a digital narrative. Noella specifically made it a digital narrative to build the students' digital literacy skills and prepare them for the digital classroom. This is how it happened...
Pre-production
Each pre-service teacher was ‘buddied’ up with a K-2 child, who they met beforehand to 'build rapport'. The students were prepared for the task ahead through a series of topics relating to the K-6 English Syllabus including Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Viewing and Representing.
Some specific technology knowledge was needed as well, and so the students were prepped on how to use Microsoft's Photo Story to create a video (wmv) from digital photos and audio content (narration, music or other sounds). Several of the students used their phones to capture audio and allowed the children to narrate the stories. Along with a face-to-face workshop, the team provided the students with a tutorial on digital storytelling and a 'how to' video available on YouTube.
Production
The students and their buddies both arrived with previously discussed props and costumes to spark the imagination, and were seen wandering around dressed as explorers, fairies and bats! The students had also come prepared with digital cameras and laptop computers, and they were kept busy taking photos, recording audio and writing notes. In many cases it was the CSU pre-service teachers’ first experience of teaching a young child.
In this video, Noella discusses the process:
Post production
After lunch, the students and children worked on developing their stories, and by the end of the day, they had a rough draft to continue working with. The process was creative and quite open ended. Some of the students opted to create traditional illustrations which were later scanned, while others woriked with photo editing software. The final stories were shared on the subject site, as well as with the buddies (via CD/DVD).The task does a wonderful job of leading students into their 20-day practicum. As Noella says, 'With the digital stories each student got to work one-on-one with a child. This gave them real insight into just how diverse the needs of young students can be.'
Miriam Edwards, who provided the educational design support for Noella and her team, says that she's 'very proud of this project because it not only speaks to several ideas within the Degree Initiative, it creates strong ties with local schools and makes kids happy.' Couldn't agree more. :)
Those from CSU can find the full learning design on the About ICTIntegration wiki (CSU login required).
But are digital stories only useful with pre-service teachers?
Well, are pre-service teachers and K-2 children the only people to tell stories? Storytelling is an ancient art, and there have been many, many projects around the world that cement this as an excellent pedagogical technique to engage students in a wide range of issues, from community medicine and sustainability to history, culture and scientific research. Researching the story, distilling key concepts, developing a point of view and engaging the audience ... not to mention digital literacy...are just some of the skills that students can expect to develop through digital storytelling. >Here's a few resources to explore:
- The educational uses of digital storytelling
- The many dimensions of digital storytelling in higher education (check the case studies)
- University of Wollongong's digital storytelling site
- QUT's digital storytelling site
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