Digital Storytelling as a Tool for Formative Education at St. Columbkille Partnership School
Abstract
New approaches to teaching and learning have been made possible by technological innovations. Digital Storytelling (DS), for example, has been shown to enhance language learning and the acquisition of content knowledge, foster creativity and critical thinking, build communities, and engage students in learning tasks (Lambert, 2012). DS is an activity in which students create short multimodal videos, including still or moving images together with sound such as narration or background music. We created the Incorporating Digital-Storytelling to Empower All Students (IDEAS) program at St. Columkille School, integrating it into the regular curriculum for 7th graders. We included a formative education component in the project, engaging students in reflection on the meaning and purpose of their lives as part of the assignment.
We helped students use DS not only to learn subject matter but also to develop a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as a commitment to the common good. We define meaning and purpose as “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful for the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self” (Damon, 2008, 33). We adopted a two-dimensional model of meaning that includes a focus on (1) coherence, or one’s comprehension of the sense made by a life, and (2) purpose, or one’s aims for life (Steger et al., 2006). Many students used their DS to examine social issues and promote the common good. For example, some projects documented awareness about climate change or racial equality. Digital storytelling can be an effective tool for students to develop a sense of meaning and purpose—it allows students to choose topics that are intrinsically interesting to them, to exercise their self-expression, to reflect on their learning, to receive feedback from teachers and peers, and to share their feelings with others (Bundick, 2011; Waycott et al., 2017).
The purpose of the study was 1) to examine how digital storytelling helped middle school students at one Catholic school construct lifelong learning goals that gave a sense of meaning and purpose; 2) to investigate how incorporating digital storytelling facilitated students’ identity formation and social engagement; 3) and to explore how middle school students engaged in digital storytelling while they simultaneously worked with subject matter and explored larger purposes.
By adopting a multiple case study method (Merriam, 2009), we explored students’ perceptions of and experiences with digital stories. Digital storytelling allows learners to construct multimodal texts, offering them opportunities to learn digital communication skills with diverse semiotic resources and allowing them to express their feelings and voices. We adopted Kress’s (2005) notion of transformation and transduction in our analysis of digital stories, examining how middle school students employed the multimodal resources available in digital storytelling to express their experiences and reflect on their learning. We also explored how students expressed their identities, voices, and emotions through their digital stories. We designed a multimodal integration model which attended to content (themes, message, question, purpose), visuals (images, juxtaposition, camera angle & social distance, transition), sound (soundtrack, sound effects, and voiceover), and language (verbal, written, and bilingualism).
The findings indicate that students used action, text, images, other visuals, and sound to examine themes of larger meaning and purpose, to articulate their voices and to imagine how they could contribute the world. This presentation focuses on four case studies: Ventura’s story (Harmful cosmetic products), Andy’s story (School shooting), Kevin’s story (Homeless veterans), and Theo’s story (#pray for Venezuela). These stories all demonstrated social awareness and responsibility. The findings also described how students incorporated various resources, such as cartoons and emoji, enacting remix culture to facilitate their learning and advocate for their ideas. DS allowed students to become reflective authors of their learning as well as advocates for the common good. The study also contributes by introducing a method for analyzing digital stories, drawing on systemic functional linguistics.
Incorporating digital storytelling into a Catholic school curriculum can not only engage learners with a wider range of expressive resources, but can also enhance students’ motivation, creativity, and interaction with an audience. Digital storytelling projects facilitate reflection, including formative reflection on larger purposes and one’s place in the world.
References
Bundick, M.F. (2011). The benefits of reflecting on and discussing purpose in life in emerging adulthood. New Directions for Youth Development. NO.132.
Damon, W. (2008) The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find their Calling in Life. New York: The Free Press. (Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish translations, 2009 – 2014).
Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22, 5-22.
Lambert, J. (2012). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community. New York; NY, Routledge.
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93.
Waycott, J., Davis, H., Warr, D., Edmonds, F., & Taylor, G. (2017). Co-constructing Meaning and Negotiating Participation: Ethical Tensions when ‘Giving Voice’ through Digital Storytelling. Interacting with Computers, 29(2), 237-247.
Digital Storytelling as a Tool for Formative Education at St. Columbkille Partnership School
New approaches to teaching and learning have been made possible by technological innovations. Digital Storytelling (DS), for example, has been shown to enhance language learning and the acquisition of content knowledge, foster creativity and critical thinking, build communities, and engage students in learning tasks (Lambert, 2012). DS is an activity in which students create short multimodal videos, including still or moving images together with sound such as narration or background music. We created the Incorporating Digital-Storytelling to Empower All Students (IDEAS) program at St. Columkille School, integrating it into the regular curriculum for 7th graders. We included a formative education component in the project, engaging students in reflection on the meaning and purpose of their lives as part of the assignment.
We helped students use DS not only to learn subject matter but also to develop a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as a commitment to the common good. We define meaning and purpose as “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful for the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self” (Damon, 2008, 33). We adopted a two-dimensional model of meaning that includes a focus on (1) coherence, or one’s comprehension of the sense made by a life, and (2) purpose, or one’s aims for life (Steger et al., 2006). Many students used their DS to examine social issues and promote the common good. For example, some projects documented awareness about climate change or racial equality. Digital storytelling can be an effective tool for students to develop a sense of meaning and purpose—it allows students to choose topics that are intrinsically interesting to them, to exercise their self-expression, to reflect on their learning, to receive feedback from teachers and peers, and to share their feelings with others (Bundick, 2011; Waycott et al., 2017).
The purpose of the study was 1) to examine how digital storytelling helped middle school students at one Catholic school construct lifelong learning goals that gave a sense of meaning and purpose; 2) to investigate how incorporating digital storytelling facilitated students’ identity formation and social engagement; 3) and to explore how middle school students engaged in digital storytelling while they simultaneously worked with subject matter and explored larger purposes.
By adopting a multiple case study method (Merriam, 2009), we explored students’ perceptions of and experiences with digital stories. Digital storytelling allows learners to construct multimodal texts, offering them opportunities to learn digital communication skills with diverse semiotic resources and allowing them to express their feelings and voices. We adopted Kress’s (2005) notion of transformation and transduction in our analysis of digital stories, examining how middle school students employed the multimodal resources available in digital storytelling to express their experiences and reflect on their learning. We also explored how students expressed their identities, voices, and emotions through their digital stories. We designed a multimodal integration model which attended to content (themes, message, question, purpose), visuals (images, juxtaposition, camera angle & social distance, transition), sound (soundtrack, sound effects, and voiceover), and language (verbal, written, and bilingualism).
The findings indicate that students used action, text, images, other visuals, and sound to examine themes of larger meaning and purpose, to articulate their voices and to imagine how they could contribute the world. This presentation focuses on four case studies: Ventura’s story (Harmful cosmetic products), Andy’s story (School shooting), Kevin’s story (Homeless veterans), and Theo’s story (#pray for Venezuela). These stories all demonstrated social awareness and responsibility. The findings also described how students incorporated various resources, such as cartoons and emoji, enacting remix culture to facilitate their learning and advocate for their ideas. DS allowed students to become reflective authors of their learning as well as advocates for the common good. The study also contributes by introducing a method for analyzing digital stories, drawing on systemic functional linguistics.
Incorporating digital storytelling into a Catholic school curriculum can not only engage learners with a wider range of expressive resources, but can also enhance students’ motivation, creativity, and interaction with an audience. Digital storytelling projects facilitate reflection, including formative reflection on larger purposes and one’s place in the world.
References
Bundick, M.F. (2011). The benefits of reflecting on and discussing purpose in life in emerging adulthood. New Directions for Youth Development. NO.132.
Damon, W. (2008) The Path to Purpose: How Young People Find their Calling in Life. New York: The Free Press. (Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish translations, 2009 – 2014).
Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22, 5-22.
Lambert, J. (2012). Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community. New York; NY, Routledge.
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93.
Waycott, J., Davis, H., Warr, D., Edmonds, F., & Taylor, G. (2017). Co-constructing Meaning and Negotiating Participation: Ethical Tensions when ‘Giving Voice’ through Digital Storytelling. Interacting with Computers, 29(2), 237-247.