Why Use Digital Storytelling?

Educators should understand how and why to incorporate digital storytelling into a curriculum. My previous posts have addressed how to incorporate digital stories. This post addresses why educators should incorporate this teaching concept into their curriculum. The definition of digital storytelling combines two essential elements that are related to modern learning. Since the development of the earliest teaching practices, educators have used narratives to reinforce learning. These narratives allow students to attach additional meaning to topics which reinforces the understanding and retention of information. Digital storytelling combines the use of narratives with modern technology to formulate a new teaching concept. Computers provide modern learners with limitless amounts of information and easily-accessible software applications. According to researchers, digital storytelling is effective because it requires students to develop and use critical thinking skills. This process also allows learners to employ creativity and visual stimuli into the final product.

The use of digital storytelling continues to spread to all academic levels and subject matter. This instructional technique will continue to migrate as new applications are developed. A major concern for educators is that the digital storytelling process should not evolve into a practice that focuses solely on the use of multimedia applications and the narratives are overlooked. Educators must ensure that they specify an appropriate balance between technology and the discovery of new information when planning to use digital storytelling in their curriculum.

 

 

Digital Storytelling Example

Adult students typically attend a rigorous training course and have to pass the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technician (NREMT) exam before they are certified to work as EMTs. Training courses usually include classroom lectures and hands-on training. Many of the classroom lectures are scenario-based on the students have to apply their training to determine the proper medical responses. The topics covered during the lectures often include a lot of medical terms related to the body’s anatomy, medical procedures, and names of medication. For many of these lectures, having the students create digital stories would enhance the classroom lectures and create a foundation for higher levels of learning.

I’ve created a digital story as an example and I would appreciate your evaluation. The example is linked to my curriculum page which provides students with useful information about creating a digital story. It’s the last link on the page and I am eager to hear your comments!