The Role of Digital Storytelling in Education: Enhancing Literacy and Communication Skills
The Role of Digital Storytelling in Education: Enhancing Literacy and Communication Skills
The Role of Digital Storytelling in Education: Enhancing Literacy and Communication Skills
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The Role of Digital Storytelling in Education:
Enhancing Literacy and Communication Skills
Kakungulu Samuel J.
Faculty of Education, Kampala International University, Uganda
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the role of digital storytelling as an innovative educational tool for enhancing
literacy and communication skills. By integrating text, images, audio, and video, digital storytelling
provides a dynamic platform that supports multimodal learning and encourages students to express their
ideas creatively. The study examines the theoretical frameworks supporting the use of digital storytelling
in education, highlighting its impact on students' literacy and communication abilities. The benefits of
digital storytelling, particularly for struggling students, are discussed alongside practical implementation
strategies for classroom use. The paper concludes with an evaluation of digital storytelling projects,
emphasizing the importance of structured assessment frameworks to measure the effectiveness of this
educational approach.
Keywords: Digital Storytelling, Literacy Skills, Communication Skills, Multimodal Learning,
Educational Technology.
INTRODUCTION
Digital storytelling is an emerging genre that incorporates text, images, audio, and video to create a non-
linear narrative, which can be documented and disseminated using various technologies. Struggling
students benefit more than higher performing students because it encourages students to find, organize,
and express their ideas and knowledge in an individual and meaningful way. Students are given the
chance to show who they are and how they understand the world. Because the emphasis is on personal
expression, some students who would not consider publishing a traditional written draft become very
involved in the digital storytelling process. In addition, the construction of a digital story builds these
skills through the interplay of writing, speaking, and listening. Digital storytelling allows students to
bring together the many modes of communication essential for a 21st-century education. The appeal of
students’ interests and technology encourages more students to participate fully in the writing process,
especially students who are usually reluctant or struggling readers and writers. The inclusion of music
and personal narration gives students more control over how they present themselves. Finally, striving
for a final product of public consumption provides students with the motivation to devote the time to
revising, editing, and writing that these skills require [1, 2, 3]. Digital storytelling is a new and powerful
medium for storytelling. Digital storytelling blends the art of traditional storytelling with new
technology. Moreover, it uses the computer as a tool for telling stories that connect personal stories to
community stories and to stories of social and political change. In digital storytelling, computer and
multimedia technologies are employed to disseminate the narrative content like beliefs, attitudes,
emotions, opinions, events, and memories. Digital storytelling involves the adaptation of a story from an
existing source, such as a book or a legend, and the creation of an original work that has not previously
been documented. It is designed to be an entertaining or informative presentation without a political
agenda. Digital storytelling also includes personal lives such as a journey, a record of memorable events,
or a history of family. It may address political issues in a specific locale or community and express the
storyteller's hopes for change concerning its impact on society. Political digital storytelling is a new form
of activism that is emergent amongst activists, grassroots organizations, and non-governmental
organizations (ngos) [4, 5].
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR USING DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN EDUCATION
The theoretical framework for this study is grounded in the pedagogical and conceptual modern
dispositions enabling the use of digital storytelling as a motivating and compelling argument for the
pedagogical and conceptual demands of visual literacy in support of creating diverse teacher-created
digital stories. Vignettes of teachers contextualized social, cultural, and material experiences working
with pedagogical and conceptual dispositions enabled and constrained in creating digital stories set the
Page | 37 scene of the study. Impacts on teachers’ pedagogical and conceptual dispositions are analyzed from a
sociocultural and multiliteracies perspective. Three residue categories about digital storytelling’s
powerful impact on teachers’ modern pedagogies are identified as democratizing teachers’ ownership,
empowerment, and proficiency in the use of diverse digital resources. These insights inform future digital
storytelling experiences in schools and teacher education and suggest further education and research
focusing on the claim of visual literacy [6, 7]. At present there is a plethora of slogan regarding what is
termed the “new media” or “the online world.” Words like the digital divide, technological utopia and
dystopia, high-tech, the knowledge society, globalization and concentrations of power, public and private
spaces, and cyberspace, have become the focus of discussion on educators’ and researchers’ distribution
and understanding of investments and implications of using “digital” in education. However, there might
be a counter-movement challenging the conceptual discussions that seem to dominate the literacy
debates. In-depth qualitative school and media studies investigating how schools make sense of,
appropriate, and govern emerging media are needed, as well as analyses of the discursive, institutional,
social, and ideological implications of policies undertaken by various actors on different educational levels
governing young people’s use of digital risks and opportunities [8, 9].
BENEFITS OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN ENHANCING LITERACY AND
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Digital storytelling strengthens literacy skills in both in-school and out-of-school settings by engaging
individuals in multimodal storytelling experiences. Argue that storytelling in the classroom provides a
powerful opportunity for pedagogical engagement through narrative, writing, and identity. Support for
these beliefs is offered by various literacies scholars, including Goldman, Rosedale, Street, and Knobel,
who contend that participation in a digital storytelling project guides students to engage with ideas about
narrative and different narrative forms. Affirms that students must navigate different social environments
and utilize particular sets of semiotic tools to co-construct intentional meaning and knowledge [10, 11].
Before being able to read and write, children furnish their understandings of the world through spoken
stories. The sharp turn to visual storytelling depictions of Yoruba oral stories, as the children in the study
exhibited, did not seem to be a loss in terms of their earlier oracy performance. Surprisingly, it enriched
classroom social and language interactional spaces, where many children who were silent in ‘traditional’
pedagogical modes of storytelling became active contributors to a different practice. This finding
suggests that different modes of storytelling offer diverse opportunities for children’s language and social
development. Technology-supported global engagement with storytelling enables children to intertwine
their social experiences with international issues [12, 13].
PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING IN THE
CLASSROOM
This section will outline a variety of practical approaches and techniques for implementing digital
storytelling in the classroom. Digital storytelling is a way for individuals to share their personal stories,
experiences, or perspectives on a topic by combining digital images, voice narration, text, and music into
a short movie. The opportunity to share personal stories and reflect on experiences draws on these
thinking skills. Digital storytelling in education has the potential to address various standards in National
Educational Technology, the International Society for Technology in Education, and literacy standards in
English Language Arts, science, and mathematics. Within the context of these standards, there are
multiple opportunities for students to engage in the skills necessary for creating a digital story. Each
opportunity presents an educative moment, as students will quickly rise to the expectation of thoughtful,
responsible engagement with technology. At the end, students will produce a rich text of personal and
academic meaning [9, 14].
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING PROJECTS
The assessment and evaluation of digital storytelling projects carried out in various educational settings
is from the perspective of the educators and facilitators involved in the projects. When embarking on a
large-scale digital storytelling initiative, or an integrated strategy of related projects, it is important to
develop a framework for the evaluation of the projects, or, at minimum, a set of guidelines on the
approaches to the assessment and evaluation process. The intention was to have these frameworks and
guidelines used by the educators and facilitators of digital storytelling projects so that data collected
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throughout the lifespan of each project could be consistently analyzed for impact. It is understandable
that with a small-scale project in just one educational setting that one may feel no need for a framework/
guideline; however larger-scale initiatives carried out across multiple educational settings do require
structured frameworks and guidelines to help with assessment and evaluation of projects [9, 15]. In
examining digital storytelling initiatives in an educational context, it is important to assess the projects
that had been undertaken and also identify academic areas successfully impacted by these educational
Page | 38 initiatives. Assessing the effectiveness and impact of digital storytelling initiatives can be complex, both
with respect to the forms of data collected, and the analysis. It is important to have consistent analysis of
data collected in these projects if one wants to identify trends and issues which may be of concern across
the board. No matter the setting or project structures, progress can be made in developing a coherent
understanding of the effectiveness or the pitfalls of the implementation of digital storytelling as an
educational initiative. Since the initial focus was on large scale projects undertaken in many different
contexts, frameworks were developed to guide the assessment and evaluation of projects. These were then
piloted on a number of educational projects to evaluate their effectiveness and applicability [16, 17].
CONCLUSION
Digital storytelling represents a powerful tool in modern education, offering a unique approach to
enhancing literacy and communication skills through multimodal learning experiences. By engaging
students in the creation and sharing of personal narratives, digital storytelling not only fosters creativity
and self-expression but also motivates students, particularly those who struggle with traditional literacy
tasks. The successful integration of digital storytelling into educational curricula requires careful
planning and assessment, ensuring that both educators and students can fully realize its potential. As
educational technologies continue to evolve, digital storytelling will remain a valuable resource for
developing essential skills in a 21st-century learning environment.
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