Bonnie Long, Education Technologist, NUIG School of Education Galway Doctoral Research Fellow...

4th Internation Digital Storytelling Conference, Lillehammer, Norway, 4-7 February, 2011

Bonnie Long, Education Technologist, NUIG School of EducationGalway Doctoral Research Fellow

Digital Storytelling and Meaning Making:Critical Reflection, Creativity and Technology in

Pre-service Teacher Education


Introductory Digital Story


• Digital Storytelling and Meaning Making: Critical Reflection, Creativity and Technology in Pre-service Teacher Education– Studying the use of digital storytelling to enhance

reflection in pre-service teacher education

• Research questions:– How can DST be designed to enhance reflection in

teacher education?– Does DST allow Pre-service teachers to better evidence

their reflection and growth?– In what way does DST enhance student teachers’ ability

to construct their professional identity as teacher?

Research Project


• Design Based Research– Ongoing cycles of research, design, implementation,

reflection/evaluation and redesign– mixed methods approach – both qualitative and quantitative research methods

• Methods of Data Collection:– Questionnaires– Analytic assessment rubrics– Online discussion boards– Researcher’s journal – Digital stories produced by the students– Students’ digital storytelling ‘working portfolios’, including all

planning and design documents

Methodology


Why DST and pre-service teachers?• Make Reflection on

practice engaging, creative

• Develop ICT skills• Develop students’

technology self efficacy– Increase possibility of pre-

service teachers integrating technology into their future teaching

Digital storytelling is a highly motivating

strategy that can make reflection

concrete and visible. (Barrett, 2006, p. 1)

“To date, I haven’t seen an activity that allows

students to blend design, creativity, thoughtful

expression, and technology skills as well as

DST does.”(Ohler, 2008, p. 13)

Our Definition of a DST:• Center for Digital Storytelling model• Short, 3-5 minute video • Produced by someone who is not a media

professional• Incorporates multimedia components such as

still images, music, voiceover, video• Constructed as a thought piece on a personal

experience • Narrated in the author’s own voice• The story is the focus (Matthews-DeNatale, 2008) (Dogan & Robin, 2006)


http://www.storycenter.org/


2009-2010: The Pilot Project• Implemented Digital Storytelling (DST) unit

with PGDE students– Whole cohort taken through the DST process

in Ed Tech class, semester 2– Given a choice to write an essay or complete a

DST for the closing section of their professional practice portfolio

– 18* students volunteered to complete a digital story


The DST Unit:• Five one hour lessons, over five weeks• Covered the stages of digital storytelling

process:1. Introduction to DST and Storytelling in Education2. Story Circle and Script Creation3. Image/Music Sourcing and creation4. Windows MovieMaker or iMovie Tutorial5. Work Session

• Students had six weeks additional time to finish DST after the formal lessons


• Wanted to use what was available in the computing suites and/or free to use– PC’s in the computer suites– Windows Movie Maker– Myna, Aviary.com’s audio editing website

Hardware/Software Used:

http://aviary.com/


• Closing Section of their Professional Practice Portfolio

Aim: To…demonstrate your capacity to draw connections between different elements of the PGDE programme and to offer a synthesis of your learning as a whole.

In your digital story, reflect on:• your educational journey• re-evaluate learning goals and learning philosophies, evaluate

achievement of these learning goals• trace any transformations in your learning and teaching beliefs,

values, attitudes, and assumptions, how these changes have come about

• relate what/why/how different elements of the PGDE programme contributed to your learning and teaching

• highlight significant landmark achievements/improvements you have made to your learning and teaching (can draw from your journal, lesson plans and evaluations…)

The Assignment Brief:


What did they create?


How did it work out?• Students enjoyed creating their digital stories• All found it a rewarding experience• Found it to be a reflective, engaging process• All enjoyed the chance to be creative• Almost all showed high degrees of technology

efficacy at the end of the process• Most felt it helped them to articulate what

they learned as pre-service teachers this year


How did it work out?• All felt it improved their ICT skills• All felt that using images, music and sound in

the DST made it easier to express themselves• Voiceover recording was the hardest part for

most due to technical difficulties• Time intensive

– average 30 hours on whole process– much more time than an essay!


What do the students have to say?• What did you like most about the digital

storytelling process?

“I liked the way I could see the story unfolding as I worked on it and that I could express myself through

pictures and images without having to say everything. I sometimes find it hard to say exactly what I want to convey and this provided an alternative method for

me to work with.”

“I liked choosing images, and getting to use some of my own personal images. I also liked using the story

board to organise myself. I felt that it was a very visual approach to completing a project and may be a

useful tool to help students who are visual learners organise themselves for any kind of project.”


• Were you pleased with the outcome of your digital story?– All said “yes”– Some of their comments were:

“It was great to see all my hard work come together in a movie and I feel really confident in using the

software for other school work now.”

What do the students have to say?

“I felt that I had completed something meaningful for myself while at the same time learning a new skill.”


• Deep reflection not as apparent as we’d hoped it would be in the final product

• Using a rubric based on Moon’s (2004) generic framework for reflective writing, results were:

• Interesting to note that those who scored highest on levels of reflection strayed furthest from the brief given to them– Caused me to question the task set for them in the

first place

Levels of Reflection Achieved:

Descriptive Descriptive with some reflection

Reflective (1)

Reflective (2)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

0

10

5

3


• Task set for students needs to match desired outcomes

• More time needed for story creation• Place more emphasis on ‘story circle’ step of

process• More time needed for lesson on voice

recording• Refine voiceover process to make it easier

Lessons Learned with Pilot:


• Quality of voiceover was a big problem• Need to include reflection engendered by

multimedia aspects of the process• Need time to share stories at the end of the

project• Researcher needs to experience creation of a

digital story

Lessons Learned with Pilot:


• Digital Story will be based on the Critical Incident Analysis part of the portfolio

• Brief is to:– Create a digital story about a ‘critical incident’

• An incident that occurred which made you subsequently think and/or act differently

• Much more time given to story development– Incorporated into tutorial on Critical Incident– Feedback from tutors and peers– More emphasis on story circle step

• Based on McDrury & Alterio (2002)

Changes to Design of Unit for Year 2:


Changes to Design of Unit for Year 2:• All students completing a digital story• More time devoted to the unit overall• Refinement of voiceover recording process


• Is process more important than product?• What does the use of images and sound add

to reflection?– How do I measure this?

• Evidence of identity creation?• The research continues…

Questions Raised:

References• Barrett, H. (2006). Digital Stories in ePortfolios: Multiple Purposes and Tools Retrieved 17/4/09, 2009, from

http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/purposes.html

• Jakes, D. (2007). Digital Storytelling and 21st Century Skills. Paper presented at the TechForum Orlando. Retrieved 29/1/10, from http://archive.techlearning.com/techlearning/events/techforum07/dst_orlando_jakes.pdf

• Li, L., & Morehead, P. (2006). Digital Storytelling: Self-Efficacy and Digital Literacy. Paper presented at the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2006, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

• Matthews-DeNatale, G. (2008). Digital Storytelling - Tips and Resources. Retrieved on 16/4/09 from http://www.educause.edu/Resources/DigitalStoryMakingUnderstandin/162538

• McDrury, J., & Alterio, M. (2002). Learning through storytelling in higher education. London: Dunmore Press.

• Mello, (2001) The power of storytelling: How oral narrative influences children’s relationships in classrooms. International Journal of Education and the Arts. 2(1)

• Moon, J. (1999). Reflection in Learning and Professional Development. London: Kogan Page.

• Moon, J. (2004). A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential learning: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge Falmer.

• Ohler, J. (2008). Digital Storytelling in the Classroom: New media pathways to literacy, learning and creativity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

• Jason Ohler’s Website: http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/storyeducation.cfm

• Partnership for 21st Century Skills

• Porter, B., (2004) Digitales: The art of Digital Storytelling, Sedalia, CO, BJP Consulting

• Sandars, J., Murray, C., & Pellow, A. (2008). Twelve tips for using digital storytelling to promote reflective learning by medical students. Medical Teacher, 30, 774-777.

• Schank, R. (1990). Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

• Søreide, G. E. (2006). Narrative construction of teacher identity: positioning and negotiation. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12(5), 527-547.


http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/purposes.html

http://archive.techlearning.com/techlearning/events/techforum07/dst_orlando_jakes.pdf

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/DigitalStoryMakingUnderstandin/162538

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/DigitalStoryMakingUnderstandin/162538

http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/storyeducation.cfm

http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119




Image Sources:• Audacity image: www.sourceforge.net • Blue Snowball mic image: http://condensermic.net/blue-snowball-microphone/ • CDS graphic: http://www.storycenter.org/ • DST wordle graphic: Created by Bonnie using www.wordle.com • Windows MovieMaker image:

http://it.seattleschools.org/BEXlevy/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/moviemaker.jpg• Aviary’s Myna image: http://aviary.com/tools • Wide-screen TV image: http://www.dolphin-media.co.uk/images/wide_screen_tv.jpg • NUI Galway Image: http://www.crookhaven.net/attractions.php • Tutorial image: celtscot.ed.ac.uk

http://www.sourceforge.net/

http://condensermic.net/blue-snowball-microphone/

http://condensermic.net/blue-snowball-microphone/

http://www.storycenter.org/

http://www.wordle.com/

http://it.seattleschools.org/BEXlevy/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/moviemaker.jpg

http://aviary.com/tools

http://www.dolphin-media.co.uk/images/wide_screen_tv.jpg

http://www.crookhaven.net/attractions.php


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•© EDMAN YOST, J. (1999), Copyright Chaos - An Educator's Guide to Copyright Law and “Fair Use”, Intel Teach to the Future CD

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Bonnie Long, Education Technologist, NUIG School of Education Galway Doctoral Research Fellow...

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