Digital Storytelling

     The past days of teaching an English/Language Arts class revolved around books, novels, and paper handouts. In these modern times, the medium of technology has brought an abundance of benefits that will affect our English classrooms. For example, Digital Storytelling is a new platform that teachers can use to illustrate stories to their students. Not only is this a new effective resource to explain stories, but the students achieve a new learning process in spelling, reading, and especially reading comprehension.
     Regina Royer and Patricia Richards discussed the 16 important strategies for reading comprehension recommended by the National Reading Panel in "Digital Storytelling" (2008). The strategies involved "active listening", "cooperative learning", and "mental imagery". Royer and Richards explained that Digital Storytelling was a platform that allowed for the National Reading Panel's 16 strategies to be applied with. In terms of active listening, Royer & Richards explained that the educator should have their students actively listen to their partners tell the digital stories. In cooperative learning, students can work in groups to create digital stories while also being able to provide feedback to one another. Royer & Richards explained many utilities of Digital storytelling in regards to encouraging reading comprehension, and the evidence can be seen when applied to real world experiences.
     Bernejean Porter, in "Digital Storytelling in Second Life", showed her real world experience of digital storytelling with her own students. In recreating the story "The Road Less Traveled" by Robert Frost, Porter had her students retell the story through their own digital stories. Interestingly, Porter had her students delve deep into their own interpreted meaning of the stories, so that they could each for their own unique media, text, and items for their individual stories. This challenged Porter's students to critically think of what they needed to do to illustrate and illuminate their own ideas of the poem, and also engaged them enough to comprehend the meaning of the actual poem.
     Royer & Richards (2008) explained that Digital Storytelling motivated reading comprehension, and Porter's real world experience backs their claim up. As a teacher, I would definitely use Digital Storytelling in English/Language Arts lessons. Novels seem to bore students, but using the platform of digital storytelling may be able to engage the students more into the stories, and help them comprehend the real meanings. Maybe it will even illuminate the meanings even more, since it will be a new form of media the students will be able to see/read the stories through.

 Porter, Bernejean, "Digital Storytelling in Second Life" (May 2010)
Richards, Patricia; Royer, Regina, "Digital Storytelling" (November 2008)