Digital Storytelling can often be seen as something that stands alone to convey a single message, place, or even an experience. When participants are asked to compose a digital story it is often focused on the outcome and not the process of getting there. Digital storytelling has the potential to be a learning tool that addresses critical thinking, problem solving, and multimedia applications.
In the article “Digital Storytelling for Students with Learning Disabilities” by Douglas Haddad PhD, the author shares how composing a digital story is valuable to an overall learning experience for students with learning disabilities. Specifically, adaptation is used as an example in this article and I feel that this is one of the key features of digital storytelling. Effective and engaging digital stories engage all learners, even those who may experience challenges in learning and comprehending. A digital story is a great way to encourage them.
“Digital storytelling opens up opportunities to scaffold traditional literacy for students with learning disabilities in order to help them learn and master new skills by applying them in a creative way.”-Douglas Haddad, PhD
Implementing digital storytelling alongside traditional learning approaches allows teachers to meaningfully engage students with learning disabilities who may usually struggle and become frustrated. Students are able to use different tools that lead to the development of individualized solutions. They are more likely to become and remain interested and even excited through personalization. The additional benefit is through the introduction and use of technology, which provides significant value throughout their academic careers.
“Digital storytelling allows students to have their choice of developing and telling their stories in many different ways.”-Douglas Haddad, PhD
This article is interesting to me because learners at any age can experience learning disabilities. I work with adult learners from many different backgrounds with many different educational experiences. As this article points out, digital storytelling allows the learner to identify and use their strengths by engaging multimedia tools to compose a digital story. Using a multimedia approach helps to increase engagement and there is an opportunity to concentrate more on the learners selected path, other than the final product or outcome. There is still a system of best practices when composing a digital story, but there are more tools available to support creativity and engagement through a customized approach for each student’s personality or ability that may not be found in traditional writing exercises.
Hi Matt,
This article really made me think about how we, as educators and instructional designers, need to be constantly thinking about how we can help people express themselves even if they’re not good writers. I agree with Dr. Haddad that people with learning disabilities some times just haven’t found a medium that works best for them. And digital storytelling opens up so many more forms of expression, whether it’s sound, or images, or video that may be more expressive of that persons true feelings. And now with some of the technology that is becoming available to teachers and students, it is even easier to think about expressing thoughts, feelings, and emotions with these new technologies.
One worry that I’ve always had about the reliance on these new technologies to help students is that it continues to perpetuate the world of the “haves” and “have nots”. Since a lot of these technologies can cost a substantial amount of money (i.e., wireless technology in rural communities, or computers in poor school districts), it is important for us as a society to make sure that we find new ways to ensure basic infrastructure to everyone. I keep thinking that we are missing out on some beautiful or poignant stories because the students can’t access the technology.
David
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