Feasibility

Digital storytelling combines multimedia and digital technology with traditional oral storytelling. Creating a digital story usually encompasses the use of mass media technology that is accessible to everyone, the final product being a short film (two to four minutes long) that the audience watches via computer or other digital media.

The benefits of using digital storytelling in education appear to be multiple. First of all, it is a dynamic process that mobilizes students, appropriately integrates new technologies and new media into the curriculum, favors inter – subjectivity, strengthens cooperation and promotes originality and creativity, among others. At the same time, the use of digital storytelling unleashes students’ talents that, under other circumstances, would remain dormant. Several scholars identify in students’ engagement with digital storytelling all types of learning, and in particular the linguistic (script writing), the logical-mathematical (time management, synchronization of images and narration), the musical – rhythmic (composition), the visual (image and video selection), kinesthetic (story presentation – dramatization), interpersonal (presentation) and intrapersonal (reflection) and point out that digital storytelling activates both sides of the brain as it requires the combination of logic and imagination.

Storytelling constitutes an art of communication, the existence of which is lost in the beginnings of civilization and is a way of transmitting knowledge and collective “wisdom” to the next generations. Stories are a fundamental vehicle for organizing our experiences. Through stories, children learn about other people’s lives and come to understand their own path in life. Storytelling entails all four forms of communication -speaking, listening, reading and writing- offering great opportunities to enrich students’ communication skills.

Also, it appears that the connection of digital storytelling with literary reading mobilizes students’ love of reading and better equips them to delve deeper into literary texts. In addition, digital storytelling acts as a Trojan horse for students’ engagement with writing, as students are more willing to write and rewrite a text, in order to form the basis of a good digital story. Through the parallel utilization of creative writing techniques, students have the opportunity to produce spontaneous personal speech for authentic communication situations, as well as to reflect and express their subjectivity. Finally, students have the opportunity to experiment with a wide range of texts. Almost all types of texts produced in the context of creative writing can form the basis of a digital story.

It would therefore be of particular interest to pursue the systematic utilization of digital storytelling in the teaching of language – related subject matters in compulsory education, through the creation of two physical hubs, that is, two suitably equipped spaces, which could function as digital storytelling labs, thus facilitate both teacher trainings and the utilization of digital storytelling in schools, where the appropriate infrastructure may not exist. On the other hand, the creation of a digital hub, that is, the creation of a platform for the use of digital storytelling in education, is deemed necessary given the scope of the project’s dissemination and sustainability requirements. The proposed platform will include material such as manuals for creating digital stories, related bibliography, lesson plans and sample digital stories. In addition, it will also serve as a platform for asynchronous communication between the project team members and the participating teachers, as well as a repository of the digital stories that will be created during the research project. It will be evaluated in practice, refined and enriched during the implementation of the project and will constitute one of its final deliverables. It will be addressed to the entire educational community, both adults and children, who are interested in utilizing digital storytelling.