After an informative session about digital storytelling in class, I came across an interesting article by Sylvester and Greenidge (2009). Their article dealt with digital storytelling and its ability to help struggling writers. It immediately caught my attention as I learnt in class that the main focus of the digital story was the images rather than print. I was about to revise my thoughts on that.
Sylvester and Greenidge (2009) showed that the writing process was an integral part in the making of a digital story. Students are required to write the scripts which will serve as the voice- over narration to complement the images. In so doing, they have to pay attention to content and details, sequencing, sentence and paragraph construction and mechanics. According to the authors, these are the same areas struggling writers have problems in.
Digital stories motivates struggling writers to willingly participate in the writing process (Sylvester and Greenidge, 2009). Throughout the entire process of making the digital story they are actively engaged and so stay on task till the story is completed. Struggling writers have to write and edit their scripts; read their scripts with expression during the recording; incorporate multimedia such as digital photos, images, music and videos into the story and finally publish their work. Best of all they are creating their digital story on a topic that they are interested in.
Struggling writers through digital storytelling are given a voice, it boosts their confidence and so enables them to become better writers. I can now certainly understand why.
References
Sylvester, R. & Greenidge, W. (2009). Digital Storytelling: Extending the Potential for Struggling Writers. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), p 284-295.
Bj, nice job. You are indeed right and I myself fell inlove with the tool.Indeed, digital storytelling has many benefits especially in the literacy classroom.Children are involved in active learning, they are highly motivated and most of all they engage in reading and writing activities.
ReplyDeleteWe as educators, in this digital age must make our classrooms interesting.Our struggling readers can succeed but teachers need to take the time to make it happen.Integrating technology is an exciting teaching strategy for our children!
Digital Storytelling is an excellent way of developing skills in literacy in a collaborative learning environment.
Hi BJ,
ReplyDeleteI am familiar with the article. I found it very interesting and informative.It covers numerous aspects of digital storytelling. As educators, we need to take time to understand the new literacies.It is a wonderful strategy to construct narrative.Our children will enjoy this.