Digital Story Telling Literature Review free essay sample

The use of technology has become very predominant in the teaching of literacy skills. For a time there was some trepidation in incorporating technology into teaching literacy as educators felt that it may actually hinder the development of language and literacy (Rosen Bloom, 2006). The use of computer technology in teaching literacy is now common practice. In order to prepare students to be literate in a changing world, the definition of literacy is changing. The students are â€Å"reaping the benefits of what is coming to be known as a ‘new literacies’ curriculum† (Kist, 2004). There is a growing movement among educators that suggests we should not only be teaching literacy children in the traditional sense, which has meant acquiring the skills of communication by reading, writing and storytelling; but also teaching the â€Å"new literacies†. In this review I will be presenting some current definitions for the terms literacy and digital literacy. I will be providing evidence to suggest that the infusion of digital technology and media into the English language arts classroom may not only improve student engagement but also improve student achievement in writing. I will narrow my focus to current research on the use of Digital Story Telling as a tool in teaching literacy skills and its effect on student writing achievement. New Literacies Reading and writing text in the form of essays, books, magazines is still a part, and may always be a part of literacy. An issue facing educators today is that students are being asked to be literate in an ever increasing number of areas. In addition to reading and writing, students are expected to attain proficiency in scientific, economic, technological, visual, informational, and multicultural literacy† (Gunter Kenny, 2008) â€Å"There is a new movement in curriculum and literacy instruction that says there are other kinds of texts we should have kids read, and that there are other ways to respond to these texts than through the writing of essays† (Kist, 2004) For discussion in this review digital literacies will make reference to the exponentially growing mediums in which information is co mmunicated using technology. The ‘new literacies’ that Kist (2004) identifies, include reading and writing web pages, MP3 files and video. Add to that list wiki’s, blogs, text messaging and instant messaging. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but rather to put into perspective the multitude of modalities that students must be competent with, in order to communicate, to find, read, and critically analyze information. It is important not to confuse digital literacy with digital media or technologies. The two are inexplicably related but becoming digital literate is to develop the skills necessary to be competent with using the digital technology and/or media in and outside of school. We know that students are making use of these modalities outside of school and it is incumbent upon educators to allow students to work in print and non-print based media, to ensure â€Å"that their in-school communication can be as limitless as their out-of-school communication† (Kist, 2004) In an article written by (Ohler, 2005) the discussion is clearly supportive of using digital technologies in educating students in literacy. The focus is on using digital technologies to support literacy skills and not to replace what we already do. The final product in digital story telling or a digital book talk is media based but a quality final product still depends on the planning and story telling, and as Ohler (2005) points out, the key component to digital story telling is still the writing. Students continue to benefit from digital technologies. â€Å"Such technologies give voice to a number of otherwise quiet students and to students whose skills dont fit the usual academic mold† (Ohler, 2005). In the same ways that writing can give voice to a student that is uncomfortable speaking in front of a class or otherwise presenting thought and ideas orally, digital technologies can allow students to show competence and even mastery of traditional and new literacy skills. What is Digital Story Telling There are a number of definitions of digital story telling but they are common in that they focus on telling stories through personal narrative using any number of digital media technologies. Alan Davis defines a digital story as a form of short narrative, usually a personal narrative told in the first person, presented as a short movie for display on a television or computer monitor or projected onto a screen. (Davis, 2004). Digital stories bring together some mixture of digital graphics, text, recorded audio narration, video and music to present information on a specific topic (Robin, 2006). The Digital Storytelling Association defines digital storytelling as â€Å"the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling†¦ using digital media to create media-rich stories to tell, to share, and to preserve. Digital stories derive their power through weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, and insights† (Digital Storytelling Association, 2002). Digital story telling is used in many different curriculum, however the focus for my own research will be on digital story telling in the literacy curriculum. Does a positive relationship exist between use of digital story telling and achievement in writing? Digital Story Telling –Impact on Writing. There has been significant effort made into proving and understanding a correlation between the use of digital technology and an increase in student motivation and engagement in the language arts classroom. Educators are recognizing that if students are engaged in the classroom this increased engagement can have a direct impact on their effort and self-efficacy towards mastering literacy skills. Some of the more current research still looks at attitudes and motivation but has also posed some new questions about using digital literacies in conjunction with traditional literacy. Educators need to take notice of new learning and communications paradigms being adopted by today’s learners, how they are modifying traditional notions about literacy, and whether they are directly affecting how basic reading and writing skills are acquired (Leu, 2000). A recent study address whether digital literacies can be used as a means of assessing student mastery of traditional literacy skills (Behmer, Schmidt, Schmidt, 2006) and another study (Ballast, Stephens, Radcliffe, 2008) investigates whether or not tools such as digital story telling actually lead to developing improved skills in reading and writing. In a study conducted by (Behmer et al. , 2006)the researcher takes a look a what students learn about content and technology by using digital story telling as a measure of the literacy skills that students are expected to acquire. In other words the digital story telling project was a way for students to demonstrate the mastery of literacy and technology skills taught in class. The participants in the study were seventy grade 7 students in three in tact classrooms with the same teacher. Recommendations that came up were the creating extended blocks of time to work on the project, providing some preliminary training with the technology so that students would have context and necessary skills to produce the digital story. The study shows much promise in its initial intent of measuring the capacity of digital story telling as a means of assessing literacy skills but in the conclusion no mention is made of the part of the study. The disappointing part of this study is that, in the end, the major conclusions drawn are once again that digital story telling has potential to improve young student motivation in telling stories to others. One of the challenges facing researchers that are studying how digital literacies impact traditional skills of reading and writing is that there is less than an abundance of research studies available to look back to, identified by (Ballast et al. , 2008) This challenge is also exciting opportunity for a researcher studying literacy in that there are so many unanswered questions that need further investigation. In a recent six week, quasi-experimental study of fifty, sixth grade students in Central Texas the researcher investigates attempts to address some of the areas that have limited research. There is a revisit to the much studied question of how using technology, and in this case digital story telling, affects student attitudes towards writing. The other focus of the study is to determine whether using digital story telling could actually have a positive effect on student writing skills. An effort was made to have an accurate assessment of each students writing in both control and experimental groups by using results from students grade 5 state administered exams to determine writing abilities. Further grouping was done to compare â€Å"honours† students from each group and â€Å"regular† students. Both of the teachers shared similar teaching philosophies and used the same methods of instruction to teach writing. Each group was involved in a â€Å"technology project†. After the six weeks (Ballast et al. 2008)reports that the class that completed the digital story telling project showed significantly better results in writing than the control group. The troubling results from this study were that both groups, treatment and control, showed a decrease in performance in writing on the post-test when compared to the pre-test. â€Å"Both groups dropped in writing performance, the treatment group slightly, and the control group substantially† (Ba llast et al. , 2008) and this confound was explained as end of the year student apathy. A suggestion was proposed by participating teachers that perhaps a study at the beginning of the year would produce different results. To improve upon this study I think it must be over a longer time period and I agree that it should be started at the beginning of the year. Conclusion Although not universally agreed upon, it has been widely accepted that there is benefit to using technology as a tool to support teaching literacy in the classroom. Not only does this technology support traditional skills in literacy but it has also created an evolving definition of literacy. Learners must become competent in the ‘new literacies’ as discussed previously as well as in the traditional forms. One of the problems that remain unanswered is to determine how to best use digital technology to support literacy. The past trend has been to teach digital literacy in a digital media class; separately from literacy as it has been taught in an English language arts class. It is now much more commonplace to see digital media and literacy skills taught alongside or inclusively in the language arts classroom. Rather than a separate technology curriculum, curriculum in literacy is being re-written to include digital literacy and technology outcomes. The students in today’s classroom are referred to as the â€Å"digital natives† and by school age many have already developed a level of comfort using and exploring digital technologies. There has been recent research done on how digital technologies like digital story telling and digital book talks increase student engagement and self-efficacy in the writing process (Ballast et al. , 2008; Behmer et al. , 2006). Digital stories help to integrate of digital, oral, and written communication. Used as a tool to compliment how educators currently deliver literacy instruction using digital technologies like digital story telling can sharpen critical thinking, research, and writing skills. The use of Digital story telling is not a new phenomenon but research into digital storytelling and the impact of its utilization on literacy skills such as reading and writing has not been investigated completely. The question that needs further study is: can incorporating digital story telling in the literacy education lead to increased improvements in writing over literacy education that does not incorporate digital story telling?