EDUC 5333 DIGITAL STORYTELLING REFLECTION

1) Discuss implications of findings reported or practices discussed in the article on digital

storytelling in your community.
In the journal, Prekindergarten Through Grade 1 Toward a Narrative Classroom:
Storytelling, Media, and Literacy, authors Kristin Rainville and Bill Gordh (2016) discuss the
various benefits that result from including Digital Storytelling in early childhood classrooms.
These benefits include: developing oral language, teaching comprehension, and bridging
storytelling to writing (Rainville and Gordh, 2016). Storytelling is a great way to help develop
oral language because it allows students to widen their vocabulary, and strengthen their fluency
and expression. By creating work that students have to narrate, they get more practice and
experience building their speaking skills. Additionally, as Rainville and Gordh (2016) point out,
students also participate in “energetic, thoughtful discussion…[in which] they are introduced to
the words, movements and images…which may be unfamiliar to them” (Rainville and Gordh,
2016, p. 78). Therefore, digital storytelling is also beneficial for students who are English
Language Learners.
Along with helping develop oral fluency, digital storytelling is a great way to help teach
students comprehension. Stories that are told orally are still an example of a text, as they often
start out from a written piece of work (if following the steps for creating a digital story). Even if
all of the steps are not followed to a tee, oral stories are still considered a text as they could be
written down or transcribed. Because of this, students who interact with digital storytelling are
introduced to the elements of stories and they gain experience learning how to interact with
stories – how to analyze characters, make predictions, comprehend the sequencing of events,
interpret cause and effect and understand narratives (Rainville and Gordh, 2016).
Another way that introducing digital storytelling in an early childhood classroom is
beneficial to students is because this practice can be used to create a bridge between
storytelling and writing. As stated in the article, “Children who tell stories are already writers,”
but they often need support to be able to understand that there is a connection between the
things that are spoken aloud and things that are written (Rainville and Gordh, 2016). When they
participate in creating digital stories, this connection becomes apparent more quickly.
Lastly, the article also explains how digital storytelling is a “natural fit in early childhood
classrooms” (Rainville and Gordh, 2016, p. 76). It should come as no surprise that early
childhood and lower elementary classrooms are hubs where creativity and imagination blossom,
as young students often use their creativity and imagination. These two elements are exactly
what digital storytelling is about. Digital storytelling helps foster students’ imaginations and
creativity, while boosting their academic abilities. Therefore, it makes complete sense for digital
storytelling to be part of early childhood classrooms.

2) Address the question: “How does your experience in this course prepare you to support
others to create digital stories that are personally meaningful and relevant?”
The course EDUC 5333–Digital Storytelling, provided me with my very first
(introduction??) to digital storytelling. Prior to beginning this course, I had never heard of the
term “digital storytelling,” (although, I soon realized that I had in fact **seen? *watched
*experienced examples of digital stories, unknowing at the time that those examples were
technically digital stories). So, even though I realized that I was not as completely unaware of
what a digital story was, I had never actually created a digital story myself. At first, coming up
with an idea for a digital story was rather challenging, and learning how to create a digital story
was quite difficult. Despite the learning curve, I was able to quickly get an understanding of how
to go about creating my digital story. I think I would be able to support my own students in
creating personally meaningful and relevant digital stories of their own, by providing them with
the same guidance that I was given (at a much more scaffolded level). In fact, I actually look
forward to implementing digital storytelling in my own classroom from now on.

References:

Rainville, K. N. and Gordh, B. (2016). Prekindergarten through grade 1toward a narrative

classroom: Storytelling, media, and literacy. Young Children, 71(4), 76-81.