Why Use Digital Storytelling as a Learning Tool?

Why use DIGITAL STORYTELLING as a learning tool?

This website, http://www.district87.org/technology/dv/whyfolder/why.htm explains some excellent reasons why Digital Storytelling is a fantastic Learning Tool. It is interesting how these cover so much of our curriculum expectations...

It is what kids need.

We live in a visual world. Like it or not, students get most of their information from visual media, not merely written or spoken means. Television and the Internet are this generation’s predominant modes of gathering information. Teaching students to evaluate, create, and present information in multimedia form better prepares them to be effective communicators.

Digital storytelling helps students communicate messages effectively, concisely, and with a specific purpose and audience in mind.
Digital storytelling requires students to plan, cooperate with a team, and solve problems while working through the production process.
Digital storytelling to view writing skills in the broader context of communication.
Digital storytelling challenges students to strengthen their messages with media to increase the impact on their audience.
Digital storytelling helps students develop multimedia literacy and technology skills.

It is what kids want.

Students are highly motivated to create multimedia projects. Anyone who has provided students with a well-planned multimedia task has witnessed students who, of their own accord, brainstorm, cooperate, research, write, edit, problem-solve, analyze, and synthesize information.
Digital storytelling encourages students to discover, develop, intensify, apply, and extend their creativity.
Digital storytelling gives students the opportunity to find and use a new and compelling voice.
Digital storytelling empowers students to create in a medium that is meaningful to them.

It is what teachers need.

If we want to reach the “Nintendo Generation” we need to create lessons that lure students to learning using modalities that are a part of their everyday experience. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then educators need to capitalize on the tools that will make their lessons rich with media. Teachers need to make an impact, and media helps them accomplish this goal.
Digital storytelling provides a visual context for learning new information.
Digital storytelling addresses the different learning styles associated with a diverse student population.
Digital storytelling capitalizes on students' natural attraction to multimedia.

It is what teachers want.

Teachers want evidence that supports the growth of students' knowledge and skills. Teachers have long recognized that assessment takes on many forms. Even if mandated, standardized testing relies almost exclusively on paper and pencil assessments, parents and teachers require a broader view of student abilities than is provided by written assessment. If we truly want to find out what students have learned then we need to avail ourselves to the variety of products students can create.

Digital storytelling provides an authentic way for students to show what they know or have learned.
Digital storytelling requires students to use higher-level thinking and problem solving skills not always captured by traditional assessments.
Digital storytelling lends itself to peer evaluation more so than traditional paper and pencil assessments.