Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool for Primary, Secondary and Higher Education A Systematic Overview of its Educational Benefits, a Sample Project and Lessons Learned Andreas Schuch Digital storytelling is a valuable tool for educators in primary, secondary and higher education. This article discusses the many benefits educators can expect from educational digital storytelling. It systematically categorizes these benefits in different ways to help educators in different fields and with different teaching goals decide how to best integrate digital storytelling into their specific teaching contexts. Furthermore, a five-step sample project structure is presented which has been tested extensively and successfully applied in both secondary and higher educational contexts. Finally, the article discusses a set of recommended practices for educators and lessons learned, compiled from other publications on educational digital storytelling and the author’s own analysis of anonymous feedback forms, live observations and experience from working with students and teachers. 1. Introduction Digital storytelling combines the age-old practice of storytelling with digital technologies to create short-form videos called digital stories. These digital stories typically combine a voiceover narration with various other media elements such as still images, video, music and sound effects. They usually emphasize a personal point of view and often contain emotional content. Nowadays, inexpensive and accessible technologies allow digital stories to be created and shared effortlessly with others, including the possibility for online publishing. Robin (2008: 224-225) identifies at least three major types of digital stories: (1) stories which are meant to instruct or inform the audience about a specific topic, (2) stories which examine a AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 45 (2020) · Heft 2 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.2357/ AAA-2020-0019 Andreas Schuch 174 historical event and, perhaps the most common type, (3) stories which express a personal narrative 1 . For the purposes of this article, digital stories will be understood as primarily personal narratives if not explicitly noted otherwise. First experiments of combining multimedia elements with storytelling performances date back at least as far as the 1980s. In 1994, the Digital Media Center was founded in San Francisco, California, which later became the Center for Digital Storytelling and, in 2015, simply StoryCenter 2 . The center has played an instrumental role in developing and popularizing the practice of digital storytelling (cf. Lambert 2013; Rossiter & Garcia 2010: 37-38). The past two decades have seen a further surge of its popularity, partly propelled by advancements in digital technologies (Miller 2014: 49- 50) and an increasing interest from institutions and organizations worldwide. In 2020, digital storytelling is a widespread phenomenon, firmly established in spaces as varied as the health sector, various businesses and digital services, museums and libraries, and - of course - education (cf. Lambert 2013: Chapter 11). This article most directly builds upon and expands on the continued discussion on the educational application of digital storytelling in articles such as Robin and McNeil (2012) and Pölzleitner et al. (2019) and books such as Frazel (2010) and Ohler (2013). The contents of this article are equally aimed at curious educators who are inexperienced in the practice of digital storytelling as well as those who are looking to iterate upon pedagogical, organizational and technical aspects of their existing educational applications of digital storytelling. The presented insights and guidelines are further meant to enlighten and inspire people in key educational multiplier positions as well as parents, students and anyone interested in storytelling and technology in general. 2. Making the case for digital storytelling as a tool for teaching While many publications discuss the benefits of digital storytelling in education to varying extents, they seldom make comprehensive and systematic attempts at doing so (cf. Wu & Chen 2020). Instead, they often direct their attention to a narrow set of positive outcomes. However, a systematic overview can help educators make more informed decisions about how to best apply digital storytelling in their specific teaching contexts. 1 Lambert (2013: 19-22) further distinguishes between character stories, memorial stories, adventure stories, accomplishment stories and many other kinds of personal stories. 2 See https: / / www.storycenter.org/ history (accessed 5 September 2020) for more information. Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 175 One way to attempt to systematize the many reported benefits is to frame educational digital storytelling in terms of theories of twenty-first century skills. For example, Robin (2008: 224) argues that digital storytelling promotes student literacies aligned with technology, including digital literacy, technology literacy, visual literacy and information literacy. Niemi & Multisilta (2016) found that digital storytelling positively affected generic twenty-first century skills such as problem-solving, argumentation, decision-making and cooperation among students in elementary, lower and upper secondary schools. Wu & Chen (2020) developed their own categorization model in a rare attempt to provide a systematic overview of the benefits of educational digital storytelling in primary, secondary and higher education. In their analysis of 57 peer-reviewed empirical studies, they identify eight types of outcomes that are positively influenced by digital storytelling:  Affective outcomes (e.g. motivation, engagement, confidence, empathy)  Cognitive outcomes (e.g. critical and creative thinking)  Conceptual outcomes (e.g. understanding and critiquing of concepts and reconceptualization)  Academic outcomes (e.g. achievement, impact on study skills and research skills)  Technological outcomes (e.g. computer and media skills)  Linguistic outcomes (e.g. developing language abilities in terms of fluency, but less so in terms of vocabulary and accuracy (see Wu & Chen 2020: Section 4.1))  Ontological (identity-related) outcomes (e.g. self-awareness and awareness of others, including intercultural awareness 3 )  Social outcomes (e.g. collaboration and communication skills) Less prominently mentioned or accounted for in Wu & Chen's categorization scheme are what Di Blas & Ferrari (2014) would term ‘indirect’ benefits of digital storytelling projects, i.e., benefits which are “a-typical, nonforeseen, not even looked-for but still relevant” (49). While their research is concerned with school environments specifically, many findings can be assumed to be equally applicable to teaching contexts in higher education. For example, Di Blas & Ferrari documented that digital storytelling led to improvements in teacher-student relationships, they found students working on digital stories adopted a more serious, professional-like attitude and they highlighted how digital storytelling projects can reach beyond the walls of an educational facility by involving families or even the community at large; for example, when students’ digital stories are presented at a local theater (Di Blas & Ferrari 2014: 47-48; see also Frazel 2010: Chapters 3 By telling their own stories and listening to others’ stories, students become more aware of both their own and others’ cultural diversity. Andreas Schuch 176 7-8). Di Blas & Ferrari also note that digital storytelling led to a reconfiguration of students’ roles and relationships (e.g. with technology-proficient students often assuming more prominent roles). Digital storytelling promotes inclusion and self-efficacy 4 , student diversity, and serves as a ‘democratic equalizer’ that empowers students by way of giving each of them a voice and a platform to be heard (cf. Rossiter & Garcia 2010: 42-44). Banaszewski (2002: online) also argues how “technology can be instrumental in the perennial student struggle to find voice, confidence, and structure in their writing”. Pölzleitner et al. (2019) report that not only did students find the intimate nature of creating and sharing personal narrative digital stories to be highly rewarding, they also note how students “had learned more about one another than ever before” Digital storytelling can also trigger cathartic responses; the digital storytelling movement originally used digital storytelling “as a method for therapy, in which autobiography was used as a tool for self-discovery” (Boase 2008: 1). Benmayor (2008: 189) further notes that digital storytelling is “a self-reflexive and recursive process that helps students to make important intellectual (theorizing) and personally transformative moves, which is why students often refer to the digital story and the class as ‘therapy’”. In my own digital storytelling workshops, students have used the digital story format to process and share stories about the loss of a parent, health issues or other topics weighing on them. Curricula and institutional guidelines provide another way of framing the benefits of digital storytelling. For example, the European Commission defines eight key competences for lifelong learning, which are meant as “a reference tool for education and training stakeholders” (2019: 4). While the actual benefits will be dependent on the specific project implementation, digital storytelling projects can help student develop any or all of the competences described by the European Commission, and perhaps in particular their (1) literacy competence, (2) multilingualism 5 , (3) digital competence, (4) personal, social and learning to learn competence, and (5) cultural awareness and expression competence. The benefits of digital 4 Lawler et al. (2014) found digital storytelling increased self-efficacy and sociality in students with a disability. Di Blas & Ferrari (2014: 48) cite a teacher: “In my class there is a dyslexic kid. He tried to record his part some 15, 20 times. He did not want to give up! The whole class stood around him cheering and in the end, he made it”. But digital storytelling does not only allow for the integration of students with disabilities, it also encourages the integration of otherwise marginalized or less visible students more generally. 5 One simple way to emphasize multilingualism with the help of digital storytelling is to ask students to produce their digital stories in multiple languages. One such implementation can be found in the “Our roots and our treasures” project by Pölzleitner in which learners “explored their cultural roots and family treasures and produced digital stories in 13 languages” (Pölzleitner 2018: online). For further discussion on multilingual digital storytelling, see for example Anderson & Macleroy (2016). Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 177 storytelling can also be orientated towards the goals outlined in (inter)national standards and curricula. Frazel (2010: 25-28), for example, notes how digital storytelling can help meet all of the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Students. In Austria, teachers of almost all subjects should be able to integrate digital storytelling in their classrooms to implement the general teaching principles and requirements for digital education in a competence-oriented way and as outlined in various curricula and the Austrian digi.komp standards. For instance, teachers can use digital storytelling to cover a specific topic while also promoting student autonomy, collaboration, problem-solving skills, the competent and responsible use of digital technologies and media or discussing matters of online research, copyright law and data privacy. See table 1 for a selection of teaching principles found in Austrian school curricula and the website of the National Competence Center eEducation Austria (2020) for a systematic description of the digital competences Austrian students should acquire in school. While no equivalent official documents exist for the higher education sector in Austria, it should be self-evident that many key notions found in the descriptions of the general teaching principles and digital competences should equally apply to teaching undergraduate and graduate students. For example, digital storytelling can help frame discussions and student reflections on issues such as intellectual property, citing sources, the public domain, fair use, Creative Commons, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), remix culture and conducting online research. The different categorization schemes presented so far share a certain ‘high-concept’ approach to discussing the educational benefits of digital storytelling. While such considerations are important (also as indicated by the space given in this article), as an educator, I also often find my pedagogical decisions to be driven by practical considerations for my day-today teaching. I suspect many other educators do too. What, then, are some of the benefits of digital storytelling from a practical educator’s perspective? Digital storytelling is a highly versatile tool that can be shaped to fit a wide variety of specific educational contexts. The level of complexity concerning technologyand subject-related aspects can easily be adjusted according to the existing competences and needs of the learners. It can be effectively applied in primary, secondary and higher education (cf. Wu & Chen 2020) to create digital stories “on every topic imaginable” (Robin 2016: 18). Digital storytelling activities are highly scalable: they allow for group work or for individual work in both large or small classes, they can be introduced and completed within a short (e.g. three-hour) time span or spread out across a semester, they can be worked on exclusively in class, partly in class and partly at home or fully at home (e.g. as part of online class), and a digital storytelling activity can be embedded within a larger project or research work or form a standalone project. In addition, both the type of digital story being produced—e.g. with an instructional, historical Andreas Schuch 178 or personal narrative focus (cf. Robin 2008)—and the general orientation of the story-creation process can be adjusted. Wu & Chen (2020) identify five distinct orientations of digital storytelling projects, each characterized by a different predominant learning focus and experience (see table 2). Table 1. A selection of general teaching principles found in the Austrian curricula for elementary school (Volksschule), middle school (Neue Mittelschule), academic secondary school (Allgemeinbildende höhere Schule) and a selection of curricula for vocational schools: the Secondary School for Economic Professions (Höhere Lehranstalt für wirtschaftliche Berufe), the Secondary College for Business Administration (Handelsakademie) and the Secondary Technical School (Höhere technische Lehranstalt). Synthesized and condensed by the author of this article. These curricula encourage teachers to integrate these and other principles in their general classroom teaching. The specific wording and details of the principles mentioned in the table may differ depending on the curriculum. Sources: Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019a, 2019b, 2020) Original wording of teaching principle Explanation “Anknüpfen an die Vorkenntnisse und Vorerfahrungen der Schülerinnen und Schüler” Tap into students’ existing knowledge and previous experiences “Interkulturelles Lernen” Encourage intercultural learning “Mehrsprachigkeit” Encourage multilingualism “Diversität und Inklusion” Create diverse and inclusive learning spaces “Chancengleichheit” Ensure equality of opportunity “Differenzierung und Individualisierung” Allow for differentiation and individualization “Stärken von Selbsttätigkeit und Eigenverantwortung der Schülerinnen und Schüler” Encourage learner autonomy and students’ taking responsibility for their own learning “Herstellen von Bezügen zur Lebenswelt” Create authentic learning contexts Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 179 Table 2. Wu & Chen (2020) identify five different orientations of educational digital storytelling (DS). Each orientation emphasizes different learning foci or experiences. Orientation of DS activity Emphasis on appropriative Learners appropriate a given concept, less emphasis on criticality agentive Learner autonomy and self-direction reflective Learners reflect previous experiences (often used as final assignment) reconstructive Develop learners’ criticality by reconstructing meanings of a given concept and challenging deep-rooted beliefs and stereotypes reflexive Exploration and negotiation of learners’ own identity and that of others (closest to the original Center of Digital Storytelling model) As discussed earlier, digital storytelling integrates well with existing curriculum requirements and official guidelines, further demonstrating its versatility. Digital storytelling is “ideal for addressing controversial, interdisciplinary topics like sustainability” (Shelton et al. 2017: 66) and provides ample opportunities for interdisciplinary cooperation between school (subjects) or between various educational facilities and other institutions in national and international contexts (e.g. Gardner et al. 2019; Pölzleitner et al. 2019; see also tables 2 and 3 in Wu & Chen 2020 for helpful overviews). Digital storytelling has relatively low requirements. Teachers and students are not required to be particularly experienced or skilled in the use of technology. Digital stories can also be created with free software and inexpensive hardware, with the only requirement being having access to a digital device with a functioning microphone and internet access. Students could, for example, use their own smartphones to create digital stories or share a school-owned tablet as a group. Further adding to the list of low requirements, educators have to do comparatively little lesson preparation when considering that digital storytelling projects typically span multiple lessons, that—once prepared—projects and materials can be reused and quickly adapted for different age groups, topics or learning foci, and that educators can make use of a large number of already available educational resources on digital storytelling such as Pölzleitner & Schuch (2018) and this article. Digital storytelling allows educators to collect multiple grades or to assess students multiple times over the course of an ongoing project, which can help them justify allocating the required class time for the project. Edu- Andreas Schuch 180 cators can grade or take note of the quality of the digital story script (including improvements made over older drafts), the quality of the overall multimedia presentation (e.g. on the language level, content level, technological level) 6 and students’ active participation and engagement with the topic. Additional grading and learning opportunities present themselves when students are tasked to critically reflect their own digital stories, provide meaningful feedback to other students’ drafts or create a user guide to digital storytelling for future students. For certain types of digital stories, students can further be tasked to produce complementary documents— which could be graded separately—such as documents containing further information or examples not covered in the digital story or topic-related exercises for practicing and self-testing purposes. Digital stories can easily be shown off to a wider public. While many students proudly share their digital story to friends and families, educators or educational institutions can—with student and parental permission— also make a selection of stories available to the wider public on a website, at open day, parents day or at similar events. Digital storytelling naturally allows for differentiated instruction. Even if educators establish a general frame and rules for a digital storytelling project, students are free to personalize their learning activities within these given constraints in many ways (cf. Figg et al. 2009). For example, students may choose what (sub)topic they wish to focus on (input), how they will search for and process the relevant information (process), and how they will finally present this information in a digital story (output) while also accounting for different levels of learner readiness, learner interest and learner needs (cf. Tomlinson 2017). Digital storytelling allows educators to meaningfully integrate smartphones or other digital devices into their teaching. Here, technology is not merely used for technology’s sake; the purpose and function of technology-use in a digital storytelling project are clearly visible and defined. Finally, what do educators and students with experience in digital storytelling say? In September 2019, twenty-two secondary school teachers and students in pre-teacher training programs participated in a digital storytelling course led by me at the University College of Teacher Education of Styria in Austria. During the course, they were introduced to the digital storytelling format and produced their own digital stories following a similar step-by-step procedure as will be outlined in section 3. In the anonymous evaluation form, all twenty-two participants responded extremely positively to the digital storytelling format covered in the course, stating 6 Computer science teachers, for example, can grade various aspects of media and technology use. Language teachers have the opportunity to collect grades on writing, presentation and pronunciation skills during a digital storytelling project, but they can also use digital storytelling for activities such as reading story-scripts, listening to or watching stories made by others and speaking about one’s own story or story ideas with others. Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 181 that they intended to use digital storytelling in their own teaching contexts. Course participants most often praised the presumed positive motivational effects of digital storytelling on their students and the opportunities it provides for integrating media and digital technology in school classrooms. Evaluating anonymous feedback forms from students in secondary school, Pölzleitner et al. (2019) report how “[s]haring a personal story had been a challenging step for many [students], but in the end, they felt confident about sharing their stories with others, both in the class and outside” (415). Feedback from my own students in secondary school corroborate this finding, as the following verbatim responses illustrate: I am really happy about my end result, because now I have my story, which changed my life completely, in a video and I can listen to it every time I want to. Projects like this give me a lot of self-confidence! I am proud of me that I shared these moments. I am very happy because when I watched the story again, I thought about it again and I’m gladder than before. It’s cool that you have a personal film which nobody else has. My students in higher education also generally respond favorably to educational digital storytelling activities, as shown in these anonymous verbatim responses from undergraduate students of a summer semester 2020 course on researching intercultural experiences: I have learned that I have been involved in much more intercultural experiences that I used to thing and I have also learned to think different about the cultural aspects, the way we perceive those differences. The digital story can be saved forever, which would also be a very nice gift for the future. When we think of this exchange student life, we will remember this story. I learn things about my grandmother that I didn’t know before. 3. A sample digital storytelling project implementation for secondary and higher education Educators intent on executing a digital storytelling project are not required to start planning or create materials from scratch. They can access a wealth of information and resources made available by scholars, educators and Andreas Schuch 182 others worldwide (see, for example, Frazel 2010; Kearney 2011; Lambert 2013; Ohler 2013; Pölzleitner & Schuch 2018; Robin & McNeil 2012; Sylvester & Greenidge 2009). This section discusses a five-step project structure and guidelines developed to assist educators in conducting digital storytelling projects in secondary and higher educational contexts. It represents a comprehensive reworking of my earlier work on the MYSTY User Guide (cf. Pölzleitner & Schuch 2018), which in turn was based on the Digital Storytelling Cookbook (cf. Lambert 2010). In principle, all steps outlined below can be fully completed either during class time or at home. I recommend a mixed approach in which at least some class time is reserved for each step and particularly during the beginning stage of a digital storytelling project. While the outlined steps are primarily designed to elicit personal narratives, educators can easily adapt them for their specific teaching contexts. One such adaptation may, for example, consist of changing the focus of the project from personal narrative stories to instructional stories. It should also be stressed that these steps are guidelines and not meant to be interpreted as an authoritative or definitive set of rules. Some of the most interesting or most urgent stories will likely break out of the set constraints and educators are encouraged to allow students some leeway in this regard. The first step of the guide is concerned with introducing digital storytelling to students and establishing the frame (constraints) within which the ensuing project will take place. Educators communicate their level of experience with digital storytelling as well as project goals, expectations, deadline(s), the planned project timeline, and the system of assessment. Next, they communicate the intended uses of the digital stories. Will the stories be used for assessment? Will they be used for other purposes such as class discussions or research assignments? Then digital stories and the digital storytelling format are introduced, placing special emphasis on a delineation of what a digital story is and is not (cf. Robin 2016: 18-19) and what type of digital story students are expected to produce (i.e. personal narrative). Optionally, students will also form groups during this step. In step two, educators show a selection of digital stories to give students a first multimedia impression of digital stories. Ideally, this selection contains stories which are relevant or related to the given (course) topic while spanning as wide a range of form and content as possible. Certain aspects of each story’s form and content can be highlighted to draw connections to the digital storytelling format introduced in step one and to draw attention to the range of possible interpretations of the given (course) topic. Digital stories created in previous classes or courses are ideal showcases. If no (suitable) stories are readily available, however, there is always the possibility to search for published stories in online repositories. One Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 183 such publicly available repository can be found on the website of the Erasmus+ funded project MyStory: Digital Storytelling Toolbox for Diversity Training in Schools 7 . See also Sylvester & Greenidge (2009: 285) and Robin (2015: 438-439). Step three sees students enter the script writing phase. First, educators provide instructions and discuss recommended practices for writing a digital story script. In the interest of differentiated and inclusive instruction, this information should be made available to students in several formats. I initially present the relevant information orally in person, but I also make instructions and tips via video lessons, written checklists and an F.A.Q. (frequently asked questions) document. Students can help produce these additional materials (e.g. Pölzleitner et al. 2019: 415) which can then be reused in future projects. Instructions and writing guidelines should cover at least the following topics:  Tips for finding and developing story ideas and writing style considerations (see Pölzleitner & Schuch 2018: 4-9). This is one of the most time-consuming activities for many students.  Audience awareness (see Miller 2014: Chapter 8; Woodbridge 2017)  The importance of asking for peer feedback and teacher feedback (see Paulus 1999)  The KISS principle (Keep It Short and Simple)  Communicate to students if they are required to go beyond simply retelling past events or describing a present state in their story script. I always ask my students to add more complexity to their digital stories by reflecting, critiquing or exploring a central insight, idea or concept more ‘deeply’. Students then begin to work on their story scripts. This also presents an opportunity for educators to frame writing as a process that involves creating multiple story drafts and going through several feedback-loops. In secondary school, for example, students could collect feedback from various peers first and only after having received their peers’ ‘stamp of approval’ will they be allowed to turn to the teacher for additional feedback. Step four is concerned with assembling the digital story. First, educators walk students through the steps of how to create a digital story in one of the recommended software applications. They can do this as part of a live demonstration or play back a pre-recorded video (e.g. Schuch 2020). While students should be allowed to produce their digital story using any application and hardware of their choosing, I always recommend to my students that they use a smartphone or tablet and accessible, easy-to-use applications such as Shadow Puppet Edu by Seesaw Learning Inc. 8 or Com- 7 Website link: https: / / mysty.eu/ stories/ (accessed 5 September 2020) 8 More information about the iOS app Shadow Puppet Edu by Seesaw Learning Inc. can be found at http: / / get-puppet.co/ (accessed 5 September 2020). Andreas Schuch 184 Phone Story Maker by Simon Robinson 9 . If this is not possible or practical for some students, I usually suggest that they either record their story on a peer’s digital device or use a laptop and the slide show recording feature of Microsoft PowerPoint (Microsoft 2020) 10 . As another fallback measure, educators can organize or order several USB microphones that can be used in conjunction with a school PC. Following the initial live or video demonstration, educators move on to discuss the roles and functions of technology in relation to storytelling (particularly how technology should always be in service of storytelling) and cover at least the following topics:  Searching for pictures and other media (e.g. see table 3; Frazel 2010: 61-62; Pölzleitner & Schuch 2018: 9)  Online copyright and privacy, asking for permission, and Creative Commons (see table 3)  Storyboarding techniques (cf. Lambert 2013: Chapter 8)  The importance of using one's own voice effectively and the transformative power of different reading speeds and styles (cf. Lambert 2013: 63-65; 79-80)  Choosing and preparing a suitable recording location and how to use the microphone to maximize the audio recording quality (cf. Pölzleitner & Schuch 2018: 11)  The importance of continuously verifying technology output and to never blindly trust technology (see section 4) Students now start creating their digital stories. Educators should emphasize that if students run into any technical or usability issues, they can and should turn to each other for support. Technology-proficient students can also be encouraged to take on more prominent support roles. The fifth step sees the digital storytelling project come to conclusion. Students submit their digital stories and (optionally) a signed consent form, for example, giving permission that their digital story be published or used for research. See figure 1 for a sample consent form. 9 More information about the Android app Com-Phone Story Maker by Simon Robinson can be found on the Google Play Store: https: / / play.google.com/ store/ apps/ details? id=ac.robinson.mediaphone (accessed 5 September 2020). 10 For a video tutorial on the slide show function of Microsoft PowerPoint, see, for example, https: / / www.youtube.com/ watch? v=Y5dgwwa5XRA (accessed 5 September 2020). Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 185 Table 3. A small selection of online resources educators can use to discuss issues related to online copyright, privacy and related topics. Digital resource Description Safer Internet Centres https: / / ec.europa.eu/ digital-single-market/ en/ safer-internet-centres Funded by the European Commission, these centers raise awareness and develop materials about internet safety-related topics. Creative Commons (multiple languages) https: / / creativecommons.org/ A non-profit organization that releases copyright licenses with the goal to make it easier to (re)use and share creative works. Electronic Frontier Foundation (English) https: / / www.eff.org/ teachingcopyright/ resources A list of resources for teachers on teaching copyright, compiled by an American non-profit digital rights group Lehrbuch für Lernen und Lehren mit Technologien (German) https: / / l3t.eu/ homepage/ - see also Schön & Ebner (2013) An open educational resource (OER) covering a large number of topics related to learning and teaching with technologies The collected digital stories, consent forms and any other relevant materials should be archived. It is good practice to rename all digital stories using the same naming scheme. This scheme should include the student’s name and story title or topic. Furthermore, the file name or folder structure could be changed to indicate the level of permission granted by the student. In my experience, these archiving practices tremendously shorten subsequent searches for digital stories covering a specific topic or digital stories which can be shown at open day or uploaded to a website. The fifth step sees the digital storytelling project come to conclusion. Students submit their digital stories and (optionally) a signed consent form, for example, giving permission that their digital story be published or used for research. See figure 1 for a sample consent form. The collected digital stories, consent forms and any other relevant materials should be archived. It is good practice to rename all digital stories using the same naming scheme. This scheme should include the student’s name and story title or topic. Furthermore, the file name or folder structure could be changed to indicate the level of permission granted by the student. In my experience, these archiving practices tremendously shorten subsequent searches for digital stories covering a specific topic or digital stories which can be shown at open day or uploaded to a website. This is also the time to ask students for their feedback on the digital story-telling project. Students can respond to each other's digital stories and/ or provide educators with thoughts on digital storytelling and the project as a whole. Andreas Schuch 186 Educators can organize a group showing or public showing of all produced digital stories to formally close the project and to appreciate students’ work. This also provides the opportunity for further discussion on the given topic(s) and for peer feedback. A showing can be organized as part of a larger event, too. For example, parents and others can be invited to join a school event that celebrates multilingualism and diversity (Pölzleitner 2018) or they can be invited to the local community theatre for a special digital storytelling showing (Di Blas & Ferrari, 2014). Conducting a successful digital storytelling project requires educators to keep many variables in mind. To assist them in this undertaking, table 4 presents a condensed overview of the different actions involved in a digital storytelling project. Figure 1. A sample consent form to be handed out to students. The form is designed in such a way that if no boxes are ticked, educators will be granted a basic level of permission and students will be credited in full. Students may choose to grant further permissions and adjust the level of anonymity by ticking the respective boxes. Permission to use digital story First name: ______________________ Last name: ______________________ I hereby grant permission to NAME OF EDUCATOR OR INSTITUTION (ADDRESS) to use my digital story for research and educational purposes, which includes showing it to other people in seminars, workshops, conferences, lectures and similar offline educational contexts. ☐ I also grant permission that my digital story be published online or offline in general (e.g. show my digital story at large public events, in a web seminar or on a website). Instead of being credited by first and last name... ☐ I wish to be credited by first name only. / ☐ I wish to remain anonymous. I may at any time fully withdraw this permission by informing NAME OF EDU- CATOR OR INSTITUTION (EMAIL) of my decision. Title of my digital story: ____________________________________________________ My email/ tel.: _______________________________________________________________ My address (optional): _____________________________________________________ Place and date Legal guardian signature Student signature _____________________ ______________________ _____________________ Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 187 Table 4. A 5-step checklist for preparing and conducting a DS project. Digital storytelling (DS) checklist for educators (1) Intro and framing the DS project  Communicate own level of digital storytelling experience  Communicate what the digital stories coming out of this project will be used for  Communicate project goal(s), expected outcome(s), deadline(s), planned project timeline, and system of assessment  (optional) Students form groups  Present the DS personal narrative format o What is a digital story? o What is a digital story not? o Types of digital stories (this project: personal narratives) (2) Example stories  Show several digital stories produced by others o The stories are relevant or related to the given (course) topic and span as wide a range of form and content as possible  Highlight and discuss certain aspects of form and content of each story (3) Writing the script  Provide instructions and discuss recommended practices for writing a digital story script, covering at least the following topics: o Tips for brainstorming and developing a story idea o Writing style considerations o Audience awareness o Peer feedback and teacher feedback o KISS principle o Expected level of complexity of story script (simple retelling of events or ‘deeper’ engagement? ) o Writing as an iterative process  Provide students with a (written) summary of the instructions and recommended practices  Provide feedback for draft version(s) (potentially only after peer feedback) (4) Recording and creating the story  (Live) demonstration of how to record a digital story  Provide tools for recording the story on different platforms  Roles and functions of technology in relation to storytelling  Discuss recommended practices for recording a digital story, covering at least the following topics: o Searching for pictures and other media o Online copyright and privacy, asking for permission, Creative Commons o Storyboarding techniques o Voice and speed of narration o Recording location and handling the microphone o Never blindly trust technology.  Provide students with a (written) summary of the instructions and recommended practices  Troubleshoot issues on site or via email (involve technology-proficient students) (5) Submission and feedback  Collect digital stories and consent forms  Watch, celebrate and discuss student stories  Feedback (students-to-educator, students-to-students)  Archive digital stories, consent forms and other materials Andreas Schuch 188 4. Recommended practices and lessons learned This section discusses recommended practices for educators and key lessons I have learned from facilitating digital storytelling projects for students and teachers in secondary and higher education over the past three years. I have had students express a wide range of emotions during digital storytelling activities. I can corroborate Reinders’ (2011: 5) assertion that “storytelling is highly personal and can trigger emotions” and that as an educator “it is important to be prepared” (ibid.). However, while Reinders states that “[t]his is not necessarily a bad thing” (ibid.), I emphatically stress that the ability of digital storytelling to trigger emotions in students is one of its core strengths. Not only does students’ increased emotional involvement demonstrate that their attention has successfully been captured, it also tends to lead to deeper involvement and higher engagement with the topic(s) covered in digital stories and the digital storytelling writing and creating activities in general. For example, in one of my classes in secondary school, one student created a digital story about her returning to her country of birth for the first time in several years. After playback finished, some of her peers expressed genuine curiosity in her cultural heritage and a dialog ensued that consisted of students asking questions and her answering them. In another class, a student told me she spent weeks being preoccupied with writing and rewriting her story script about the loss of her mother and choosing appropriate pictures because she wanted her digital story to be ‘perfect’. Her final voice recording carried pride and strength all while tearfully reminiscing her parent, lamenting her loss and thoughtfully contemplating her own place in the world. On a lighter note, I was once asked by a student if she could leave the classroom while her story was being played back because she felt self-conscious about it and the sound of her voice. Pölzleitner similarly notes how several of her students mentioned “the odd experience of hearing their own voice” (2018: 415). Because the term ‘personal’ can be interpreted in different ways and to avoid potential confusion among students, educators should clarify that— for the purposes of the project—‘personal’ should be understood in a broad sense as ‘belonging to or affecting oneself’. The term is not (only) a synonym for ‘private’ or ‘intimate’ (cf. Oxford University Press 2019). The decision to which degree intimate information is shared in a digital story should be left to students. Digital stories may also contain personal elements when the author shares their own impressions, thoughts, and opinions on a topic in a more abstract manner. In the context of producing digital stories, the term ‘personal’ can perhaps be better understood as placing a spotlight on something belonging to or affecting oneself using emotion, intimacy, visuals, distanced analysis or other means. I recommend that students be encouraged to use their own pictures and voice to further Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 189 personalize and enrich their digital stories. In my experience, students who include such personal elements and who expect that their stories will be watched by people other than the teacher usually are more invested during the story production process, perhaps in part due to higher perceived personal stakes. While it is possible to include pictures and music from online sources instead, this should only be done sparingly or as a last resort. Mixing personal elements such as the speaker’s voice and story with impersonal elements such as unrelated pictures may elicit unwanted dissonance among viewers and reduce the overall impact of the story. Educators should also encourage their students to consider the quantity and level of detail of the private information they are willing share. In my experience, undergraduate students and teachers in my digital storytelling seminars tend to hold back on giving away private details about themselves and their lives. My students in secondary school, on the other hand, often feel more comfortable sharing intimate or private details about their lives. Within a class or group of learners, educators may find both types and thus face the challenge of both pushing some students to share more about themselves while pulling other students back on sharing inappropriate private information. Digital stories that contain personal and private elements tend to be more interesting, more relatable and leave a longer-lasting impression on viewers. In most cases the inclusion of personal elements will enrich digital stories while proving harmless in terms of privacy and other concerns. Students (and educators) should still always be wary of the potential (side) effects of including private information in their digital stories. But there may be times where students feel an urgency to create—and perhaps even share—highly intimate stories, as was the case with my student’s story on the death of her mother. Digital storytelling can take on a therapeutic function for some students and educators might be ill advised to deny them this opportunity for potential catharsis. Instead, I recommend educators use their own judgment to help guide and protect students in privacy-related issues. They can do this at several points during a digital storytelling project, for example when providing guidance on which of their story ideas they should develop further or when giving feedback on their first story drafts. It is crucial that educators communicate to students the expected level of cognitive engagement on a topic. Depending on the focus and learning goals of the digital storytelling project as well as students’ age and their abilities, it might be acceptable if students solely apply lower order thinking skills (requiring less cognitive processing; cf. Krathwohl 2002) such as recalling and summarizing a past event or describing a present state or relationship. However, digital storytelling can also be exploited to have students apply higher order thinking skills (requiring more cognitive processing) to reflect, critique, reconceptualize or otherwise engage more ‘deeply’ with a topic. This not only exposes students to a wider range of Andreas Schuch 190 learning benefits as outlined in section 2, the resulting stories also tend to be more complex and interesting. Producing digital stories is a time-consuming process and educators should reserve an adequate amount of time for the whole process. According to feedback I regularly receive in my teacher seminars on digital storytelling and in emails, it seems many teachers tend to (at first) underestimate the amount of time required to conduct a digital storytelling project in school. As Robin (2006) notes, It can take many hours to work on all of the Digital Storytelling components […] it may take students several attempts at creating digital stories before they demonstrate technological proficiency and an understanding of their selected topic. I usually reserve six lessons à 50 minutes of consecutive class time for a digital storytelling project in secondary school, typically towards the end of a semester. Pölzleitner (2018: 414) also reports having successfully completed a digital storytelling project using this same structure. At the university level, I have had success with shorter self-contained digital storytelling projects that saw undergraduate students learn about digital storytelling and write, produce and submit their own digital story within the span of three units à 45 minutes. While such a tight schedule can lead to quick results and many authentic (‘raw’) stories that would otherwise not exist in this form, not all students will produce usable results or will be happy with their result. Anonymous student feedback also suggests that additional time (e.g. at home) to develop and produce digital stories would lead to a less stressful experience and higher quality digital stories. While some educators underestimate project time requirements, other educators may overestimate the technological proficiency of students. The idea that students in today’s classrooms and university courses have sophisticated digital skills and multi-tasking abilities—that they are socalled digital natives (a term coined in Prensky 2001: 1-6)—is highly contested and untenable from an empirical standpoint (cf. Ebner et al. 2008: Section 5; Kirschner & Bruyckere 2017). Kirschner & Bruyckere (2017) refer to this assumption as a myth that can have detrimental effects on learning. What does this mean for educators who wish to integrate digital storytelling in their teaching contexts? Feedback from students and my own class observations support the view that most students today do not have sophisticated technical skills that allow them to effortlessly produce a digital story. Educators should not assume that most of their students are particularly technologically adept, but rather that digital storytelling can help them acquire or develop technology-related skills in an authentic way. Nguyen distinguishes between two distinct types of challenges in this regard: (1) to manage to perform a certain technological skill at all or (2) to manage to perform it well (cf. Nguyen 2011: 170-171). Digital storytelling Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool: Benefits and Lessons Learned 191 allows students to practice activities such as recording and editing videos and using the web for research and to discuss and reflect topics such as online copyright, ownership, and a person’s right to privacy. However, unless the main goal of the digital storytelling project is to specifically acquire digital skills, I highly recommend educators encourage students to use familiar hardware (e.g. smartphones) and simple, accessible software as discussed in section 3. This should minimize potential disruptions caused by technology. Students should further be reminded not to trust technology blindly. For best results, students must consider and work around the limits of the technology they use. Before starting the process of recording their digital story, they should familiarize themselves with the digital device and software of their choosing and verify that they work as expected. Furthermore, students should verify if the audio and video quality as produced at the chosen recording location and with the current application settings is satisfactory. Immediately after recording (a section of) the digital story, they should evaluate the recorded narration and check for any technical and other blemishes. Using the gathered information, students can then make the necessary adjustments and optimize the production quality of their digital story. I have had a number of students express their dissatisfaction with the final version of their digital stories for a variety of reasons such as low audio bitrates, audible reverb and unwanted background noises or the overall low volume of the recording. Students can be very critical of their own digital stories and expect them to meet certain technical standards. While not all technical issues can be avoided, the quality of the recorded digital stories can often be significantly improved by making a few simple adjustments and taking certain precautions. While the application of technology is a fundamental part of digital storytelling, students should be reminded that technology is meant to be in service of storytelling. Technology should be “secondary to the storytelling” (Banaszewski 2002: online) and for this reason I encourage my students to refrain from including transitions, animations, background music, video and large numbers of images. Any part of a digital story that distracts viewers from the narration should be considered for removal (see also the KISS principle). Digital storytelling can lead to a shift in student and teacher roles. Kearney (2011) highlights the importance of educators taking on the role of mediator during key stages of a digital storytelling project, which I can attest from my own experience too. Likewise, many students will shift towards a more traditionally teacher-like role as they provide explanations and feedback to their peers on content, writing, technology and other aspects. For example, in group work, one student might help others in structuring their writing or provide feedback and receive instructions and support from another student on how to use a video editor. Andreas Schuch 192 5. Conclusion Humans are storytelling animals. We use stories to make sense of the world and to connect with others. And even if some of our students may disagree, everyone has interesting stories to tell 11 . With the rapid proliferation of computers and mobile devices, new opportunities present themselves to educators on how they can leverage the power of storytelling. Digital storytelling helps students acquire a host of different skills and take pride in their work. It is well-suited for use in primary, secondary and higher education and for working on virtually any topic. 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