Technology Integration Article - Digital Storytelling

Gregory, K., & Steelman, J. (2008). Cresting the digital divide. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 32(11), 880-882. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from ERIC database.

In their article “Cresting the Digital Divide”, Gregory and Steelman discuss the inclusion of digital storytelling (DST) in the Catawba Valley Community College curriculum, and the benefits they observed from it. The authors felt that one great advantage of DST was the way it bridges the divide between frequent and familiar users of technology and those who are not as familiar, either because they are returning to college after some years, or because they were economically disadvantaged as high school students. One reason DST is able to bridge this divide is because there are so many diverse and creative ways for a student to express himself, and all types of learners can benefit from that diversity. Catawba also trained its instructors in DST and discovered that by doing so, they helped both the instructors and students. The authors performed a comparison between expository writing students who used DST in their curriculum and students with a more traditional curriculum, by comparing their performance in a subsequent literature course. Not surprisingly, the DST students performed significantly higher. Furthermore, DST students seemed to have both more pride and more confidence in technology as a result of DST.

I found it interesting that this particular college chose to train its instructors in DST in conjunction with its incorporation of DST into the English curriculum. Too often, teachers are expected to learn technologies with little or no training, and then turn around and both include them in their classrooms, and teach them to their students. By training the instructors, the Catawba leaders prepared them better and at the same time, got the instructors’ buy-in by getting them hooked on DST. I’m sure this was partially the cause of the success the college has had with DST. In addition, this is the first time I had heard of a comparison being done between students who created DST projects and students creating more traditional projects. The result was a reinforcement of critical-thinking skills in the DST class, as well as students being more engaged in and attuned to the various components (voice, image, music) of the DST projects.