Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling can be used as a powerful tool for self-expression. It is one of the new digital tools that allow the students to create their own story. They can communicate to create digital stories and share believes. Moreover, it promotes good writing, reflection, creativity and innovation. Students may also develop cooperation, problem solving and critical thinking skills. This digital project encourages research by helping the students invest in issues and engage them in dynamic learning process. Learners can use pictures, videos, text, music and narration to present a particular concept. As a result, digital storytelling may target the four skills of a language, reading, listening, speaking and writing. It also improves the students’ technology skills by providing a meaningful environment to interact with technology. Students get encouraged to write to become better writers, because their audience is not only the teacher, they may address larger group of readers and listeners. They speak and record their speech, which may help to improve their pronunciation and speaking skill in general. Additionally,  students are likely to build self confidence and develop their relationship with their friends, because they may work for weeks to accomplish this task. However, this tool demands carefully designed instructions. Teachers should introduce the digital storytelling tool to the learners and train them if needed. For example, once I planned to give my learners PowerPoint presentation assignment. They were group of adults with intermediate proficiency level, but there was a problem, none of them knew the PowerPoint program. So I decided to make a training session for my students to help them achieve the assignment. Above all, this problem may not be solved if the course syllabus is already planned by the administration with limited sessions. Finally, digital storytelling is just one more tool that can be used to engage the students in an interactive learning process. It can be adapted in ESL/EFL classrooms to be used as an excellent alternative assessment tool.