Digital Storytelling: A Tool to Develop Preservice Teachers’ Cross-Literate Reflections

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter calls attention to how creating a digital story, which focused on teaching and learning spaces for writing, served as a mediational tool to support preservice teachers’ reflective practice and understanding of writing and the writing process.

Methodology/approach

Data from over 50 students were parsed using Kember, McKay, Sinclair and Wong’s (2008) approach to determine levels of reflection. From the students whose work fell into the reflection-to-critical reflection range, we selected three students from different disciplines and adopted a case study approach for analyzing and discussing their work. Students’ informal and formal reflections and learning artifacts, as well as researcher field notes, contributed to a rich understanding of each case.

Findings

Review of students’ digital stories and related artifacts (i.e., storyboards, scripts, and reflections), as well as other course-related work, revealed that digital storytelling facilitated students’ developing understanding in three dimensions: writing, pedagogy, and reflective practice.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that digital storytelling can engage students in multimodal iterative practices analogous to the writing process that cultivates reflective thinking. Activities that scaffold such iteration and cross-literate practices can foster reflective thinking about inspired pedagogy within and beyond the classroom.

Citation

Morabito, N.P. and Abrams, S.S. (2015), "Digital Storytelling: A Tool to Develop Preservice Teachers’ Cross-Literate Reflections", Video Research in Disciplinary Literacies (Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 59-77. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2048-045820150000006003