Voices Heard, Voices Seen: From Classroom Praxis to Digital Stories Worth Sharing

Abstract

This paper presents the primary benefits digital storytelling affords teachers and students. Maximizing the multimodal authoring conditions for optimal online/offline learning comprises the paper’s main focus. Throughout, it is asserted that stories worth telling are stories worth sharing but only if embedded in dialogic constructs supporting authentic pursuits. Practical considerations important to understanding digital storytelling and its manifold applications, along with classroom-tested recommendations for digital creations, are then presented, followed by seven pedagogical implications requiring a more focused treatment. It is concluded that students are indeed capable of transforming themselves from passive consumers of technology into active creators of digital compositions, one voice, one story at a time.