Un salto nel mondo digitale. Un progetto condiviso e multimediale per l’apprendimento della lingua tedesca

Abstract

A Leap into the Digital World: A Shared, Multimedia Project in German Language Acquisition. The German saying “jumping into cold water” means that you find yourself in a new situation with no forewarning. Being thrown into the digital universe by the pandemic was similar, but after taking the first few steps and looking for new ideas and useful tools, we discovered various interactive tools which made online lessons more creative. This article illustrates the design, planning and realization of a collective project in 2020 at the University of Bologna Language Centre, using the application Bookcreator. The proposed assignment is part of the traditional curriculum in A1 German courses: learning how to present oneself to others. Transferring the assignment from paper to an online context enriched the whole task and allowed the participants to use a combination of different media. This method stimulated digital storytelling, the narration by means of digital tools, and resulted in the creation of an e-book. This project shows that digital tools can be used not only to convey linguistic notions, but also to increase motivation, autonomy and creativity in experimenting with language.

Keywords

• digital storytelling
• e-book
• foreign language teaching
• german language teaching
• online teaching tools.