Now What? (Education and Technology in a Post COVID World)

In earlier blogs, I have mentioned that before teaching I worked in media, using television and radio to tell stories for Public Media (PBS/NPR) viewers and listeners. So, Hung et al’s (2012) article caught my interest immediately. I find it fascinating that teachers now encourage students to create stories using multimedia as a way to learn. When I was in middle school and high school, I could only dream of using the tools I loved as a part of my formal learning; simply put, I was obsessed with it in informal learning situations (Intrinsic motivation, anyone?). As a tween, I actually sold my horse to buy my first video camera, but that’s a story for another day.

Hung et al (2012) tie their study in to the concept of project-based learning, feeling encouraged by academics seeming to come around to the idea of technology-based instruction in 2012. Project-Based Learning (PBL) is described as something designed to “encourage the self-learning of students” (Hung et al, 2012, p. 368). It also allows students to select learning methods “based on their background knowledge and skills” in hopes of guiding them toward “the application of knowledge and problem solving” (p. 368).

The idea is that students will be interested in the development of new content and therefore motivated to embark on self-directed learning to solve the problem of researching the content, learning technical tools to share the content, and then putting their creativity to use to share the content in new and innovative ways. It reminds me of those days of being willing to film and edit anything so long as it gave me the opportunity to use my new camera and then sit down at the computer to create new and imaginative things.

Hung et al (2012) explain that using storytelling in learning has proven to be an effective instructional technique. This makes sense to me. Our ancestors have been using story to share life lessons and words of wisdom for thousands of years. In modern-times, we, too, look to storytelling for information, wisdom, entertainment, and cathartic relief. Just google how many podcasts and streaming services are now available to consumers; everyone has a story to tell!

Hung et al (2012) further explain that storytelling can have “enhance memory by allowing learners to recall the prerequisite learning and help develop interaction among students” (p. 369). The authors cite Piaget and Vygotsky and their exploration of social construction theory, constructivism and situated learning theory. Additionally, the authors explore Lowenthal and Dunlap’s Community of Inquiry frameworks.

The majority of the article is the exploration of a study the authors did with elementary school students that used project-based learning (Hung et al, 2012). Incidentally, I found the qualitative portion of the study to be problematic–can a researcher really expect to gain insightful information by asking elementary students questions like “does such a digital storytelling approach for project-based learning change your attitude or motivate you in your learning?” (Hung et al, 2012, p. 371)

(Seriously, Folks. Let’s read the room and know our audience, shall we?)

The bulk of their findings are presented as quantitative, and the conclusion to the article made me question whether or not ‘Elementary Students’ refers to the same age group in Taiwan as it does in the United States. Still, the authors (Hung et al, 2012) bring up interesting points about theories and frameworks that I definitely plan to explore further.

Digital storytelling in education? All of my worlds colliding? Who knew? It feels just like old times…

Until next time…

Hung, C. M., Hwang, G. J., & Huang, I. (2012). A Project-based digital storytelling approach to improving students’ learning motivation, problem-solving competence and learning achievement. Educational Technology & Society, 15(4), 368–379.