21st century youth are utilizing digital tools and technologies within online spaces to find a safe space to compose and reconstruct their identities through personal narratives and life streaming. The online space and the digital tools have allowed youth to life stream and produce narratives which presents their stories in an imaginative way.
Educators must allow students to life stream their narratives in their classrooms through digital storytelling. Digital storytelling is a short personal digital narratives written with emotions, feelings and one’s personal experiences. These are videos ranging from 2-3 minutes with a combination of video, images, news clippings, audios and sounds. Digital storytelling projects can provide youth with meaningful learning opportunities, valuable narrative medium for constructing their stories and positive identity formation into one of promise and potential. (Anderson & Mack, 2017).
As such, Wargo (2015) provides a compelling argument that meaning-making takes place for youth as they represent themselves through storytelling, examining, streaming and interrogating. Digital storytelling can allow youth to engage in the process of developing and curating identities by sharing their stories and experiences with their peers. When educators weave digital storytelling into their classrooms, it can “enact and represent youth’s myriad selves” (Wargo, 2015) and it can also leverage as a tool for hearing injustices and designing for social change (Wargo, 2019, p.277).
Moreover, digital storytelling can also provide youth with an opportunity to “explore, express and reflect upon themselves and others experiences (Skinner and Hagood, 2008) which can cultivate deeper meaning and understanding of others. It will also foster academic achievement (Yang & Wu, 2012), build leadership skills (Guajardo et al., 2011) and develop positive identity formation (Wargo, 2019). Furthermore, what makes digital storytelling remarkable is how the personal narratives can touch viewers deeply, move them to reflect on their own experiences, modify their behavior and cultivate understanding of others. As Wargo (2015) mentions his participant describing how “behind every selfie is a story” (p.2).
Finally, educators must and should reflect upon different “multi modal text making which is an important aspect in identity making (Rowsell & pahl, 2007). When educators incorporate digital storytelling projects, it will facilitate meaningful learning through which “a learning community will be formed within an environment in which community members trust each other and feel comfortable in sharing knowledge, feelings experiences and values” (Chen, 2007, p.76). Finally, the literary work which will be produced by the youth in the classrooms will “become an artifact that holds important information about the meaning maker” (Rowsell and Pahl, 2007).
References
boyd, d. (2008). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life.Youth, Identity and Digital Media, David Buckingham, ed., The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007-16.
Chen, S. J. (2014). Instructional design strategies for intensive online courses: An objectivistconstructivist blended approach. Journal of interactive online learning, 13(1).
Goggin, G., Martin, F. & Dwyer, T. (2014). ‘Locative News’. Journalism Studies, 1-19.
Goggin, G., Martin, F. & Dwyer, T. (2014). ‘Locative News’. Journalism Studies, 1-19.
James Paul Gee (2004) "Learning by design: Games as learning machines" Interactive Educational Multimedia no.8 pp.15-23 Week 6 Reading_Giannakos et al 2018.pdf
Kim M. Anderson & Rachael Mack (2019) Digital Storytelling: A Narrative Method for Positive Identity Development in Minority Youth, Social Work with Groups, 42:1, 43-55, DOI: 10.1080/01609513.2017.1413616
Moje, E. B., & Luke, A. (2009). Literacy and identity: Examining the metaphors in history and contemporary research. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(4), 415-437.
Rowsell, J., & Pahl, K. (2007). Sedimented Identities in Texts: Instances of Practice. Reading Research Quarterly, 42(3), 388-404. Retrieved May 17, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/20068302Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 2007), pp. 388-404
Skinner, E.N., & Hagood, M.C. (2008). Developing literate identities with English language learners through digital storytelling. The Reading Matrix, 8(2), 12-38
Yang, Y.-T.C., & Wu, W.-C.I. (2012). Digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation: A year-long experimental study. Computers and Education, 59, 339-352.
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