Digital Storytelling’s Effect on

Writing Instruction
Kateri Spencer
April 21st, 2018
EDU 344
Digital storying is
the use of
multimedia
technologies to
create a video story
out of a series of
pictures, sounds,
and animations,
with the use of a
script to guide the
video’s pre-planning
and execution
 Research Question
What effects does the implementation of the digital
storytelling process have on the motivation behind
writing and the development of the writing skills?
Purpose
Review of Literature
Sylvester and Greenidge, 2009

Digital storytelling combines old and new

literacies can potentially help struggling
writers be more proficient in the writing
process
 Yamac and Ulusoy, 2016

Third grade students that took part in the

creation of the digital storytelling process
produced improved writing products,
compared to the students who did not create
a digital story.

Both groups were explicitly taught the

writing process.
 Yamac and Ulusoy, 2016

Digital Storytelling Strengthened Students’:

Ideas
Organization
Word Choice
Sentence Fluency
Writing Conventions
 Robin, 2013

Digital Storytelling supplements learning strategies and supports teaching.

Fosters student collaboration and creativity

 Methodology
Participants
Surveys
➔ 24 College
Students

➔ 2 High School
Students

➔ 13 Teachers
 Student Survey Questions
Do you believe the script writing process (or creation of a storyboard) for your
digital story was beneficial in regards to developing or practicing your writing skills?

Did creating the script for your digital story motivate you to apply the skills you have
learned in your writing instruction? Please explain.
 Teacher Survey Questions
By having your students create a
script or storyboard for their digital
story, do you believe that it helped
strengthen their writing skills?

Do you believe the script writing or

storyboard creation process for the
students' digital story motivated your
students to apply what they learned
in their writing instruction?
Findings

17 out of 19
students believed
their writing skills
increased through
the creation of their
digital story.
What Students Said…
“Writing a script was
beneficial to my writing
“I was able to practice skills because it allowed
writing in a me to practice writing
conversational tone or dialogue and figure out
dialogue when more than how to get a good flow
one person was speaking in when I read it aloud.”
the digital story.”

Many students who did not find

“The script writing helped me
that the script writing process
practice the skill of linking
was beneficial stated that they
facts together in a logical
felt they weren’t writing the
order.”
script with the intention to have
a piece of good written work, but
it was more for organization.
14 out of 19
students were
more motivated
to use their
writing skills
when creating
the digital
story.
What Students Said…
“It was a creative way to
apply the skills learned in
instruction. It allowed for
diversity in assessment
and expanding the
“I think it was good to
purposes of writing.”
have to write something
that I knew I would have Students who were not more
to read aloud. This gave motivated to apply their writing
me motivation to write skills through digital storytelling
well and practice my said it was because teachers
writing in order to viewed it as a video assignment
develop the sound or and did not stress writing skills.
voice I was aiming for.”
 Overview

Both students and teachers did find digital storytelling as something that
strengthens writing skills and promotes motivation to use writing skills.
Recommendations
➔ Improvement
◆ Find more participants
◆ Revise Survey
➔ Future Research
◆ Observe first hand with pre and
post self evaluations and teacher
evaluations
➔ Teachers
◆ Give explicit guidelines about
writing instruction for digital
story
 References
Chan, Churchill, & Chiu (2017). Digital literacy learning in higher education through digital

storytelling approach. Journal of International Education Research, 13(1), 1-16.

Robin, B.R. (2016). The power of digital storytelling to support teaching and learning. Digital

Education Review 30, 17-29.

Shelby-Caffery, C., Ubeda, E. & Jenkins, B. (2014). Digital storytelling revisited: An educator’s

use of an innovative literacy practice. The Reading Teacher, 68(3), 191-199.

Sylvester, R. & Greenidge, W. (2009). Digital storytelling: Extending the potential for struggling

writers. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 284-295.

Tunç, Ö.A. (2017). Material development based on digital storytelling activities and assessment

of students’ views. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 6(1),

54-63.

Yamac, A. & Ulusoy, M. (2016). The effect of digital storytelling in improving the third graders’

writing skills. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education 9(1), 59-86.