DIGITAL STORYTELLING LESSON IN EFL CLASSROOM (GREECE

AS A CASE STUDY)
EVGENIA KOIKA

Rizareios Parochial High School, Athens, Greece

E-mail: kkyriaki70@yahoo.gr

Abstract- Greek youth, severely affected by the crisis tend to be dispirited, skeptical and unmotivated learners who feel that
adults and their obsolete institutions have let them down. In the public school system this resentment becomes more palpable.
Therefore, educators should strive to challenge and motivate adolescents by engaging them in meaningful tasks so as for them
to develop skills necessary for success in the Information Age such as self-reliance, creativity and collaboration.
The use of digital storytelling offers flexibility and redefines the roles of the teacher and the learners as the teacher assumes the
role of the facilitator/guide on the side, leading students to autonomy. It generates interest since it is a challenge that this
“digital’ generation will deem worthwhile. It appeals to all types of learning styles, equally effective for both auditory and
visual students. Furthermore, it constitutes a lesson on economy due to its concise nature.
Building on theoretical background the actual application of a lesson plan, this paper will prove how digital storytelling is an
effective way to engage learners in creative writing, to help them become better communicators and to promote complex
thinking and synthesizing of information in an English language framework.

Index Terms- Digital Storytelling, Motivation, Skill Building.

I. INTRODUCTION III. RATIONALE FOR THE USE OF DIGITAL

The use of computer-based technology in an
educational context offers flexibility and redefines the
roles of the teacher and the learners as the teacher
assumes the role of the facilitator/guide on the side,
leading students to autonomy (Mumtaz, 2000;
Warschauer & Healey, 1998). In this paper we will
examine a lesson on digital storytelling, in four
consecutive teaching hours, in an effort to blend
technology with education (i.e. Computer Assisted
Language Learning) to the best interest of the students.
It is an integrated skills approach aiming primarily at
the enhancement of students’ writing skills as well as
the use and improvement of reading, listening and
speaking. .
II. TEACHING CONTEXT
STORYTELLING
Digital storytelling is an intellectual exercise which
provides students with practice on all basic skills as
well as on their computer ones since a lot of them will
acquire further skills, in the process, by learning to use
new software to tell their stories (Czamecki, 2009).
This generates interest and attention since it is not a
passive process; it is a challenge this “digital’
generation deems worthwhile (Robin, 2008;
Warschauer & Whittaker, 1997). The novelty of the
task motivates students while digital storytelling
appeals to all types of learning styles, equally effective
for both auditory and visual students. Thus, learners
activate their particular type of intelligence. It also
constitutes a lesson on economy due to its concise
nature (Kieler, 2010; Frazel, 2011).

Undoubtedly, these are turbulent times and the
European youth, especially in the South, are the most
affected on many levels. They tend to be dispirited,
highly sceptical and unmotivated learners who feel
that adults and their obsolete institutions have let them
down. Students have no control over it and as a result
get little satisfaction from schoolwork which either
way regard as of little interest or relevance to their own
lives (Thompson et al, 2006). In the public school
system this resentment becomes more palpable.
Therefore, educators should strive to challenge and
motivate adolescents to think outside the box by
engaging them in meaningful, real life tasks so as for
them to develop skills necessary for success in the
Information Age such as self-reliance, creativity, high
order thinking and collaboration.
Moreover, storytelling allows for differentiated
instruction that meets the needs and interests of
advanced students and struggling ones alike. The latter
can overcome language limitations “through
scaffolding the message with images” (Rance-Roney,
2008, cited in Rance-Roney, 2010, p. 393). The power
of personal expression can keep all students
consistently and sufficiently challenged, as it is not
beyond their Zone of Proximal Development 1
(Warschauer, 1996; Bull & Kajder, 2004). Through
digital storytelling students will be able to improve on
1
The Zone of Proximal Development is defined as “the distance
between the actual developmental level as determined by
independent problem-solving and the level of potential development
as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1979, p.86 cited
in Tsolou, 2008, p.24).

Proceedings of ISER 19th International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 31st January 2016, ISBN: 978-93-85973-06-2
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 Digital Storytelling Lesson In EFL Classroom (Greece As A Case Study)
all six standards set by ISTE2, namely creativity and
innovation, communication and collaboration,
research and information fluency, critical thinking,
problem solving and decision making, digital
citizenship as well as technology operations and
concepts (Czamecki, 2009; Robin, 2008). They will
combine old and new literacies, like information and
media literacy.3
Finally, it instils a pride of ownership to learners, who
can employ the acquired skills in different contexts in
the future. It can also be used for alternative student
assessment, as part of an e-portfolio (Sadik, 2008).
IV. LESSON PLAN
The prime aim of this lesson is for the students to write
a script; a short story about a principle/belief they
adhere to. Digital storytelling facilitates an emotional
connection to the content, while integrates other skills
and literacies as aforementioned. The technology is
used as stimulus to enhance not only their motivation,
but also to promote critical thinking. The latter is the
reason why wechose to produce and present, in the
beginning, an original story with a twist whose moral
is that all should doubt and search for the truth. This
open-ended, active learning task is in essence a
cross-thematic project which will incorporate a range
of learning outcomes from a variety of key learning
areas and will integrate the development of all major
language skills. Another clear objective is the
promotion of teamwork and research/organisational
skills. Students ought to learn to cooperate, even if the
curriculum does not support much the notion of
collaboration. Furthermore, they need to learn how to
search, gather and use properly material from the
World Wide Web or other mainly digital sources.
Substantial planning, as the Greek school setting
presents significant logistical challenges, is mandatory
(Mumtaz, 2000; Warschauer & Whittaker, 1997).
Moreover, the teacher should create her/his own
digital story so as to have an insight into the necessary
steps and challenges of this undertaking (Robin, 2008;
Mumtaz, 2000). Therefore, students are given a
handout with the key points regarding digital story
making as well as a list of sites were further examples
of stories can be viewed. Secondly, the creative
session takes place after the students have an IT class
on the technical aspects (Warschauer & Whittaker,
1997). For students to create their own stories, the use
of the computer lab, of a scanner and a microphone,
are essential. A smartboard is indispensable for the
2
International Society for Technology in Education.
3
“Media literacy refers to the necessary skills to access, evaluate,
and create messages in written and oral language, graphics and
moving images, and audio and music... Information literacy is the
ability to find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information”
(Sylvetser & Greenidge, 2009, p.284).
Proceedings of ISER 19th International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 31st January 2016, ISBN: 978-93-85973-06-2
44
other three teaching hours, when stories are screened.
The World Wide Web is used as a resource for skills
development, language focused work and
collaborative learning. During the presentation of the
learners’ digital stories, an evaluation sheet will be
handed out in advance, so that they can assess and
therefore improve their own achievements.
V. TEACHING PROCEDURE
The display of digital stories created by others aim at
capturing students’ attention, activating prior
schemata and introducing content (Robin, 2008).
During the ensuing Q&A phase students are prompted
to comment on the stories’ effectiveness and form.
Therefore, students are introduced to the seven
winning features of digital storytelling, namely: point
of view, a dramatic question, emotional content, the
gift of one’s voice, the power of soundtrack, economy,
pacing. Thus, boundaries are set and goals are defined.
The teacher’s own story gives her/his students a sense
of attainability, since technology wise most students
are superior to the teachers’ generation (Robin, 2008;
Kieler 2010; Mullen & Wedwick, 2008). Assigning
partners has two purposes. Firstly, to pair students
whose skills complement each other’s (after
consultation with the IT teachers) and secondly to give
the opportunity to students who do not usually interact
to collaborate on this endeavour. Pair work provides
greater intensity of involvement and language practice
is increased (Warschauer & Healey, 1998; Kieler,
2010)
In the nest stage, students are urged not to forget that
“the story should be in the foreground and the
technology in the background” (Bull & Kajder, 2004,
p.47). Therefore, the writing process should start by
brainstorming in order to generate enough ideas. The
prospect of sharing their story with their class and
possibly with the whole world through the school site,
adds interest as it provides communication with a real
audience. It also gives them a sense of purpose to
scaffold their shared knowledge in order to meet the
challenges of the task and produce a coherent and
cohesive end product (Warschauer & Whittaker, 1997;
Vlachos, undated). During this phase students interact
and negotiate, drafting, redrafting, correcting and
reviewing until they are satisfied with the final text, in
full control of the learning process (Warschauer &
Healey, 1998). As a consultant the teacher facilitates
the revision by responding to writing as work in
progress and not judging it as a finished product
(Zamel, 1985).
It is worth mentioning that IT teachers play a pivotal
role in the success of this phase by conducting a class
to explore the technical aspects of digital storytelling.
Furthermore, their presence during this session is
beneficial because they act as technical consultants
when students encounter difficulties and offer help
 Digital Storytelling Lesson In EFL Classroom (Greece As A Case Study)
supervising the students when using computers
(Mumtaz, 2000; Sadik, 2008; Mullen & Wedwick,
2008). 4 During this learner-centered, network
enhanced session my role as active facilitator involves
“focusing students’ attention on linguistic aspects of
computer mediated texts, helping students gain
meta-linguistic awareness of genres and discourses as
well as assisting students in developing appropriate
learning strategies” (Warschauer & Whittaker, 1997.
P.33). Students can take advantage of the plethora of
online reference tools such as dictionaries,
thesauruses, as well as pronunciation programs
(Warschauer & Healey, 1997).
It is worth mentioning that the students practice their
listening skills throughout as they get involved in
transactional listening to exchange information and
interactional listening for content through the
development of social skills. Furthermore, they
practice their speaking skills in order to reach a
consensus regarding the particulars of their stories and
to express opinions and to clarify information on the
first and last phase. They also employ the appropriate
reading techniques (skimming and scanning) to
activate the comprehension process as regards the
technical aspects and the message of the stories
(Tsolou, 2008). Additionally, students who participate
in the full digital storytelling experience will also
“benefit from learning to critique their own work as
well as the work of others facilitating emotional
intelligence and social learning” (Robin, 2008, p.224).
CONCLUSION
Digital storytelling is an effective way to engage
learners in creative writing. It is also a worthy
educational endeavour since it exploits technology to
promote complex thinking and synthesising of
information in an English language framework.
Students become better communicators by tackling the
challenge through personal investment in order to
evoke emotion and get their message across.
REFERENCES
[1] Alexander, Ryan. (2011). The New Digital Storytelling:
Creating Narratives With New Media. Santa Barbara:
Praeger
4
It is also worth pointing out that our cooperation serves as an
example to students as we practice what we preach about.
Furthermore our supervision ensures that students do cooperate
since group and pair work presents organisational and management
difficulties for them and that the end product is theirs alone (Sadik,
2008). Theoretically, “other school staff can assist, depending on a
campus ’ s resources. Reference and instructional librarians can help
students with finding and aggregating information and media, for
instance. Media services (formerly A/V) specialists are obviously
expert in manipulating media. Academic or instructional
technologists are often capable of assisting the entire digital
storytelling process. (Alexander, 2011, p.221).
Proceedings of ISER 19th International Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 31st January 2016, ISBN: 978-93-85973-06-2
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[2] Bull, Glen & Sara Kajder. (2004). Digital Storytelling in the
Language Arts Classroom, Leading and Learning with
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[3] Czarneski, Kelly. (2009). Digital Storytelling in Practice,
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[4] Frazel, Midge. (2011). Digital Storytelling Guide for
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Education.
[5] Kieler, Lynda. (2010). A Reflection: Trials in Using Digital
Storytelling Effectively With the Gifted, Gifted Child
Today, 33/3, 48-52.
[6] Mullen, Rebecca & Linda Wedwick. (2008). Avoiding the
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82/2, 66-69.
[7] Mumtaz, Shazia. (2000). Factors Affecting Teachers’ Use
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[8] Rance-Roney, Judith. (2010) Jump-Starting Language and
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Reading, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 53/5,
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[12] Thompson Ingrid, Chryssa Kanellopoulou, Katerina
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APPENDIX
Actual Lesson Plan
Schools: 1st – 3rd Junior High School of Kifissia
Time: 190 minutes (which is 45’ X 4 teaching hours
+ 5’ X 2 breaks)
Level: Upper Intermediate to Advanced
Age: 14-15 years old
Class: C (year 9) Advanced of Junior High School
Number of students: 78 (3 classes of 26 students
each)
Lesson: Digital Storytelling
Means used: Smart board, Computer lab (1 teaching
hour), task sheets, whiteboard, a sheet of paper for
notes, www, e-mail.