Hello everyone. I am Kohei Ozaki, a master’s student.

I would like to introduce the paper I read for this English seminar and share my thoughts on it.

Paper Information

・Paper Title: Digital storytelling: facilitating learning and identity development

・Authors: Kim, D. & Li, M.

・Journal: Journal of Computers in Education

・Year of Publication: 2020

・DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-020-00170-9

What is Digital Storytelling?

Digital storytelling (hereinafter DS) is an activity that involves creating a short video story of about 2 to 5 minutes by combining photos, pictures, music, narration, and text. It is created using user-friendly video editing software such as iMovie or WeVideo.

In this paper, DS is used as a “tool for reflecting on one’s own experiences and retelling what has been learned.” The question posed in this paper is whether students can express not only their reflections on subject learning but also aspects of their identity, such as “who I am.”

About the Class: End-of-Year “Capstone” Project

The setting is a Catholic school in the northeastern United States. Students in grades 6 and 7 (roughly equivalent to the 6th grade of elementary school to the 1st grade of junior high school in Japan) worked on a program called “IDEAS” for the final three weeks of the school year.

Students chose their own themes from seven areas, such as “Math in Cooking,” “Teaching with VR,” “Sustainability,” and “Who do you want to be?” They conducted projects connecting what they learned during the semester with real-life experiences and told the process through DS. Finally, they presented their work in front of their peers and parents.

Research Methodology

This study is a “qualitative study” that carefully interprets a small number of cases rather than measuring effects with numerical values. Out of 18 students, the following two were selected (a sampling method called “purposive sampling”) because they were motivated to participate in the research, completed their work by the deadline, and were chosen by their peers as presenters:

・Marney (7th grade): Used VR to teach a lesson on stars to 3rd graders.

・Jesús (6th grade): Made Salvadoran-style pancakes for “Math in Cooking.” His mother is from El Salvador, and his father is of Greek descent.

Data included classroom observations, conversations and interviews with the students, and the completed DS. The videos were transcribed slide by slide, categorized into “what was done, text on screen, images, sound, and meaning,” and common patterns were sought by comparing the two.

Result 1: Conveying Feelings and Learning through Combinations of Materials

Types of expression such as text, images, sound, and color are called “modes” in the paper. Each mode has things that are easy to convey and things that are difficult to convey. For example, the tone of voice is good for conveying changes in feelings, color is good for conveying the overall atmosphere, and photos are good for showing “what was actually done.” The basic idea of the paper is that by combining multiple modes, one can create meanings that cannot be produced by any single one alone.

Marney made a video of her lesson from preparation to the actual event, organized by date. She used a “Star Wars”-style font for the title on the cover to express her feeling that “I love astronomy and want to excite the listeners.” She also layered background music over photos of her lesson plan and photos of the children looking at the sky with observation equipment.

What is impressive is how she expressed her emotions. She used images of a panicked character for scenes where she was told the lesson was too long, and a happy character for scenes where the lesson went well, showing the change from anxiety to a sense of accomplishment. She mentioned that for feelings that were hard to put into words, she chose pictures that appeared after typing her feelings into a search bar.

Jesús used the colors of fire—red, orange, and yellow—as the base for the entire video to express his passion for cooking. He added golden rings to photos of the chefs who helped him to express gratitude and respect. The paper calls this technique of incorporating and rearranging existing materials “remixing.”

Another example is a photo of the three friends who worked together. He superimposed different characters on their heads and three national flags on their bodies to represent the different origins and backgrounds of his peers. The authors categorize both the “re-forming” of image content and “transduction”—crossing types of expression, such as superimposing the word “YUM” on a photo to express a love for food—as being observed.

Result 2: Identity Appears in the “Way of Telling”

Identity here refers to self-perception, such as “what kind of person I am” and “what kind of group I am a member of.” The paper views this as being reflected in what is chosen and how it is told (this is called “voice”).

Marney looked up words in a children’s dictionary to suit the 3rd graders and remade her slides. After the lesson, she said, “I became confident in my way of teaching,” and in the interview, she mentioned that she was getting closer to the idea of becoming a teacher. She also revealed that she had experience teaching her younger brother.

Jesús turned the cooking he learned from his grandmother and traditional Salvadoran cuisine into a new pancake by adjusting the flavors to suit his American friends. He then said, “I want to go to culinary school in the future.” The paper interprets this as him envisioning the “world of chefs,” which is still out of his reach, and testing himself as he approaches it (the concept of an “imagined community”).

Summary of the Paper

the authors state that incorporating DS into the curriculum has the potential to enhance motivation, creativity, and interaction with the audience. The argument is that by combining text, images, sound, and color, it is easier to express emotions and individuality than with paper-and-pencil writing. They also point out that it lowers the language barrier for students whose second language is English.

For teachers, it is said that it can make it easier to see students’ experiences and situations through their narratives, which can be useful for building relationships. It is also reported that when the completed works were made public, students from other classes came to see them, creating a space for mutual appreciation of each other’s work.

Reason for Selection and Impressions

I chose this paper because I was interested in how reflecting on experiences such as project-based learning connects to identity development. Also, I rarely encounter papers on qualitative research methods and analysis, so I wanted to use this as a reference for those techniques and discussions. I would like to use this paper as a starting point to learn more deeply about how retelling experiences using diverse media as a reflection on learning relates to awareness of career paths.

On the other hand, there were some points that concerned me.

・How to measure effects: There were no scores, scales, or pre-post comparisons; the basis is the interpretation of observations and narratives. What kind of expansion would occur if quantitative measurements were combined? Although the focus this time was on identity, I thought it could be considered deeply related to the fields of career education and career counseling, so it might be possible to consider it more broadly by combining diverse data.

・Bias in subjects: The two selected were highly motivated, eager for research, and completed their work. I was curious about the methodology, including how the criteria for such sampling were created.

・Separation of causes: It is impossible to separate whether the change was due to DS or the project-based learning itself. I also think it is difficult to distinguish whether identity was “formed” or if it was something that already existed and just became “visible.” Since it was a three-week program, I thought it might be possible to deepen the study by handling data in more detail, such as reflections during the learning process, to make changes easier to capture.

Text by: Kohei Ozaki