Eunice Ivala's presentation at ICEL 2012

1. DIGITAL STORYTELLING AND
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT:
E. Ivala; A. Chigona; D. Gachago & J.
Condy

2. A CASE STUDY OF PRE-
SERVICE STUDENT-TEACHERS
AND THEIR LECTURERS’ AT A
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
E. Ivala; A. Chigona; D. Gachago & J.
Condy

3. Cape Town

4. Rationale for the study
 Low student success rate
 Evidence shows enhancing student
engagement increases academic
performance
 Littleis known about effective approaches to
create student sustained engagement with
learning resources

5. Aim of the study
 Potential of digital storytelling in
enhancing student engagement
29 – 4th year pre-service students-teachers
and their lecturers.
Professional development course
Draws from Andersons (2003) model of
interactions

6. Images

7. What is a digital story?
Digital
Stories

8. Digital Storytelling Projects
Product:
A 3-5-minutes powerful and
personally meaningful story

9. Digital Storytelling Model
Recording story
& adding sound
(Audacity)
Collecting
Writing story
images
Putting it all
Sharing story together into
start MovieMaker
Presentation day

10. Methodology
 A literature review on digital storytelling and
student engagement
 3 student focus group interviews conducted
 1 focus group interview with 4 facilitators of
the project
 Data was analysed focusing on identification
of conceptual themes and issues emerging
from the data(Miles & Huberman 1994).

11. Literature Review
Digital stories and student engagement
 Promote learner-centered approach
 Encourage creativity and writing
 Make students voice heard through
their stories
 Students are emotionally involved
in process
 The multi-modality and novelty
effect of the medium
 DS increase engagement through interactivity between students,
students and lecturers and students and content.

12. Literature Review
Digital stories and student
engagement
 Little research is done
internationally and nationally on
DS and student engagement
 Adoption of DS in conventional
education setting is currently
limited
 The study aimed to further
research in the field and to
contribute an effective approach
to enhancing student
engagement with their studies.

13. Theoretical Framework
 Andersons (2003) model of learning interaction
The model describes educational communication as being made
of:
Figure 1: Learning interactions. Source: Veletsianos
(2010: 25).

14. Theoretical Framework
Student-student interaction
low medium high
Student-content interaction
low medium high
Student-teacher interaction
low medium high

15. Theoretical Framework
Student-student interaction
low medium high x
Student-teacher interaction
low medium high x
Student-content interaction
low medium high x

16. Results and Discussion
Digital storytelling and
the enhancement of
student engagement
 Students and facilitators
reported that digital storytelling
enhanced students engagement
with the subject matter, at
home and on campus.

17. Factors which led to the increased
engagement were:
Controlled
Motivation
learning
Study
Peer
beyond
learning
classroom Factors for
increased
engagement

18. Extended opportunities for study
beyond the classroom time
Staff B: …there were some students who would use every
Wednesday (8:30am to 12.00pm-[the normal timeslot for the
lecture]) and sit the whole day … from 8: 00 to 5: 00 pm in the
lab on campus and work on their stories … and looked for
pictures during the week… and then I think there were a lot who
just came in the morning, got their information and did it on their
own time at home or on campus.
Student E: … I got a lot help at home. So people at home and
friends of mine outside campus, they knew quite a lot about the
programs I was using. So they were able to help me in that
respect. But as far as editing my story and saying maybe include
this, maybe take out this, that’s where my colleagues helped me

20. Motivation to interact with the
subject matter-the seven roles of a
teacher
Student B: ...its [producing a digital story] was so
much exciting than rather doing …all the paper
based assignments that we always have to
do…you know it actually was something that we
wanted to come, we wanted to do it and we
loved every minute of it. It’s not often that you
get an assignment that you actually really enjoy
doing.

22. Student control of their own
learning
Student D: …its [producing of digital stories] is
very personalized. It comes from your
perspective and then other people can relate to
that…whereas when you write something [paper
based assignment] it comes out very factual
especially at this university level…people read
something that you’ve written and they have a
slightly different interpretation as you do in your
head. Whereas this [digital story] …The mood is
set and the pictures are there to show things

24. Peer learning and increased
student-lecturer interactions
Peer learning
Student E: … Because like [student] C knew
exactly what was going on with all the
programming, whereas with writing and stuff, I
would be fine on my own. Just like [student] A, but
without C my movie would have been very
different and without sort of D saying this sounds
good, that sounds bad, we bounced ideas off
each other.

26. Peer learning and increased
student-lecturer interactions
Student-lecturer interactions
Staff C: … interpersonal relationships with the students. That was
really interesting because initially we showed them a video and
they tried to copy what they saw. And in the first instances you
had to basically get them away from what they saw and get
them to be busy with the seven roles of the teacher and that
took a bit of confrontation….the moment they realized what they
had to do, then they allowed me in and there was an incredible
mix, … a linkage between me and the students.
Student F: I also did most of my work at home like writing the
story and …asking the lecturers maybe to edit and just check if

28. Summary of findings
Hence deep
understanding
Enhanced of the subject
student matter.
motivation and
High student interest in the
engagement subject matter
More opportunities
for deep learning

29. Conclusion and recommendation
 Digital storytelling is an effective approach for
enhancing student engagement
 Hence should be recognized and supported as
an alternative method of learning and
assessment in teacher education
 A question of sustainability and replication to
other disciplines remains- further research

30. Acknowledgment
 I would like to acknowledge the students who
have taken part in this study for their input in
this research. I would also like to thank CPUT
RIFTAL funding which made this research
possible.

31. THANK YOU
Dr Eunice Ivala
ivalae@cput.ac.za