Week Two Blog - Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling

10/08/2025

While exploring the readings this week, I was introduced to the importance that digital storytelling has on children and adults alike and the power it gives to the producer/author when they are producing it. I, too, have experienced this power when creating my own digital story "all about me" as part of this week's tasks. It allowed me to include information and images that I had chosen or felt were important to me, and although given a set task of introducing and developing the video, I was provided with open-ended opportunities for the things that I wanted to include. This demonstrates uniqueness and makes it personal to me. However, someone completing the same task would/could use different images and tell a different story, one that is personalised to them. This is just one of the many upsides to using digital storytelling within the classroom or education setting. The image selected this week is the opening photo used in my 'all about me' video. 

Kervin & Mantei (2011) explained the importance of allowing children as young as 4 to include digital storytelling in their learning and everyday classroom activities in order to introduce them to their future teacher, including who they are and the things that they enjoy while attending their current setting. It was through this digital story that the teacher was able to understand what kind of learners the children are, as well as their ability to take on this task with support. Through the exploration of the reading, the children became more confident, and Zoe's story was personalised to her specifically. 

It was also through the indepth exploration of Zoe's story that I was able to develop a sense of understanding and the importnace for using technology of this kind in the classroom, and has supported me as a teacher to be less scared of the inclusion of technology within my own classroom in the future as intergrating this has many successful and rewarding implications (Kervin & Mantei, 2011). It was also through reading (Callow, 2013) that I could explore the potential for creating digital stories and providing the audience with emotions and entertainment to keep them engaged and build on the storylines. 

Callow, J. (2013). Interacting and relating. The shape of text to come: how image and text work. Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA). https://lo.unisa.edu.au/pluginfile.php/4942479/mod_resource/content/1/Callow_2013_Chapter%204%20VISUAL%20TEXT.pdf

Kervin, L., Mantei, J. (2011). This is me: children teaching us about themselves through digital storytelling. 16(1), 4-7. https://lo.unisa.edu.au/pluginfile.php/4942478/mod_resource/content/1/This_is_me_children_teaching_u.pdf


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