Digital Narratives in the Teacher Education Classroom

• In Event: A Multimodal Mindset: Examining 21st Century Educational Problems Through a Critical Digital Literacies Lens

Abstract

There is a critical need to prepare teachers to integrate digital narratives into instruction. This is made more urgent by hybrid and remote teaching during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and an intractable digital divide (Trust, 2018). Thus, teachers must be prepared with knowledge of technology, pedagogy, and content (Mishra & Koehler, 2005) and an understanding of the multimodal nature of digital texts and environments (Kress, 2009). Teacher educators, then, must consider how to support teacher candidates’ knowledge and skill development (Leu et al., 2013). One way to do this is through the intentional teaching of multimodality using digital storytelling (DST).

The purpose of this research was to examine how integration of DST in a required literacy and technology methods course developed teacher candidates’ perceptions of multimodality and skills in integrating DST into interdisciplinary curricula. This qualitative case study also examined how intentional modeling of digital storytelling using an exemplar, Inanimate Alice, and instruction in multimodal perspectives prepared teacher candidates to design digital texts for content-area teaching. The research questions explored were:
RQ1: How does the experience of creating digital narratives impact teacher candidates’ perceptions and skills in using DST for content areas instruction?
RQ2: How do teacher educators use an exemplary digital narrative to prepare candidates with the skills and dispositions to design their own digital stories to use in their content area classrooms?

Research Methods

This case study employed qualitative methods. The study was conducted at a small, private university in the Northeast region of the United States. Participants for this research were drawn from a larger sample of 26 teacher candidates. These participants, all females, were enrolled in coursework to obtain state licensure while actively teaching.

● Nora was a 5th-grade ELA teacher in a private school. Her DST focused on teaching narrative writing using “small moments”.
● Cindy was a 6th-grade teacher candidate. Her DST focused on teaching math concepts on prime and composite numbers.
● Vivian was a high-school biology teacher. Her DST focused on teaching endomembrane system in biology.

Data included DST artifacts, reflections on the DST and the course and course blog posts. Digital stories were analyzed using the instructor-created rubric to determine effective multimodal design and integrating multimodality for content delivery. Reflections were analyzed using inductive methods to identify emerging codes and themes.

Findings
Candidates viewed their participation in the DST project as important to their pedagogical development. Specifically:
● DST supported creativity, motivation, and collaboration while increasing self-efficacy
● DST addressed standards-based instruction across disciplinary areas in engaging ways.
● Candidates responded that the model DST presented as an excellent tool to teach multimodal literacy, technology skills, and encourages creativity and enjoyment of the writing process.”
Teacher candidates also identified challenges including the time-intensive nature of the teaching DST and the need to scaffold and differentiate instruction.
Significance

The integration of DST into teacher education coursework has important implications for this working group. Specifically, findings of this research point to the need to prepare teacher candidates for teaching multimodality.

Author

• Huijing Wen, Moravian University