Storytelling - a pedagogy of human connectedness

Storytelling As Technology

Dr. Chris Deason, instructional design and technology professor at Full Sail University, often reminds his students that technology “doesn’t have to have buttons” but that technology is anything that extends human performance. This is a reminder to educators in an ever-changing digital world, that all of the new apps, programs, and learning management systems are great tools, but they all exist to bring out the best form of humanity in learners. These technological advancements are merely options that evoke the sense of creativity and wonder that all humans have innately. Optimizing the potential of students depends on great instructional design that has the human spirit in mind. Perhaps the most ancient technology that humans have fashioned is that of storytelling. Throughout history, storytellers were the leaders and the preservers of culture. Before there were any news channels, Africa had griots and the Anglo-Saxons had scops. People often have a picture of prehistoric mankind sitting around a fire sharing tales. From the campfire to the modern tweet, stories exist within the fabric of human experience. Storytelling does not just aid technology; it is a technology unto itself. With stories, human performance is strengthened through the exchange of languages, lofty ideas that build entire movements that travel across lands, methods on how to cultivate the earth for sustenance, the promotion of reason and logic. Stories instill empathy. From the beginning, stories were always about engagement. Thousands of years later, civilization still relies on stories to construct reality.

This case study will explore modern avenues that connect instructors and learners to this ancient practice of storytelling to maximize engagement for various learning situations. It will draw primarily from my own experience in the classroom and research-based findings.

Digital Storytelling for Reflection, Metacognition, and Problem-Solving

In a 16-week study of 117 Taiwanese fifth graders, researchers observed students engaged in a project-based learning activity using digital storytelling. They studied the factors of global warming and shared it with their collaborative group. To extend their learning, they utilized Microsoft’s Photo Story software, digital cameras, and discussions with their families. Students had to take their learning about global warming and share their findings with family members, asking them what their plan would be to save energy. For a period of time after that, students had to document with pictures, energy-saving activities in their households. In the end, there was a reward to the top families with the best conservation habits based on the final film from the photos edited on the Photo Story project that was presented to the class. After the study was conducted, the results spoke for themselves: “it was found that this innovative approach improved the learning motivation, attitude, problem-solving capability, and learning achievements of the students. Moreover, from the interviews [of the students], it was found that the students in the experimental group enjoyed the project-based learning activity and thought it helpful because of the digital storytelling aspect” (Hung et al., 2012).

FlipGrid

In my classes, just one of the ways I conduct digital storytelling is through Flipgrid. Flipgrid is a video sharing learning platform where students can demonstrate their learning by creating short videos. It mimics current social media platforms and instructors have the ability to create topics. Students are able to video their classmates’ videos in a grid and respond. I use it to foster the story and process of learning both from curricular content and students’ individual journeys to foster a sense of community. I have used Flipgrid after asking my students to do independent reading and notetaking. Rather than just turn in notes and take a multiple-choice exam, students film themselves and their process of learning. I have also used Flipgrid for students to share their research, essay planning, and more personal videos such as giving the next graduating class advice. Below is a link to the videos done by two of my previous senior students from the Class of 2020 sharing advice with the then-incoming Class of 2021. This served as their final exam and the Class of 2021 had a response assignment at the beginning of the school year.

Class of 2020 Advice to Class of 2021

I have found that adding Flipgrid as a component to an otherwise mundane assignment increases their engagement. Knowing that their story of learning will not just be graded by me, but viewed by their peers is a powerful motivator for them to produce their best work. Digital storytelling has the potential to awaken intrinsic motivation through an extrinsic motivational approach. Intrinsic motivation is defined as happening when “there is no apparent reward except for the pleasure of the activity” (Deci as cited in Keller and Deimann, 2018). When a learner is asked to share their story virtually, the external motivators lies in the fact that others will see their work. However, being given a voice remains an internal motivator because, on a basic human level, people want to be heard.

This is a Flipgrid video reaction to the Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. documentary, Many Rivers to Cross, and response to the companion reading from our textbook, The African-American Odyssey by Pearson:

Many Rivers and African-American Odyssey Response

Storytelling and Agency

Agency is the ability to chart one’s own course and lead decision making. The implications for learner engagement lie in the fact that “people are more driven to achieve the agendas they set for themselves. Feelings of agency will often lead people to work harder and to persevere when confronted with challenges” (Lindgren and McDaniel, 2011). Storytelling is the stuff agency is made of. When students are asked to produce stories either of academic content or to share a part of their personal journeys, the antiquated notions of rote memorization as a measure of learning with only one fixed answer are no longer at the forefront. Instructional Designers with storytelling in mind provide an environment for learners to not rely on “reinforcement contingencies to manage another person’s behavior” which “tends to take personal control away from [the learner] and put it in the hands of the performance manager” (Keller and Deimann, 2018). Students tend to resist and fall into boredom when they are not invited to participate and take ownership of their own learning. Crafting a story gives back the ownership that students don’t often get to take ahold of in lectures and traditional assessments.

Below are three brief examples of how this agency has worked in my classroom to increase engagement and motivation

1) Mask Project for my Africa and Its Diaspora Class (African/African-American History 9th-12th grade) – students visited the Harn Museum of Art and studied their online digital guide. They studied the ethnic groups from different regions on the continent of Africa and had to choose design elements that related to their personality based on how the group used masks in their specific culture. They wrote their own museum description cards. This lesson reinforced the idea of the diversity of the continent by making a connection to their individual uniqueness.

2) Senior Memoir Project – during the last month of school seniors pen a six-chapter memoir spanning from childhood to 12th grade. Accompanying their memoir, students make a physically bound book for their presentation

3) ‘Canes On Da Mic Poetry Club TEDxUF Performance – This is literary arts and civic engagement organization I founded where students met each week and shared original poetry. I served as creative director and performance coach.

Conclusion and Implications for Instructional Design Strategy

Storytelling is an Instructional Designer’s greatest asset. This is particularly the case because it is a mode of learning that translates across all subject matter and industries. Most teachers use stories in various ways in their classrooms already. However, there is an opportunity to utilize this ancient technology even further and maintain high expectations and rigor. There is room to reframe how the student sees the content they are learning. Imagine a student creating a visual story of a math problem they penned to demonstrate an understanding of a formula or a science student retelling the procedures of a complex lab activity in simplified terms in the form of a children’s book. The research supports that “designers who use rich instructional stories, or who more broadly apply the principles of storytelling in other instructional situations, are likely to engage students' attention and cognitive abilities to the end of more effective learning” (McDonald, 2009). Project CRISS (Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies) is a methodology that has been used in classrooms for over thirty years as a proven method for engagement based in numerous psychologies, learning theories, and neurology. One aspect of this approach is that students need opportunities to “transform information” because it is “essential if students are going to make content their own [with] opportunities for students to extend their understandings through writing, talking, visualizing, and reorganizing information” (Santa & Havens, 2012). Storytelling engages learners of all levels and makes them think deeper about what they encounter in their learning environments.

Nicole A. Harris has taught 900 students in 8 years. She is the 2017 & 2020 Teacher of the Year recipient. She trains teachers in culturally-responsive teaching, youth arts development, and engagement through storytelling. Check out her 2017 workshop with Self Narrate's STORY:GNV conference here:

References

Hung, C.-M., Hwang, G.-J., & Huang, I. (2012, October). A Project-based Digital Storytelling Approach for Improving Students' Learning Motivation, Problem-Solving Competence, and Learning Achievement. https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.15.4.368.

McDonald, J. K. (2009, June). Imaginative Instruction: What Master Storytellers Can Teach Instructional Designers. Imaginative instruction: what master storytellers can teach instructional designers. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=dd0c9ec4-e7f9-4ef7-95df-ffa1ef08192e%40pdc-v-sessmgr05&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=40738650&db=a9h.

Lindgren, R., & McDaniel, R. (2011, November 30). Transforming Online Learning through Narrative and Student Agency. Educational Technology & Society. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ992968.

Keller, J.M. & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, volition, and performance. In R.A. Reiser, & J.V Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.) (pp. 78-86). New York, NY: Pearson

Santa, C. M., & Havens, L. T. (2012). Project Criss: creating independence through student-owned strategies: helping teachers teach and learners learn. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

TEDxUF & Gainesville High School ’Canes On Da Mic Poetry Club. (2018, June 13). Performance | Spoken Word Poetry | Canes on Da Mic | TEDxUF. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XvbYLSZn5ec