The Instructional Value of Digital Storytelling Higher Education, Professional, and Adult Learning Settings

Although storytelling has been recognized as an effective instructional strategy for some time, most educators are not informed about how to communicate a story that supports learning?particularly when using digital media. The Instructional Value of Digital Storytelling provides a broad overview of the concepts and traditions of storytelling and prepares professors, workplace trainers, and instructional designers to tell stories through 21st century media platforms, providing the skills critical to communication, lifelong learning, and professional success.

Using clear and concise language, The Instructional Value of Digital Storytelling explains how and why storytelling can be used as a contemporary instructional method, particularly through social media, mobile technologies, and knowledge-based systems. Examples from different sectors and disciplines illustrate how and why effective digital stories are designed with learning theory in mind. Applications of storytelling in context are provided for diverse settings within higher education as well as both formal and informal adult learning contexts.

List of Figures and Tables

Introduction

Section I: Foundations

1. Storytelling’s Value Then and Now
2. Traditions of Oral Storytelling in Digital Stories
3. Culture, Learning and Digital Storytelling

Section II: Instructional Frameworks of Digital Storytelling

1. The Learner as Audience and Maker
2. Storytelling that Supports Learning
3. Story as Curriculum

Section III: Applications of Digital Storytelling in Context

1. Disciplinary Applications of Digital Storytelling
2. Applications in formal, non-formal, and informal learning
3. Conclusions: Implications for Instruction

Glossary

References

Index

Patricia McGee is Associate Professor of Digital Learning Design at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA.