=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3265/paper_2797
|storemode=property
|title=Digital Storytelling as teaching methodology for special needs teachers: A case study
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3265/paper_2797.pdf
|volume=Vol-3265
|authors=Di Furia Marco,Guarini Piergiorgio,Finestrone Francesca
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/telexbe/MarcoPF22
}}
==Digital Storytelling as teaching methodology for special needs teachers: A case study==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3265/paper_2797.pdf
Digital Storytelling as teaching methodology for special needs
teachers: a case study
Marco di Furia1, Piergiorgio Guarini1 and Francesca Finestrone1
1
Learning Science Hub, University of Foggia, Arpi Street 176, Foggia, 71122, Italy
Abstract
Digital Storytelling (DST), as a new teaching methodology, has encountered a lot of
appreciation and good practices. For these reasons, in the planning of the laboratory of the
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the framework of the training course
for special needs teachers (TFA sostegno) at University of Foggia, our research team decided
to invest time in studying the DST and then teach this methodology to the aspiring special
needs teachers. The course was planned during the Covid-19 pandemic period, so it was
designed specifically to be provided in a full digital learning environment. In the paper it is
presented the design of the course, from the idea to the structure of it and its very
administration during the course.
Keywords
Digital Storytelling; Special Needs Teachers; Teachers Training; Digital Methodologies.
1. The power of tales: from Homer to social media narratives
Storytelling has been used as a teaching medium since ancient times. As a powerful and evocative
communication form, storytelling became an extraordinary way to educate masses on ethics and to
define social standards and roles. European culture itself began with two crucial storytelling products:
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey [1]. Epic tales and mythology of ancient times can be considered as a
cultural sedimentation of voices and souls which talks to us from a distant past: millions of biographical
stories correspond to a single myth, which is, as Jung believed [2], an archetypical and universal box
for human experiences. In the past, preserving and spreading a story was very difficult, due to lack of
cultural or material means, such as widespread literacy or telecommunications. Nonetheless, individual
stories and dramas wanted to be told. The ἀοιδοί (aoidoi, “singers of epic poems”) blended several
stories together, enriching them with elements of everyday life and social structures, creating sagas with
recurring characters. Homeric storytelling soon became a symbol of the entire Greek society, so much
so that they are called a “tribal encyclopedia” [3], as well as representing the main broadcast channel
for collective consciousness and education.
But stories have deeply changed over the centuries, along with the way they are told. First and
foremost, contemporary tales are more numerous and more accessible: massive literacy and digital
communication allow people to create their own stories and share them via the Internet with a potential
audience of thousands of listeners and readers. We are able to transfer our entire life on digital platforms,
“narratizing” it through photos, videos and digital texts that can be modified and deleted by us whenever
we want: paraphrasing Gunther Kress [4], the world is configured by our stories, and for our stories; or
at least, the digital one. Secondly, contemporary stories are more complex and unfixed, since they
mostly are multimodal and digital. Thirdly, especially when shared on social media, storytelling tends
to be ego-centered, autobiographical and personalized (cfr. Instagram or Facebook Stories, WhatsApp
Status, etc.).
1
Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Technology Enhanced Learning Environments for Blended Education, June 10–11, 2022, Vieste,
Italy
EMAIL: marco.difuria@unifg.it (A. 1); piergiorgio.guarini@unifg.it (A. 2); francesca.finestrone@unifg.it (A. 3)
ORCID: 0000-0003-4772-4383 (A. 1); 0000-0002-7281-798X (A. 2); 0000-0003-4105-7911 (A. 3)
© 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
Virtual identity is indeed a crucial aspect of modern society [5]. Individuals create more or less
authentic copies of themselves and publish private content in narrative forms. Basically, social media
users are storytellers of everyday life and digital narrators. Digital storytelling is supposedly more
volatile than a classical poem; however, its power of emotional persuasion and transmission of notions
on a large scale is enormous, in so far as popular social movements, like Greta Thunberg’s protest about
climate change, have spread thanks to social media narrations [6]. Therefore, it appears to be a perfect
candidate among innovative methodologies available to today’s teaching and training staff.
2. Digital Storytelling in Education
When it began to be tested, Digital Storytelling (DST) was not exactly conceived as a teaching
methodology. It officially started with a workshop held by Dana Atchley in 1993; a Center for Digital
Storytelling (CDS) was later established in Berkley, California (USA) [7]. The Center, still very active,
has meanwhile renamed itself as StoryCenter, under the direction of its founder and coordinator, Joe
Lambert [8]. According to Dana Atchley, who is commonly considered the founding father of DST,
«...digital storytelling combines the best of two worlds: the ‘new world’ of digitized video, photography,
and art, and the ‘old world’ of telling stories. This means the ‘old world’ of PowerPoint slides filled
with bullet point statements will be replaced by a new world of examples via stories, accompanied by
evocative images and sounds» [9].
Figure 1: A picture of Dana Atchley (1941-2000)
We can see that, since its beginning, DST has been presented as a creative and dynamic form of
communication and expression of ideas. Its socio-educational impetus was soon noticed by major
television broadcasters, such as BBC, which set a DST-based TV program up on its channel [5], and it
is pretty clear that famous news providers (CNN, NBC, etc.) use multimedia storytelling on their
websites [10]. Not only can DST be described as a revolution of journalism, but it can also become a
turning point in teaching environments, especially in case of special educational needs, when
communication and interaction are harder to manage. If ancient and modern masters chose to use
storytelling to give their precious teachings, why shouldn’t every teacher be able to?
2.1. DST in schools and universities
As mentioned above, one of the traditional purposes of storytelling is to teach an audience «a lesson
or moral» [11]. Also, from AI theorist Roger Schank’s point of view, storytelling is a mutual learning
process: both the teller (or teacher) and the listener (or disciple) have something to learn from it [12];
which suggests that, considering DST as a teaching methodology, it has what it takes to be part of
teacher training programs. Joe Lambert himself dedicated some paragraphs of his Digital Storytelling
manual to concrete applications of DST in learning environments [13]. Since their first activities,
Lambert and his collaborators practiced DST with educators from K-12 schools and people from
colleges and universities («Much of my work has been with educators themselves as my students») [13].
DST was immediately identified as an effective tool for project-based and individual-centered learning.
Lambert even imagines «a student capping his or her educational career with an interactive performance
of stories showing work on projects from kindergarten through college» [13], building a personal
portfolio which tells about his or her academic history. DST also finds a positive application in
professional evaluation, team building processes and technology training, all fundamental aspects of
contemporary didactics. From a Deweyan perspective of education, Lambert remarks, DST inserts itself
as a medium to foster social change, inclusiveness and peer-to-peer empathy; hence, telling personal
histories and sharing feelings can have a great impact in reducing stigma, valorizing people with
disabilities and helping people with special educational needs to express themselves better. Lambert,
together with Professor Sue Schweik (Berkeley) and activist Neil Marcus, developed a DST path within
the Creative Writing and the Body course. aiming to open instructive dialogues about disability and
people’s relationship with their own bodies [13].
The existence of very recent literature reviews about educational DST [14, 15, 16] shows that this
innovative methodology internationally attracts scientific community interest, suggesting that the
Coronavirus pandemic has awakened new reflections about this powerful tool [17]. DST, as every other
form of loadable content, gives the possibility to remove the barriers of distance. During Covid-19
lockdown, a group of Indonesian researchers observed the use of Multilingual Digital Storytelling
(MDST) to teach elementary school students English [18]. MDST proved to improve pupils’
communication and language skills; teachers found MDST very helpful for young English learners.
Similar encouraging results have been seen in another research about educational DST within an
emergency and limiting framework [19]. Also, Lambert’s StoryCenter has dedicated a whole section of
its website to Storytelling During the Pandemic, stimulating online community-building and creating a
database for “pandemic tales” [20].
2.2. DST experiences at the University of Foggia: workshops, projects,
teacher training
Educational DST and media literacy have been a main research interest for several years at the
University of Foggia: the ERID Lab, directed by Professor Pierpaolo Limone, hosted Joe Lambert in
September 2013, during a series of seminars about multiliteracies [21]. ERID Lab has carried out several
workshops and projects about the usage of DST in learning environments [22, 23, 24], testing it with
school and university students:
Table 1
Most relevant workshops and projects about digital narrations coordinated by ERID Lab
Workshop Participants Approach
MediaEvo Mac Club (MMC) 24 high school students from Semi-structured approach
Foggia and Lecce Introduction to a story to be
completed (character,
historical frame, place)
Project - Decoding, 15 elementary school teachers Non-structured approach
understanding, producing from Foggia Free choice of an
texts and symbolic apparatus autobiographical episode
ICT laboratory 25 university students from Non-structured approach
Foggia Free choice of an
autobiographical episode
Project- Digital Storytelling as 15 elementary and middle Non-structured approach
learning object school teachers from Lecce Free choice of an
autobiographical episode
10 university students from Non-structured approach
Digital narrations laboratory -
Foggia Free choice of an
University of Foggia
autobiographical episode
10 university students from Structured approach
Digital narrations laboratory -
Bari Setting up a theoretical model
University of Bari
to be used in building digital
narrations
15 elementary and middle Semi-structured approach
Project - Innovation of Italian
school teachers from Lecce Introduction to a story to be
language teaching: digital
completed (poetry,
narrations
autobiographical text, etc.)
In the last few years, a DST workshop was carried out during the course of ICT (Information and
Communications Technology) provided as part of the training course for the achievement of
specialization in educational support activities for students with disabilities (commonly called TFA
support), which provides for the achievement of 60 university credits and subsequent final examination
and was introduced by DM (minister’s decree) 249/10, Art. 13 concerning the definition of the
requirements and methods of the initial training of teachers in kindergarten, primary and secondary
schools, pursuant to article 2, paragraph 416, of Law 24 December 2007, n. 244.
The DST laboratory was prepared, administered and, at the state of the art, concluded, referring to
the 6th ordinary cycle - 2020/2021, which consists of 1100 students and has led to the production of
109 videos of variable structure and quality, according to the digital skills and creativity of the
participants. This lab took place in an online learning environment as part of the ICT course and
constituted the final paper being evaluated; this setting allowed the students to explore new stimuli and
meanings, and to experience the fascination of storytelling in a virtual environment, on a Zoom web
platform.
3. Course planning
Once the modality of the course was set, the following step was to plan the content delivery program.
As stated in paragraph 1, DST has specific characteristics, that need to be explained carefully and in the
right order, otherwise the final result will not be congruent to the DST goals and aim.
The order chosen was the one provided by Jason Ohler [25], which consists of 5 phases:
Table 2
Jason Ohler 5 stages of Digital Storytelling (2013).
Ohler’s 5 stages Description
1. Story planning Ideation, mapping and writing of the story; planning of a shared
storyboard
2. Pre-production List of media needed; production and/or research of media needed,
first editing of raw media and creation of original media
3. Production Audio, image and video editing, montaging, creative review of the
final product
4. Post-production Adding and combining transitions, effects, credits, texts, final review
and file exportation
5. Performance Sharing the stories in classroom and scholastic community,
distribution of the stories outside the school
The course could not be planned just looking at the 5 phases, of course, but it had to be adapted to the
time provided by the ICT laboratory, that was 9 lessons lasting about 2,5 hours.
For this reason, the final choice was to dedicate from 30 to 45 minutes to theorical part and explanation
of what the students should then do in the practice part, which should last from 1 hour and 45 minutes
to 2 hours.
Looking at the number of lessons, the choice was to divide some of the lessons into two or more parts,
in order to give more time to the most complex parts of the DST creation process (storyboard and audio
and video editing), because the students were not digital native and it was their very first attempt. with
DST.
The final choice on the division of the lessons and the relative contents was the following:
1. Introduction to DST DST characteristics and communicative skills
2. Story planning (1) Creative writing
3. Story planning (2) Storyboard
4. Pre-production (1) Different type of camera shot sizes, how and when to use them
5. Pre-production (2) Modulation of the voice in narration; Audacity software of audio editing
6. Pre-production (3) Soundtrack: the importance of music in story telling
7. Production (1) Video shooting, audio recording and copyleft collection
8. Production (2) Video and audio final editing
9. Post-production and Final review and sharing in the classroom
performance
As already mentioned, every lesson consisted of a theoretical and a practical part, which will be
described in detail in the following paragraph.
4. Practical realization of the course
4.1. Creating stories
Biographical and autobiographical methods have been used in social sciences since the first years
of 1990, with a consistent number of national and international researchers proposing empathic and
biographical interviews as scientific tools, including Italian scholars [26, 27]. Storytelling characterizes
the everyday life of each one of us. According to Bruner [28], narrative thinking is a crucial component
of human intellect: it allows people to better understand themselves and empathize with their equals.
Autobiography can be considered as a self-reflective storytelling which promotes personal awareness
and self-empowerment, with interesting repercussions on student-teacher or peer-to-peer relationships.
IC technologies and social networks provide students with new possibilities of autobiographical digital
storytelling, communication and expression of identity: a chance that teacher training cannot miss,
especially in the area of disability support, also considering that the 21% of students with special
educational needs have been diagnosed with communication issues [29]. DST exercises have been used
with specialization students within the DST laboratory, according to the following schedule:
1. detailed autobiographical writing about the first time by bicycle;
2. detailed autobiographical writing about the first episode of disobedience;
3. detailed, creative writing about personal feelings inspired by a random item, drawn by an
interactive objects wheel; an alternative exercise consists in talking about a personal item,
inherited by relatives, partners or friend;
4. detailed autobiographical writing about “places of our lives”; as shown below, the exercise
intends to make participants recall their past and imagine their future, developing their
narratives with evocative details, memories and personal ambitions;
Figure 2: Interactive wheel: an engaging tool used to inspire creative writing activities
The aim of these first exercises is to obtain raw material for digital storytelling products.
Figure 3: “Places of our lives” exercise
4.2. Making a storyboard
A storyboard is basically a sketched-out screenplay that is used in the movie industry. It helps
storytellers to better manage the narrative development process, foresee and organize the scenes,
calibrate the potential effects on the audience. According to The Real Simple Guide to Creating a Digital
Story [13], there are seven steps to follow in designing a DST product; the third step is about seeing the
story, which primarily means to visualize it through sketches to be transformed into audio-visual
narratives. Specialization students were informed on storyboard functions and importance, and provided
with instructions and examples in order to realize one, together with their team. Lambert defined
storyboards as « (...) the process of visualizing how a movie, animation, or digital story will look.
Storyboarding involves planning the sequence of scenes, transitions, and special effects, as well as the
interaction of the incorporated media components. Students need to consider several components when
sketching storyboards for a digital story; these include imagery (e.g., photos, art work, graphics, and
maps), video, text, voiceover, audio (music and sounds), slide transitions, and image effects» [13].
Within the space of several meetings, our students built their storyboards, gradually adding more and
more details concerning framing, soundtracks, visual effects, etc. The model used was the one provided
by Jason Ohler [30], which is available on his personal website:
Figure 4: Ohler’s Storyboard template
f
Figure 5: A semi-filled Storyboard
From an educational point of view, designing a storyboard is an interesting and effective way to foster
self-efficacy, together with several soft skills, such as time management, teamworking, problem solving
and task analysis. Also, the ability to plan an activity is a crucial step to reach self-regulated learning
[31].
4.3 Pre-production (1): different type of camera shot sizes, how and
when touse them
As people see in the movies or in every video content, the camera is almost never one size shot, but
there are a lot of different shots. Of course, the choice of the shots it’s never random: directors and
producers decide what is the best shot in order to communicate the message of the scene in the best
way.
There is no "right" camera shot size for any particular moment, but there are camera shots that work
better than others to create a mood, feeling, and tone. Camera shot size can provide context for the
viewer about character motivation, the theme of the movie, or show off the setting.
In the theoretical part of this lesson the students were provided with the presentation and explanation of
what is the shot size, which is how much of the setting or subject is displayed within a given frame of a
video, and all the different existing camera size shots. They are, from the widest to the closest [32]:
● Establishing Shot (ES): a shot at the head of the scene that clearly shows the location of the
action. It helps to build tone and context;
● Extreme Wide Shot (EWS): also known as extreme long shot, it makes the subject appear small
against the location. It is used to make the subject feel distant or unfamiliar;
● Wide Shot (WS): or Long Shot (LS), it balances the subject and the surrounding imagery. It
will often keep the entire subject in frame while giving context to the environment. It should
keep a good deal of space both above and below the subject;
● Full Shot (FS): it lets the subject fill the frame, head to toe, while still allowing some features
of the scenery. It can be used to feature multiple characters in a single shot;
● Medium Wide Shot (MFS): or medium long shot, it frames the subject from roughly the knees
up;
● Cowboy Shot (CS): it frames the subject from roughly mid-thighs up. The name refers to the
western movies in which this shot was widely used;
● Medium Shot (MS): it frames from the waist up, so it emphasizes more of the subject while
keeping the surroundings visible. It seems the most standard camera shot around;
● Medium closeup (MCU): it frames the subject from the chest up, including the shoulders. This
shot favors the faces, but still keeps the subject somewhat distant;
● Closeup (CU): this shot is useful to reveal a subject’s emotions and reactions. It fills your frame
with a part of your subject. If your subject is a person, it is often their face; the close-up is
perfect for moments that are important for the character. The close-up shot size is near enough
to register tiny emotions, but not so close that we lose visibility. It is great for monologues too;
● Extreme Closeup (SCU): it fills the frame with your subject, and is so close that we can pick
up tiny details that would otherwise be difficult to see. This camera shot size often shows eyes,
gun triggers, and lips; sometimes SCU are shot with a macro lens for greater detail.
After the different camera shot sizes, it was shown to the participants the various elements (the
graphicand the eventual text) and meanings of an image and how to use the elements in the images and
the images themselves.
In the presentation it was shown the needed features that give effectiveness to an image and how
they can be used.
The images can be used for: evocative suggestions, to show an emotion or feeling; conceptual
metaphors (Fig. 6 and 7), to visualize abstract concepts; concrete examples about what you are talking
about.
Figure 6: example of conceptual metaphor: a wood Figure 7: example of conceptual metaphor: a boat
shaped like a human lung to show the danger of alone in a calm see at sunset, to show feelings of
deforestation peace and quiet
Then, it was shown to participants how to combine text and graphic in a single image in order to be
ableto communicate the message in the best possible way.
What can be done to obtain such result? There are some things to keep in mind to do so:
1. Increase the contrast - between the colors of the graphic and the text;
2. Make the text part of the image - integrating the text in the boundaries of the elements of the
graphic;
3. Integrate the text following the visual structure of the image – looking at the image flow, put
the text where your eyes are attracted to;
4. Blur the background image – the text is the focal point;
5. Put the text in a box – when there is an image with a lot of colors;
6. Add text in the background – when there is a background with only one color;
7. Increase the size of the text – the size is the key element to attract the attention: bigger is better;
8. Add color – change the color of the text to stimulate visual interest;
9. Superimpose one or more colors on the original image – like the social network filters. The
color(s) must be balanced with the image and there must be a good grade of transparency so the
background image is still visible;
10. Less is more (simplicity) – too much filters and colors can distract attention from the text and
the message. Use a simple style and an immediate image;
11. Use readable fonts – no squiggles font, don’t use too much different fonts in the same image;
12. Optimize for any playback tool – the text must be readable on every screen: adapt the content
to the communication tool there must be used.
After the theoretical part, it was given the group task to add the different camera shot sizes to the
storyboard and decide where to put the descriptions, captions and or subtitles in the images, if they
planned to put some textual parts.
The forecast of textual parts is not mandatory, but since this is a course to teach a didacticalmethodology
to future special needs teachers, they should consider the possibility that their future student(s) can have
hearing impairment and then need a visual texting support.
The students should now choose, looking at their storyboards, which shot size they will use for every
scene they prevented, and mark it in the scene description.
After this activity, it was provided to the students the first tool of self-assessment about the progresses
the various groups have made so far.
The tool is a chart that contains all stages of the DST creation set in Jason Ohler’s order.
For every task, students must choose to mark if it has yet to begin, if it has been started but yet to finish,if
it is completed or it is completed but should be reviewed.
Of course, since the laboratory is in its middle stage, there will be some stages that could not be
started because the information about has not yet been provided.
This is not a problem, because this self-assessment chart is thought to be a tool to be used during all
theDST creation process, in order to provide students with a tool to keep track of their progresses stage
bystage. It is not provided an evaluation moment for this tool, because it is a tool the students should
use independently.
4.4 Audacity
In order to introduce the students to the correct use of the voice, two videos of Italian actor Leonardo
Losavio were shown, focusing on diction, the production and function of pauses and parentheses in
speech, voice inflection techniques and techniques to emphasize the speaker's intentions. Second, a
tutorial was shown on the use of the Audacity app, an audio editing software.
Figure 8: main screen
Figure 9: example of audio editing
In the second part of the lesson, two individual exercises were planned with the relative delivery: in
thefirst, the students were asked to record 30 seconds of the reading of a passage, taken from a book or
a newspaper sheet; in the second, the students inserted the music track as a background to the previous
recording, applying the appropriate changes, as shown in the tutorial.
The remainder of the lesson was devoted to applying the knowledge gained on the storyboard, trying
toreconcile one's aspirations for success with the demands of the screenplay.
4.5 Soundtrack
A fundamental and characterizing element is the choice of the perfect soundtrack. The first part of the
lesson had a theoretical background, making a historical excursus of the technologies and innovations
that have allowed the recording of music and synchronization with the images in scrolling. They reflected
on the role and function of the composer, craftsman of sound, in history and, in particular, in the history
of cinema. They highlighted the fundamental elements and steps for an effective soundtrack and for
achieving synesthesia between visual and sound elements, emphasizing the need to give wordsto images.
To this end, segments of some masterpiece films were shown, whose soundtracks have deeply marked
the collective imagination, the result of a fruitful composer/director partnership.
Figure 10: presentation cover Figure 11: a slide of presentation
The second phase of the lesson, of a workshop nature, has provided for the vision, in the respective
working groups, of the final scene of La La Land movie and the writing of a short story, conceived and
inspired by the preferred audio tracks, identified in the proposed video. It is the music that creates the
story, not the other way around. At the end of this exercise, the trainees used what they learned to enrich
their storyboards.
Figure 12: a slide of presentation
4.6 Production (1): video shooting, audio recording and copyleft
collection
This is the first stage of production, in which students have to produce original audio and video
contentsor find and collect existing material, as long as it is copyleft, so it can be used and reproduced
for free.Since this is a course provided online, of course this stage can be performed even outside class
hours, so students can record and shoot whatever content they have decided and marked in the
storyboard.
If students are not able to shoot and/or record original material, they can look for pre-produced
materialthat fits the scenes they have imagined and wrote in the storyboard.
The students were provided with online repositories which contain copyleft material.
Table 3
List of copyleft repository
Audio Images and Video Images without background (PNG)
Find Sounds Pikwizard PNG EGG
Jamendo Vecteezy PNGtree
Reshot FreePNG.es
Pixabav Klipartz
The Stocks PNGWING
Burst Stick PNG
Icons8
Every website allows users to download materials for free. Once students shot, recorded or downloaded all
the materials they need, the following stage is the editing.
4.7 Production (2): video and audio final editing
In 4.5 it has already been presented Audacity; the editing audio software that has been showed to
students during the course.
In order to provide students with the necessary expertise to make the video editing and then add the
audio track and possibly modify this last one according to the video, it was told them to download a
specific app on their smartphones: InShot.
The reasons behind the choice of a mobile app instead of a computer app is explained looking at the
digital devices available for teachers in Italian schools: before the pandemic, an average of 31% of
Italian school principals stated that the lack and inadequacy of educational digital technologies in their
schools prevent the supply of higher quality education to the students (OECD average is 25% [33]).
Looking at this data, provide a mobile app downloadable on personal devices seemed the best option to
make up for these structural problems.
Once that the decision was taken, there had to be decided which video editing app should be used.
Thechoice fell on InShot after quick research among the most used video editing apps and after trying
someof them.
InShot is a very intuitive app with a very simple interface. The basic version has a lot of tools to edit,
cut, choose effects and filters that can be applied on the video. There is also the possibility to buy the
premium version of the app, that unlock a lot of other tools.
The first task was to show students the different tools and possibility the app offers.
The lesson was organized showing students a recorded tutorial in which one person of the staff was
explaining how to use InShot while showing the very use with the screen superimposed.
The video tutorial is available for consultation following this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XGjIN9LZHY&ab_channel=CEACentroE-
learningdiAteneo
The first half of the lesson was dedicated to individual exercises, in order to let every student to try the
app, and it was divided in three sections with three exercises:
Table 4
Setting of the lesson
1. App download and clip upload The students must download InShot on their
devices and then shoot one or more clips that
must be uploaded on the app
2. Showing the first half of the tools Students must use the tools and apply the effect
shown
3. Showing the second half of the tools and save Students must use the tools and apply the effect
the video shown, save the edited video
The second half of the lesson was dedicated to the group exercise, in which the groups have to decide
the director’s cut, the effects, the transitions between the scenes and everything they want to use and
they have to write it all on the storyboard. It must be clear that the decisions they take are not final, they
can be modified any time.
4.8 Discussion
In the last lesson of the ICT course the trainees shared the finished product reporting their
experienceand making a final assessment of the DST workshop in terms of emotional involvement,
skills, goalsachieved and motivation in order to replicate the activity in the school context with their
students andfor their students, including those with special educational needs, for whom DST is a
privileged tool. Overall, the trainees rated their course positively, reporting high levels of satisfaction
and enthusiasmfor their work, highlighting the challenging possibilities.
Figure 13: drive screen
5. CONCLUSIONS
Digital Storytelling is not only a way to tell something that happened to us. It can be a very didactic
methodology to be used in classrooms, both with typical development children, both with atypical
development children. The use of digital devices to plan the work and then express themselves can be
very helpful rather thanthe frontal lesson in which students must stay sit and listen. DST expect to
stimulate the students’ creativity and let them learn by doing researchers and producing materials for
the DST [34].
The students of this course, that are future special needs teachers, were enthusiastic about the course
and the work done. They experiment fun while working on a serious task like learning a new didactic
methodology, which they did not expect to. They enhanced their ability to work in team with people
they have never met before, they learn new digital skills from scratch. They were kind afraid at the
beginning of this course, and every time there was a new tool to teach, theyhad some resistances because
they didn’t believe they could be able to learn such “modern” digital tools.
Instead, as the explanations advanced, they became aware of the simplicity of the tools they were
shownand find those very easy to use. Of course, some of the were more skilled and were able to master
the digital tools in less time and someother needed a little more time, but they were all put in condition
to make efforts and use the tools.
Even though there were more evaluation moment in every lesson, the team of exercisers could
provideassessment to a very small number of people or groups. The moments of evaluation, however,
were planned to be in plenary, in this way every student and all the groups could see good things and
mistakesand self-assess their work. At the end of the course, every group of every grade has delivered
its own DST and they have been collected on a dedicated section of University of Foggia account on
Google Drive.
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