Digital Storytelling in Adult Education: Toward a Conceptual Framework

Interest in digital storytelling in a multitude of settings has burgeoned in recent years. Although digital storytelling is not new in the world of educational technology, so far it has received little attention in the literature of adult learning. Our aim in this paper is to explore elements of a conceptual framework for the use of digital storytelling in adult education. Digital Storytelling – An Introduction Most simply, the term digital storytelling refers to the use of digital technology to tell a story. While there are a number of still-emerging definitions of digital storytelling, we believe the following explanation from the KQED Digital Storytelling Project captures the key elements: Digital storytelling is the manifestation of the ancient art of storytelling. . . . [it] uses digital media to create visual stories to show, share, and in the process, preserve as history. Digital stories derive their impact by weaving together images, music, narrative and voice to give depth and dimension to the narrative. By using the Internet and other forms of digital distribution, digital stories can be seen across distances and boundaries to create new communities through a sense of shared meaning (2008). A growing body of literature has explored the ways in which digital stories enhance learning, build community, and much more. Educators in the K-12 educational system are using digital storytelling at all levels to help students develop writing, presentation, organization, and problem-solving skills (e.g., Kulla-Abbott and Polman, 2008; Sadik, 2008). Perhaps more relevant to adult education, digital storytelling is being employed in a variety of community education and social action programs, and is proving a powerful tool through which marginalized populations find voice. For example, the Silence Speaks site gives survivors of domestic violence the opportunity to share their stories as a means of prevention (McLellan, 2006). Public Health advocates worked with Storybuilders to create digital stories seeking to deal with maternal depression among the Cambodian population of a nearby community (storybuilders.org). Higher education has also been caught up in the promise of digital storytelling. Digital stories have been proposed as alternatives to the traditional term paper (Burkholder and Cross, 2009). In her Latina Life Stories course at California State University at Monterey Bay, Benmayor engages students in the production of their unique individual testimonios in multimedia format (2008). These are but a few examples of how educators are finding in digital storytelling an empowering tool to facilitate learning and change. Digital Storytelling – Current Conceptual Configurations Studies of digital storytelling in the K-12 setting indicate that it tends to focus on skill development. Robin (2008) identifies the need for a “better theoretical framework” for the educational application of digital storytelling. He contends that in practice, both in K-12 and higher education, the emphasis in using digital storytelling has been on the technology, without sufficient attention to how the technology relates to the subject matter, teaching strategies, or