Digital Storytelling: A New Approach to Teaching First-Year Composition Courses

Type of Presentation

Individual paper/presentation (20 minute presentation)

Target Audience

Higher Education

Location

Room 210

Proposal

While the principles of rhetoric have changed little over the ages, the methods of delivery have changed, and at the heart of this evolution is modern technology. Traditional-age college students, ages 18 to 25, are part of the iGeneration. Rarely, do we see students walking around our campuses without some sort of technology in their hands. Be it an iPod or iPhone, today’s students are plugged in.

Clearly, the dissemination of information is moving from textual to visual, which means that students must learn to view visual and aural information in the same way that they view the printed word, intelligently and critically. This also means that educators must modify their curriculums to fit today’s technology-driven environment. Thus, the inclusion of multimodal assignments in first-year writing programs not only supports, but also improves composition skills among college freshmen.

Today, the digital storytelling course work I employ includes multimodal projects that encourage students to explore visual and aural material within the framework of comp and rhetoric. The projects require that students examine assignment guidelines, storyboard requirements, and assessment tools to determine what the projects entail. Additionally, students must identify, secure, and implement whatever text, graphics, and software are needed to complete the assignments.

This presentation will detail my use of digital storytelling as a tool for teaching students how to use research, text, images, audio, video, and music to create compelling documentaries that are both creative and entertaining yet beneficial and enriching to the composition skill sets of college level students.

Short Description

While the principles of rhetoric have changed little over time, the methods of delivery have changed. The dissemination of information is moving from textual to visual; thus students today must be taught to view visual information in the same way that they view the printed word. Digital storytelling as a component in a first-year writing curriculum teaches students how to use research, text, images, audio, video, and music to create compelling documentaries that are beneficial and enriching to the composition skill sets of college level students.

Keywords

1) Digital Storytelling, 2) Multi-modal Assignments, 3) Comp & Rhetoric, 4) Freshmen Skills, 5) Documentaries, 6) Millennial Students.

Publication Type and Release Option

Event

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Sep 15th, 4:15 PM Sep 15th, 5:30 PM

Digital Storytelling: A New Approach to Teaching First-Year Composition Courses

Room 210

While the principles of rhetoric have changed little over the ages, the methods of delivery have changed, and at the heart of this evolution is modern technology. Traditional-age college students, ages 18 to 25, are part of the iGeneration. Rarely, do we see students walking around our campuses without some sort of technology in their hands. Be it an iPod or iPhone, today’s students are plugged in.

Clearly, the dissemination of information is moving from textual to visual, which means that students must learn to view visual and aural information in the same way that they view the printed word, intelligently and critically. This also means that educators must modify their curriculums to fit today’s technology-driven environment. Thus, the inclusion of multimodal assignments in first-year writing programs not only supports, but also improves composition skills among college freshmen.

Today, the digital storytelling course work I employ includes multimodal projects that encourage students to explore visual and aural material within the framework of comp and rhetoric. The projects require that students examine assignment guidelines, storyboard requirements, and assessment tools to determine what the projects entail. Additionally, students must identify, secure, and implement whatever text, graphics, and software are needed to complete the assignments.

This presentation will detail my use of digital storytelling as a tool for teaching students how to use research, text, images, audio, video, and music to create compelling documentaries that are both creative and entertaining yet beneficial and enriching to the composition skill sets of college level students.