6.8 Assignment Critical Reflection Journal – Blog

Mobile Technology & Digital Storytelling in Education

What is new to my thinking or learning this past week?

Research has shown that though mobile technology is an excellent tool in our teaching and learning experience, many who use it only use it to increase efficiency and not necessarily effectiveness.  Mobile technology is powerful and can be used in several significant ways to make teaching and learning powerful. The user's creativity limits what can and cannot be done. So, the more creative and innovative we get, the more results we'll see with using technology in class.

Using mobile devices (such as iPads, laptops, and smartphones) with wireless networks enables mobility and mobile learning, allowing teaching and learning to extend to spaces beyond the traditional classroom. Within the classroom, mobile learning gives instructors and learners increased flexibility and new opportunities for interaction and student engagement.

Some research indicates that mobile technology has helped increase student engagement by stimulating their interest, creating a safe environment, building a class community, and providing multiple opportunities for and means of participation. The research also indicated that mobile strategies were used in ways they (the teacher) felt would stimulate student interest and motivation.  This strategy allowed students to share their answers via proper technology, increasing their ownership of the material and becoming more engaged in discussions. In addition, they (the students) pay more attention to the explanations. Their interest in learning the correct answer increases immensely. Essentially, student engagement occurred by heightening students' ownership of their learning. 

Instructors and instructional designers must understand how mobile technology helps achieve teaching goals. As many students use mobile devices to complete online coursework, and almost all students have more than one mobile device, designing with m-learning in mind is essential to support student learning, provide more equitable access, and improve instructors' confidence in their ability to grapple with pedagogical issues in new ways.

Just as mobile technology has changed the face of education and how we communicate, digital storytelling also gives educators a new way to share information effectively and efficiently with students. Telling our story is an essential part of our humanness. It allows us to feel part of the community that knows our story and fosters empathy for those around us. Storytelling is powerful in shaping mental models, motivating and persuading others, and teaching life lessons. Telling stories extends back to a time when oral history dominated the tools of communication. And now, the flood of technological devices allowing instant communication has spun us back into a golden age where story again dominates the media landscape.

Digital stories, which are now both easy to produce and simple to publish, are an ideal way to energize learning and engage students at a deeper level. Digital storytelling creates space for students to pursue passionate topics, grows their understanding around assigned issues, and showcases their learning for peers, teachers, and audiences beyond the schoolhouse, all of whom can interact with the storyteller. To allow the power of a story to blossom in learning spaces, focusing on a few factors that can maximize its effect is necessary.

The quality and quantity of web-based tools for creating, designing, and making incredible digital storytelling continue to grow. Classrooms and schools need to choose a few tools that work for them based on ease, accessibility, and cost and take the time to understand those tools, both with and without content, wrapped around their use.

Today's best tools for digital storytelling will quickly become relics, so it is also essential to stay in the conversation, listen to what other educators are doing, and see what students are using in their own creative space so that the tools and features being used to create story will stay fresh.  It is essential to share stories, personal and professional, successes, and failures, because stories inspire other stories. As we see through the beauty of digital storytelling, idea generation, inspiration, and collaboration can only grow. And, in a larger sense, best practices in education will grow and scale whenever we all release trapped or siloed wisdom into the system.  The question is, as educators, how will we use the power of mobile technology and digital storytelling in our classrooms and school?

How has this new information challenged me?  How has this stretched my professional growth and development? What are the implications of this week’s learning on my professional practice?

            As a digital immigrant with no exposure to technology like today’s learners, my biggest challenge as an emerging educator is to be open to change, flexible, and adaptable to new and developing technologies. Continual professional development and research into the latest technologies will be necessary to stay relevant in my educational career.  As an educator in the 21st century, it is essential to remain aware of new technologies and applications that could be used in the classroom to make the educational experience not only more accessible but also more effective, efficient, and enriching to keep students engaged. 

How can these new learnings be used to impact my personal faith journey and my impact for the Kingdom?

            Though I grew up in church, we did not have the technology we have today.  As a child in Sunday school, we learned the gospel using a flannelgraph.  Bible stories were made to come alive as different characters in the story would be placed on a felt background to give us a visual understanding while the story was being told.  Often during vacation bible school, bible stories would be told using puppets, giving us a visual interpretation of the lesson taught through scripture. 

            Today, thanks to numerous technological advances, bible stories in scripture are being told in new and exciting ways to further the kingdom.  For example, there is an app that I have on my phone called “Bible for Kids,” which uses technology to tell stories and allow kids to interact with scripture in a way that today not only presents the gospel but does so in a way that this generation and engagingly learn scripture.  I believe that advances like these will help the church and Christians share their faith anywhere in the world in any language and help us fulfill the scripture that talks about Jesus’s return once everyone on earth has had the opportunity to hear and experience the Gospel of Jesus Christ.