Learning Through Storytelling In Higher Education

Learning Through Storytelling in Higher Education explores ways of using storytelling as a teaching and learning tool. When storytelling is formalized in meaningful ways, it can capture everyday examples of practice and turn them into an opportunity to learn - encouraging both reflection, a deeper understanding of a topic and stimulating critical thinking skills. The technique can accommodate diverse cultural, emotional and experiential incidents, and may be used in many different contexts eg formal/informal; one-on-one/group setting. The authors outline the different models of storytelling and explain how to make use of this technique and encourage a 'storytelling culture' within the workplace or in tutorial sessions. Academic yet accessible, this book provides a new perspective on learning techniques and will be a great asset to any educator looking to improve reflective practice.

This book broadens the scope and impact of digital storytelling in higher education. It outlines how to teach, research and build communities in tertiary institutions through the particular form of audio-visual communication known as digital storytelling by developing relationships across professions, workplaces and civil society. The book is framed within the context of ‘The Four Scholarships’ developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the advancement and redefining of teaching, including the scholarships of discovery, integration, application, and teaching and learning. Across four sections, this volume considers the potential of digital storytelling to improve, enhance and expand teaching, learning, research, and interactions with society. Written by an international range of academics, researchers and practitioners, from disciplines spanning medicine, anthropology, education, social work, film and media studies, rhetoric and the humanities, the book demonstrates the variety of ways in which digital storytelling offers solutions to key challenges within higher education for students, academics and citizens. It will be compelling reading for students and researchers working in education and sociology.

To be a storyteller is an incredible position from which to influence hearts and minds, and each one of us has the capacity to utilise storytelling for a sustainable future. This book offers unique and powerful insights into how stories and storytelling can be utilised within higher education to support sustainability literacy. Stories can shape our perspective of the world around us and how we interact with it, and this is where storytelling becomes a useful tool for facilitating understanding of sustainability concepts which tend to be complex and multifaceted. The craft of storytelling is as old as time and has influenced human experience throughout the ages. The conscious use of storytelling in higher education is likewise not new, although less prevalent in certain academic disciplines; what this book offers is the opportunity to delve into the concept of storytelling as an educational tool regardless of and beyond the boundaries of subject area. Written by academics and storytellers, the book is based on the authors’ own experiences of using stories within teaching, from a story of “the Ecology of Law” to the exploration of sustainability in accounting and finance via contemporary cinema. Practical advice in each chapter ensures that ideas may be put into practice with ease. In addition to examples from the classroom, the book also explores wider uses of storytelling for communication and sense-making and ways of assessing student storytelling work. It also offers fascinating research insights, for example in addressing the question of whether positive utopian stories relating to climate change will have a stronger impact on changing the behaviour of readers than will dystopian stories. Everyone working as an educator should fi nd some inspiration here for their own practice; on using storytelling and stories to co-design positive futures together with our students.

The idea of storytelling goes beyond the borders of language, culture, or traditional education, and has historically been a tie that bonds families, communities, and nations. Digital storytelling offers opportunities for authentic academic and non-academic literacy learning across a multitude of genres. It is easily accessible to most members of society and has the potential to transform the boundaries of traditional education. As concepts around traditional literacy education evolve and become more culturally and linguistically relevant and responsive, the connections between digital storytelling and disciplinary literacy warrant considered exploration. Connecting Disciplinary Literacy and Digital Storytelling in K-12 Education develops a conceptual framework around pedagogical connections to digital storytelling within K-12 disciplinary literacy practices. This essential reference book supports student success through the integration of digital storytelling across content areas and grade levels. Covering topics that include immersive storytelling, multiliteracies, social justice, and pedagogical storytelling, it is intended for stakeholders interested in innovative K-12 disciplinary literacy skill development, research, and practices including but not limited to curriculum directors, education faculty, educational researchers, instructional facilitators, literacy professionals, teachers, pre-service teachers, professional development coordinators, teacher preparation programs, and students.

ÿThe aim of this book is to share a relatively loose collection of studies using digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool in Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). The book takes an informed social justice approach to teaching and learning, at the heart of which is the exploration of DST as a practice of voice and agency. Voice and agency are important in excavating and recovering subjugated identities, and moving the concerns of those occupying subaltern spaces to the mainstream of teaching and learning. Yet this discursive shift is not without inherent challenges. Multi-modal technologies are reflective of wider inequities in the so-called technological divide. Whilst this is a book about higher education, there are important lessons for schooling. On the one hand, the book is a powerful demonstration of the potential of DST for enhancing learning in schools, particularly in schools serving the poor and marginalised. On the other hand, improving teaching and learning in higher education, through the creative use of technology, is essential to overcome the learning challenges of those entering tertiary level institutions.

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.