Digital Storytelling, as a Way to Integrate Multiple Literacies in the Classroom

Nowadays students are bombarded by so many sounds and images that using multiple literacies: media/computer/digital/critical in the classroom is only a way to keep them with skills they have already developed. In other words, multiple literacies are a way to give the students an opportunity to voice their awareness of social and educational factors.

 Moreover, multiple literacies give the students a wider range of spaces for their voices,  and at the same time give the instructor the power to hear students’ voices. Writing begins in voice and developing a voice in writing should be an essential part of any English language program (Harste, 2003).  Thus, being familiar with the student's literacy practices and considering how these multiple literacies: media/computer/digital/ critical can be used for educational purposes in the classrooms, teachers can foster language learning. Moreover, it is not a way to walk away from what we already know,  it is rather a matter of a different emphasis, and it is about what comprises a good language and literacy program.

Thus,  assigning students (age: 18-30, level: B1-C2, EFL classroom) to create a digital story assignment about the events in their lives, will affect positively on their learning by making the learning process more productive and efficient at the same time. Moreover, it will give the students the opportunity to express themselves in multiple ways: gestural, visual, spatial, as well as linguistic.

 Furthermore, creating the digital story will help them to redefine their understanding of literacy.  In other words, by creating the digital story assignment, they will be able to express their literacy through art, music and education and at the same time, will have the opportunity to see all the connections literacy had to their life.