Digital storytelling, student engagement and deep learning in Geography

ABSTRACT

This study aims to provide insight into the usefulness of integrating digital stories in teaching and learning activities in Geography in higher education. More specifically, to identify how digital stories can enhance deep learning in Geography. Deep learning indicates understanding and creative use of knowledge in new settings, i.e. the highest levels in the revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy, a knowledge dimension from factual knowledge to meta-knowledge. Data are based on two evaluation processes: a university student who conducted a process of making digital stories in a class of upper secondary school students, and secondly, by 41 university students who did a two-step evaluation process of these stories. Despite the Norwegian learning context, from which data are obtained, the approaches will largely be recognizable in other countries because of the general learning principles and framework for teaching geographical topics. The study shows that digital storytelling has the potential to improve interactive learning outcome that can enhance ethical and deep learning of geography, including “the affective domain” of how geography is felt and valued. The awareness of integration of technology into the learning process is underlined.

KEY WORDS:

• Geography
• digital storytelling
• storytelling
• deep learning

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to a former university student and her upper-secondary school students who made the two digital stories which has provided useful insights into how such stories can enhance the learning output for students in Geography in higher education. We are very grateful also to the journal’s editor and anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.