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Abstract
This chapter of "Digital Storytelling in Practice" examines how digital storytelling can be used to build important skills. Like traditional storytelling, Digital Storytelling helps to build conceptual skills like understanding a narrative and using inductive reasoning to solve problems, but the creation of digital stories also requires the creator to build technology skills through the use of software and other tools. These skills are usefill to both children, who need them for an increasingly technology-oriented future job market, and adults, who need them to keep up with a changing world.
In 2002, Scott County Schools and the Scott County Public Library in Georgetown, Kentucky, forged a partnership designed to help their children build storytelling and technology skills through learning and preserving their community's stories.1 Inspired by the late storyteller Dana Atchley, the community project allowed students, teachers, and residents to work together through the library to tell their stories digitally through three-minute videos. In videos available on the Scott County Digital Storytelling website, teachers' reflections show that in addition to being an entertaining and fun project, the digital storytelling project was an important learning experience for students. They were able to gain computer and technology skills that are crucial for any student in the Internet age.2
When done as a part of children's programming, digital storytelling can help build the 21st century skills that children will need to succeed in school and eventually in the modern workforce. In Scott County, teachers felt that through the digital storytelling experience, students were able to gain competence in skills considered an important part of the local schools' standards. According to the book Digitales, the Art of Telling Digital Stories, students were able to gain effective communication skills and experience in specific areas that teachers felt were important:
* Interactive communication
* Interpersonal skills
* Personal and social responsibility
* Technology literacy
* Relevant, high-quality products
* Basic and visual literacy
* Curiosity, creativity, and risk-taking3
Digital storytelling does not need to be an additional task or more homework for students; it teaches skills that fit well within common learning guidelines set forth by many school districts. By working with students (and librarians), teachers can use digital storytelling as a fun and engaging learning activity for students....