Abstract
The incorporation of creative assignments in the form of digital stories and artistic assignments in undergraduate and graduate World Religions courses has resulted in positive feedback from the students, and these courses were considered the favorite of the semester. They have given students, many of which identify as “spiritual but not religious”, or “non-practicing”, an opportunity to connect themes from various world religions to their own life stories, implicitly or explicitly. The purpose of this article is to encourage educators in both a secondary and a college/university/seminary setting to consider digital stories as a creative assignment that deepens their understanding of world religions within the context of a World Religions course, or other religion and religious education courses. This article will present the institutional support provided by Mercy College (Dobbs Ferry, New York) and the context for the World Religions class in which the digital stories are assigned. It will be followed by the process of making a digital story, the directions given to the students, the different platforms that students can choose to make the digital stories, and examples of digital stories created by the students. The paper will conclude with a summary of comments made by the students about the assignment and connections with additional articles on the benefits of digital stories to increase empathy and replace the dominant stories that cause oppression and injustice, like racism and white supremacy, with stories that offer resistance and counter the status quo of oppression and injustice.
Highlights
IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
It will be followed by the process of making a digital story, the directions given to the students, the different platforms that students can choose to make the digital stories, and examples of digital stories created by the students
Seek methods that encourage them to reflect more deeply, think more profoundly, and connect their whole being to their essential identity. Like those offered by Mercy College, can be very helpful regarding the process of making a digital story that includes the seven elements of digital stories, examples of rubrics that can be used, and how a world religion theme sheet or different categories of digital stories can help give students ideas for their own digital stories
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The digital story assignment in a world religion course offers students the opportunity for a deeper and more personal engagement with oftentimes abstract religious themes, sacred truths, and practices that can impact their own faith formation and development in relation to those belonging to various religious traditions or none. Education is expanded so that it is understood beyond that which is learned in the classroom It is lifelong, with and without end, and there are daily encounters with world religions in our everyday life, in the daily activities of going to school, work, or shopping, and meeting friends and family, and in the food that we eat and the places we go to, be it a house of worship or living near a house of worship The course is guided by the principle of “Each one, teach one”, and both of these assignments incorporate this principle along with the presentations “that are informed by a multicultural pedagogy which fosters critical and creative thinking” (Buturian 2016)
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