Abstract
Reflection is essential for learning and development, especially among middle school students. In this paper, we describe how middle school students can engage in reflective learning by composing digital stories in a project-based learning environment employing virtual reality. Adopting multiple case study methods, we examined the digital stories of five students, together with classroom observations and interviews about their experiences, in order to explore how digital storytelling can allowed students to reflect upon their experiences in a year-end capstone program. Creating digital stories allowed students to 1) reflect on their learning experiences teaching younger students with virtual reality, 2) present their reflections in multiple modalities, and 3) make connections between their present experiences and the past and future. This study demonstrates how digital storytelling can enable multimodal reflection for middle school students, particularly within technology-focused project-based learning environments.
 Keywords: digital storytelling; project-based learning; reflection; middle school learners
Highlights
Well-developed, meaningful curricular tasks enhance students’ self-regulated learning and motivate them to become more engaged in learning (Park, 2019)
We describe how middle school students can engage in reflective learning by composing digital stories in a project-based learning environment employing virtual reality
In this study we show how combining virtual reality with the reflection made possible by digital stories can yield meaningful learning, facilitating participants’ reflective learning
Summary
Well-developed, meaningful curricular tasks enhance students’ self-regulated learning and motivate them to become more engaged in learning (Park, 2019). Educators must design classes that facilitate more autonomous participation. To this end, project-based learning (PBL)—a pedagogical method allowing students to take part in student-driven, experiential learning that centers around investigation and answering an authentic question—allows students to collaborate and develop critical thinking skills while focusing on their own ideas (Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 2006). PBL often encourages students to think reflectively as they answer engaging questions and examine their own work and interactions with peers (Bell, 2010). The integration of new technologies and multimodal resources can support diverse tasks and projects, further enhancing reflection.
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