Digital storytelling promoting twenty-first century skills and student engagement

Abstract

This article presents results on how students became engaged and motivated when using digital storytelling in knowledge creation in Finland, Greece and California. The theoretical framework is based on sociocultural theories. Learning is seen as a result of dialogical interactions between people, substances and artefacts. This approach has been used in the creation of the Global Sharing Pedagogy (GSP) model for the empirical study of student levels of engagement in learning twenty-first century skills. This model presents a set of conceptual mediators for student-driven knowledge creation, collaboration, networking and digital literacy. Data from 319 students were collected using follow-up questionnaires after the digital storytelling project. Descriptive statistical methods, correlations, analysis of variance and regression analysis were used. The mediators of the GSP model strongly predicted student motivation and enthusiasm as well as their learning outcomes. The digital storytelling project, using the technological platform Mobile Video Experience (MoViE), was very successful in teaching twenty-first century skills.