Writing a Folktale as an Activity of Written Expression: Digital Folktales with StoryJumper

Abstract

Advances in technology lead to widespread use of the internet and computers. Communication that takes place in virtual environments brings the use of written expression to the fore. One of the technological tools utilized in written expression is digital storytelling. The purpose of the current study is to investigate digital folktale writing activities as a means of written expression on the basis of the opinions of pre-service teachers. The participants of the study employing the case study design, one of the qualitative research designs, are 92 pre-service elementary school teachers. The pre-service teachers divided into groups prepared 22 different digital folktales by using the StoryJumper website. The data of the study were collected through semi-structured interviews and documents. In the analysis of the interview data, the descriptive analysis technique was used. The folktales prepared were analyzed by means of document analysis on the basis of the pre-determined criteria. As a result of the analyses, the data collected from the interviews were gathered under 6 themes. The pre-service teachers stated positive opinions about the digital storytelling website they had used. In addition, it was concluded that digital storytelling activity improved the pre-service teachers’ written expression skills, contributed to their personal and professional development and that it was activity suitable for group work. In addition, it was revealed that the lowest scores were taken from the dimension of adding audio while they received better scores from the dimensions of originality of the topic and pictures used. And they received full points from the dimensions of the characters in the folktale and ending.