Project leaders: Ola Erstad and Kenneth Silseth
The project started out with an intention to study the cultural complexities in digital storytelling among youth. It was based on former projects Ola Erstad was involved in where young people with immigrant backgrounds talked about how their families used digital media as a way of family networking raising issues of cultural complexities in the ways these young people used digital media. The project changed focus shortly after starting up because of the schools that became involved from the start. The focus of the project then turned more towards studying the impact of digital storytelling in school based settings. Just after starting up, Kenneth Silseth joined the project. This research is part of the work on his doctoral thesis, where Silseth investigates how students makes technology meaningful for themselves as learners in the educational context. The main research questions in Cultural Complexities in Digital Storytelling are:
- What happens to the practice of digital storytelling when it enters the classroom?
- How and to what extent do digital storytelling functions as a link between school spaces and leisure spaces using digital technologies?
The empirical work has consisted of observations, videotaping students production practices, group interviews of students, interviews of teachers at one school. In addition, we have carried out home visits. The studies do show that the practice of digital storytelling changes when it is employed in the institutional context of education. However, the studies also show that digital storytelling engages students in positive ways, especially in the way students can draw on experiences from outside of schools.
Publications
Silseth, K. & O. Erstad (forthcoming, 2012): Mirroring the surfaces of the self - Exploring the literacy practices of digital storytelling. In B. Gentikow, E.G. Skogseth and S. Østerud (eds.) Literacy Practices in Late Modernity: Mastering Technological and Cultural Convergences. Cresskill NJ: Hampton Press.
Silseth, K. (2009): Digital storytelling i skolen. I A. Mangen (ed.) Lesning på skjerm. Stavanger: Lesesenteret, Universitetet i Stavanger.
Sefton-Green, J., H. Nixon & O. Erstad (2009 ) Reviewing approaches and perspectives on 'Digital literacy' Pedagogies, 4(2): 105-127.
Drotner, K., V. Duus & O. Erstad (2009) Evaluering af national digital læringsarena. Oslo: Rambøll.
Sefton-Green, J. (2008) Informal learning: a solution in search of a problem?' In Drotner, K, H.S. Jensen & K.C. Schrøder (Eds.) Informal Learning and Digital Media: Constructions, Contexts and Consequences. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Erstad, O. & J. V. Wertsch (2008) Tales of mediation: Narrative and digital media as cultural tools. In K. Lundby (Ed.) Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media. New York: Peter Lang.
Erstad, O. & K. Silseth (2008) Agency in digital storytelling: Challenging the educational context. In K. Lundby (Ed.) Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media. New York: Peter Lang.
Sefton-Green, J. & Soep, L. (2007) Creative Media Cultures: Making and Learning Beyond the School. In Bresler, L. (Ed.) International Handbook of Research in Arts Education. Dordrecht: Springer.
Presentations
Silseth, K. (2010): "Mixed Voices in the Classroom: Exploring Digital Storytelling for Learning in School". Paper presented at ECER Conference. Education and Cultural Change, Helsinki 25-27 August, 2010.