{"id":2438,"date":"2012-05-06T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/?p=2438"},"modified":"2026-10-19T10:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T10:21:45","slug":"visual-thinking-in-the-classroom-4-digital-narratives-preparing-students-to-be-digital-authors-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/?p=2438","title":{"rendered":"Visual Thinking in the Classroom (4) Digital Narratives: Preparing students to be digital authors \u2013 PART 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Originally published on:\u00a0<\/strong>May 6, 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: In this newsletter and the one that follows, we will be sharing our experience with Digital Narratives as a way to engage students with the process of science. However, these projects are multi-disciplinary by nature and can be used in any discipline. The only limit is our own imagination<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avraamidou and Osborne1<\/sup> , in their paper \u201cThe Role of Narrative in Communicating Science,\u201d have argued that scientists need to \u201cexplore new modes of communicating science\u201d and that by using narratives, science could be made more \u201cmeaningful, relevant and accessible to the public\u201d. To support their argument, they quote Lemke2<\/sup> as saying<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn teaching the content of the science curriculum, and the values that often go with it, science education, sometimes unwittingly, also perpetuates a certain harmful mystique of science. That mystique tends to make science seem dogmatic, authoritarian, impersonal, and even inhuman to many students. It also portrays science as being much more difficult than it is, and scientists as being geniuses that students cannot identify with. It alienates students from science\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After several semesters of teaching \u201cScientific Thinking\u201d we are still struggling with a similar bias towards science on the part of non-science students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goals of the Scientific Thinking course are ambitious: as part of their liberal arts education, we want students to know how scientific knowledge is generated and validated, what kinds of questions are asked about nature, what kind of evidence is acceptable, and how hypotheses are tested against experiment and observation. In the process, students learn how test results are evaluated and how to distinguish between good science, junk science, and pseudo-science. In short, our goal is to have our students acquire the scientific (critical) thinking skills necessary to make informed decisions on scientific and non-scientific matters as citizens or in their personal lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these are just the objectives of one third of the course. The rest of the course is devoted to the knowledge accumulated about the natural world, with specific emphasis on important theories such as the Big Bang theory, Evolution, and DNA, etc. To avoid alienating students from material that may seem irrelevant to their everyday life or chosen careers, the material\/concepts are designed around seemingly simple questions: \u201cWho are we?\u201d \u201cHow did we get here?\u201d \u201cWhere are we in this Universe?\u201d (See Canfield\u2019s “Intelligent Redesign: A Collaborative Approach to “Scientific Thinking”3<\/sup>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuous assessment of the course revealed to us that, although students \u201cunderstood\u201d these theories and could answer exam questions well, they had no appreciation of the process of science. To Dr Mostafa and me, who are instructors of the course, something was missing. We wanted our students to encounter historical figures, to follow the growth and demise of certain scientific theories, and most importantly to see how science develops. How could we do this, in parallel with the course material, without assigning a book to read (God forbid) or without adding \u201ccontent\u201d to a syllabus that is already overloaded with \u201ccontent\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer to this was through the class project, an important element of the course through which we try to impart some of the 21st<\/sup>-century skills (visual literacy, information literacy, technological skills, peer collaboration, effective communication, etc.) that educators have recognized learners need in order to thrive in a digital world and a digital economy4<\/sup>. Having experimented with different multimedia projects in the past, we settled on what turned out to be a successful formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking our cue from such experts as Lippincott5<\/sup> (who has argued that we need to prepare our students to be digital authors), and partly inspired by such innovative practices as that of \u201cBorn digital\u201d (presented at an Educause conference6 <\/sup>), we settled on a digital narrative project which we used in conjunction with the collaborative nature of wikis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What Is A Digital Narrative? <\/strong>The simplest definition would be that of \u201cstorytelling that uses digital technologies\u201d. It can take the form of a short movie, a narrated PowerPoint presentation, or any other digital medium that could relate an argument, an analysis, or an exposition. The topics can range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, to reflecting on community-based learning experiences, etc. The assignment could be made as academically rigorous as any traditional paper, and the level of difficulty would be determined by the individual instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our class projects <\/strong>consisted of having our students work in groups and create a digital multimedia representation of a text about science and scientific discovery. Specifically, the product was to be a 6-7 min video, and the texts chosen were chapters from Bill Bryson\u2019s \u201cA Short History of Nearly Everything\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Concept maps and storyboards were to be submitted before the production phase, and students would then receive feedback.\u00a0 The final products would be uploaded in a class wiki, and students were to peer review the other groups\u2019 projects (It was much more engaging for students to watch their peers\u2019 videos than to read the book). In addition, a final individual reflection paper was to be submitted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, students were a little overwhelmed: the chapters appeared to have too many details and many new concepts and events, most of which they had never encountered before. How could they translate all this into a meaningful video using only images, narration, and music? While creating any type of multimedia project (especially for the first time) needs scaffolding, the need was accentuated in this first-year course. Hence, a detailed timeline and grading rubrics were submitted to students with the various phases of the project outlined. A summary of these phases is outlined above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT ISSUE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avraamidou, Lucy, and Jonathan Osborne. “The Role of Narrative in Communicating Science.” International Journal of Science Education<\/em>.   31.12 (2009): 1683\u20131707. Print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lemke, J. L. ” Talking science: Language, learning, and values.” Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing<\/em>. (1990): n. page. Print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21st Century Workforce Commission, A Nation of Opportunity: Building America\u2019s 21st Century Workforce<\/em> (Washington, D.C.: National Alliance of Business, 2000), p. 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canfield, Brandon. “Intelligent Redesign: A Collaborative Approach to “Scientific Thinking”. New Chalk Talk Newsletter<\/em>. 9.5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lippincott, Joan. “Student Content Creators: Convergence of Literacies.” EDUCAUSE Review<\/em>. 49.6 (2007): 16\u201317. Print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Palfrey. Born Digital<\/em>. 2010. video. http:\/\/educause.mediasite.comWeb. 17 Apr 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on:\u00a0May 6, 2012 NOTE: In this newsletter and the one that follows, we will be sharing our experience with Digital Narratives as a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":2995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,182],"tags":[157],"class_list":["post-2438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-education","category-volume-11","tag-issue-10"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC_6545.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2996,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438\/revisions\/2996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learnhub.aucegypt.edu\/cltnewsletter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}