Storytelling and Education in the Digital Age

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This post is also available in: العربية (Arabic)

Storytelling and Education in the Digital Age

While the importance of the role of storytelling can hardly be overestimated, the impact of digitalization on this role is more ambivalent.

In this second book-length publication of the programme Media and Education in the Digital Age – MEDA, the authors take a critical stance towards the alleged emancipative affordances of digital storytelling in education.

The collection is inspired by the effort of making professional educators aware of the risks of the digital turn in educational storytelling but also of the opportunities and the conditions for critical engagements. Based on their research and field experience, fifteen scholars discuss in nine chapters these risks and opportunities, providing ideas, evidence, references and inspiration to educators and researchers.

The evolution of communication technology is often described in terms of a powerful force of change.

In this project we interrogate the role of this evolution on the educational functions of storytelling. Storytelling is one of the oldest form of communicative behavior: one that, throughout the history of humankind, participates in many important social activities, from religious rituals to informal communication.

In this perspective it could be argued that, independently from cultural differences, the educational relevance of storytelling is a reflection of the importance of storytelling itself in the social construction of the real.

The main question we want to address here is about the direct and indirect impact of digital communication technologies on the educational role and functions of storytelling.

In particular, we want to address three sets of interrelated questions: First, what are the functions of storytelling in education?

Why is storytelling important on educational grounds?

Second, what is the impact of digital technology on the functions of storytelling in education? Do these changes create conditions in education and in the broader society that require fundamental changes in the nature and processes of storytelling?

To what extent, for example, does the incredulity of the ‘postmodern condition’ affect the social and educational functions of storytelling?

Or are these changes overrated when it comes to the fundamental functions of this communicative practice?

Third, what are the risks, challenges and opportunities associated with the impact of digital technologies on the traditional functions of storytelling?

Coherently with the mission of MEDA, in this project the focus is on practical problems, with conceptual or theoretical issues addressed only when strictly necessary to clarify the nature of these problems.

Our main goal is to gather relevant information, knowledge and opinion concerning the past, present and future educational role of storytelling in the digital age for a primary audience of media and communication students, teachers and educators.

Storytelling and Education in the Digital Age

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This post is also available in: العربية (Arabic)