This session by Manuella Kelly Calzini & Letizia Cinganotto took place at the online Future of English Language Teaching Conference (FOELT), organised by Trinity College London and Regent’s University London. You can learn more about the annual event at trinitycollege.com/FOELT.
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Summary
Digital storytelling is a powerful tool for engaging students in the learning process and helping them develop key employability skills. By combining multimedia elements such as text, images, audio, and video, digital storytelling allows students to create compelling narratives that communicate complex ideas and insights. This process requires students to think critically, collaborate with others, and demonstrate creativity, all of which are highly valued by employers.
In this session., we explore the ways in which digital storytelling can help students develop employability skills. We begin by examining the differences and similarities between traditional oral storytelling and digital storytelling, with an emphasis on the unique affordances of digital platforms (e.g. interactivity, multimedia elements, user-generated content ).
We also examine the skills that are essential for success in today's job market, such as critical thinking, communication, and teamwork, and show how digital storytelling can help students develop these skills. Finally, we provide some examples of successful digital storytelling projects and offer recommendations for educators who wish to incorporate this approach into their teaching practice.
About the presenter
Manuela Calzini is Senior Academic at Trinity College London in Italy. She is an experienced teacher and teacher trainer and has worked in EFL Education and Continuing Professional Development Programmes for over 25 years. She is an ELT author and regularly contributes articles in teacher publications. Manuela is also Lecturer at the University of Florence (Primary Education Sciences). Her main research interests are communicative skills and performance-based assessment.
Letizia Cinganotto, former Senior Researcher at INDIRE (National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research), Italy, currently teaches language teaching at University for Foreigners of Perugia, Italy. She holds a PhD in synchronic, diachronic and applied Linguistics. She has far-reaching experience in continuous professional development for teachers, teacher trainers, head teachers. She is a member of different working groups and scientific committees on CLIL and language learning both at national and international level. Letizia has presented papers at national and international conferences and published articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and recently five volumes on CLIL.