Abstract:

PerLE was created in 2012 by a research group at the Department of Language and Educational Sciences at the University of Calabria to offer a blended learning support to students following institutional courses. PerLE is an open source dynamic online learning environment offering course materials which exploit a modularity based approach to learning management systems. It aims to offer assistance to students preparing for course examinations, with strong emphasis on encouraging learning and collaboration in the spirit of community of practice. Student-centred involvement in collaboration, interoperability and creativity is essential to development of skilful use of technology and for creative learning. The platform therefore places emphasis on the employment and integration of web tools, software and social media, offering learners the opportunity to share and to showcase what they create.

Our project, entitled perledicreatività, regarded students in Educational Sciences attending a computer lab and asked them to engage in creative project work using tools for digital storytelling and the creation of digital artefacts, sharing their work using Google+. Digital creativity can be a powerful learning and teaching tool that enables learners both to engage with and develop familiarity with the extensive range of digital instruments offered by PerLE, and, further, to develop digital literacy as they learn to carry out research, organize ideas, build narratives, create artefacts and collaborate in community sharing activities. User contributed content becomes an integral part of the learning experience in an environment in which common goals are pursued. This opens up the learning experience in terms of global literacy, particularly in consideration of the diverse backgrounds and interests and the increasingly multi-ethnic composition of the student population on our campus.

The students were invited to consider the questions “what is creativity for you?” and “how creative are we when we study?” and were then asked to choose a personal argument and to present it in a creative manner. 350 students took part in the project, of whom 275 participated in the community. Specific tools used included movie maker, graphics software and web tools such as explee, popplet and pixton. Although digital storytelling is usually seen in terms of personal narrative, historical account and informational content, these students were not instructed to follow a determined path but to give free expression to their own interests. There was no formal evaluation and they were invited to express votes (+1) and were free to comment the works presented and to use “circles” to develop contacts with each other. The results provided a variety of digital artefacts across a range of different subjects with a strong creative element in terms both of personal interests and development of arguments related to their degree course subjects. Future work will involve more direct instructional assistance, such as digital story modelling and instruction, to develop more extensive artefacts/stories and to offer students the means through which to develop content both for personal interest development and as an extension of formal course components, conserving the original aim of establishing and encouraging a student-centred approach to learning.

Keywords:

Digital artefacts, digital storytelling, digital literacy, user generated content, community of practice, Google+.