Abstract:

New technologies are an important part of everybody’s lives and the university has to respond to this situation. Teachers need to be updated with the latest technologies so that they can find and create attractive activities to promote engagement and interest among the new generation of students. Web 2.0 technology is a great tool to motivate students to produce quality work in a foreign language.

Digital storytelling is a fantastic tool to promote students’ creativity and eagerness to improve their foreign language skills. Through digital storytelling students learn to combine basic multimedia tools (e.g. Audacity and Windows Movie Maker) with writing, narrating, etc.

In this paper I will share a didactic experience that I recently put into practise with 2nd year undergraduate students of English as a B language at the Valencia Affiliated Centre of the European University of Madrid. As part of their evaluation for the subject "Taller de Comunicación en Lengua B", students are required to carry out a group project. This year they were challenged with a new activity where they had to write a story for a silent animation film. The students were introduced to the advantages and disadvantages of group work together with possible pitfalls. Consequently, the ability to work in groups was an important part of the evaluation for this activity.

The objectives of this project were as follows: successful group work, independent use of new technologies, creativity, improvement of writing skills…. The outcome of this project was very satisfying, as all objectives were accomplished and students very successfully developed the skills required to carry out this project.

The findings from the study show that:
1. Digital storytelling is a good tool to motivate students in their learning process.
2. Digital storytelling engages students and stimulates their creative imagination.
3. This project helped all group members to commit themselves to this activity and create collaborative learning.

Keywords:

Innovation, digital storytelling, animation film, new technologies, etc.