Abstract:

Education today, as in previous centuries, aims at the personal development of students and their preparation as citizens who will seek, in the future, a place in the social and professional arena. While some skills, such as numeracy and literacy, are just as important today as they were in the past, other skills are becoming increasingly valuable to citizens today so that they can cope with the complex social issues, economic and cultural demands of the today’s society. The need for students to develop those skills, known as "21st century skills", is becoming increasingly important and has recently become apparent in education systems around the world thanks to advances in educational research.

In the light of the above, this paper presents the implementation of a two-year action research in a secondary school in a rural area in Greece. The purpose of the research was to provide answers to the questions that arose from the study of the literature on 21st century skills and on digital storytelling as an educational approach, to teaching those skills to students. Also, it aimed to draw conclusions that highlight digital storytelling as a significant didactic approach that contributes to the production of innovative learning experiences.

The theoretical part of the action research presents 21st century skills, their definition and how the need for their development arose. In continuation, digital storytelling is examined in the educational context. Finally, examples of utilization of digital storytelling from all levels of education, both abroad and in Greece are presented together with the educational benefits that result from its use, the challenges it presents and its relationship with 21st century skills.

The practical part of the action research focuses on the use of digital storytelling in practice, as a didactic approach in the context of teaching English as a foreign language in secondary education. The two-year action research, sought to determine whether digital storytelling promotes the development of 21st century skills, and more specifically the 4Cs (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication) in students in the EFL secondary classroom. The action research collected quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data came from questionnaires and the qualitative data resulted from the researcher's observation diary and field notes, from the students’ group portfolios, digital stories and the group interviews. The statistical package for the social sciences SPSS, was used to process the data of the research.

From the discussion of the results, concerning the development of critical and creative thinking skills through digital storytelling, it can be inferred that the students have developed these skills to a great extent. Whereas, from the discussion of the results concerning the development of collaboration and communication skills through digital storytelling, it appeared that there was no significant statistical difference in the development of these skills. However, the collaborative framework was the context for the development of the students' expressive and productive creativity, and the communication and interaction between and among groups, activated the development of the characteristics of the critical thinker in the students. The achievement of the high degree of critical thinking and creativity that students acquired, came exactly from this collaborative and communicative environment.

Keywords:

Digital Storytelling, 21st Century skills, 4Cs, EFL.