Digital Storytelling: Ordinary Voices, Extraordinary Stories

This dissertation explores the perspectives of women enrolled in a developmental English class at a community college which utilized digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool. Building upon the many years of research of best practices in the field of developmental education, this qualitative narrative inquiry is motivated by three research questions: 1) How do the women use digital storytelling technology to create meaning? 2) What does the experience of the female storytellers reveal about women and the learning experience? 3) How do developmental education research-based best practices intersect with digital storytelling? The goals of the study are to contribute to the existing body of literature on developmental education best practices and women’s learning as well as merge the two with the 21st century technology of digital storytelling. Within the contemporary literature on digital storytelling, themes of identity formation, multiple literacies, and empowerment through emancipation are pervasive. This study offers insight into and advances the understanding of digital storytelling by including the field of developmental education with an exclusive focus on women’s ways of learning.