Digital Storytelling and BYOD

Reflection: Digital Storytelling and BYOD

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The use of digital storytelling as an assessment has made me think more carefully about the difference between simply giving students access to technology and designing opportunities for them to demonstrate what they understand through technology. In my high school Chemistry classroom, students have access to district-issued Chromebooks, which makes technology-based assessment more equitable because participation does not depend on students owning a personal device. Students can access Canvas, simulations, and approved digital resources through these devices. Personal smartphones present a different challenge. Although smartphones offer cameras, microphones, and other tools that could support digital storytelling, current restrictions on personal communication devices mean that I cannot design an assessment that assumes students will be able to use their phones during the instructional day. For this lesson, district-issued Chromebooks would therefore serve as the primary device for creating the digital story.

Access involves more than simply having enough devices. Students also need technology that is accessible, reliable, and appropriate for the learning task. I could increase accessibility by ensuring that students have a functioning Chromebook during class, providing time to complete the assessment at school, and avoiding requirements that depend on technology students may not have at home. The digital storytelling assignment also provides multiple ways for students to communicate their understanding through visuals, brief written explanations, labels, and narration. This is particularly valuable in my classroom because students enter Chemistry with different levels of English proficiency, reading ability, digital literacy, and confidence in communicating scientific reasoning. However, offering multiple formats should not reduce the academic expectation; every student must still demonstrate an accurate understanding of how protons, neutrons, and electrons affect atomic identity, mass, and charge.

If smartphones were permitted for this assessment, their built-in cameras and microphones could make them useful tools for creating and sharing digital stories. Students could photograph a physical atomic model, record narration, capture evidence from an investigation, or create short video segments to incorporate into their final product. They could also use a phone to document observations or collect data during other Chemistry investigations before incorporating that evidence into a digital explanation. The advantage of smartphones is their portability and familiarity, but those same devices also provide immediate access to messaging, social media, games, and other distractions. For that reason, I would not consider smartphone access inherently beneficial. The instructional value depends on whether the device enables students to gather or communicate evidence in a way that supports the learning objective.

Digital storytelling has considerable potential as an assessment strategy because it requires students to do more than select a correct answer. In The Life of an Atom, students must transform their understanding of atomic structure into a scientifically accurate narrative by showing what happens when the numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons change. This provides evidence of whether students understand the relationships among atomic identity, isotopes, ions, mass, and charge rather than whether they can recall isolated definitions. Digital storytelling could similarly be applied across disciplines through historical narratives, mathematical explanations, literary interpretations, scientific phenomena, or reflections on authentic experiences. At the same time, it should not replace every traditional assessment. Creating a digital story requires instructional time and digital skills, and an elaborate product can sometimes conceal weak content knowledge. For that reason, the rubric for this assessment places greater emphasis on scientific accuracy and reasoning than on technological sophistication. I see digital storytelling as most useful when the story itself requires students to organize, explain, and apply their learning, making technology a means of demonstrating mastery rather than the purpose of the assessment.