Digital storytelling to enhance active and deep learning within the Smithsonian Learning Lab [CONTEXTUAL PDF]

This portfolio represents a practice-led research workstream across two projects interrogating how digital storytelling can be adapted to a variety of education environments (both formal and non-formal) to facilitate active and deep learning. This work initially grew out Liguori’s work on a variety of EU funded projects focusing on new digital tools for School and Adult Education and was expanded and implemented during her Fellowship in 2018 at the Smithsonian Center for Learning and Digital Access, where she had the opportunity to co-design a new inclusive teaching practice. Liguori subsequently disseminated this practice through additional EU funded projects, collaborative work with NGOs in the global South and during public lectures in the US and in Europe. This work has enabled the Storytelling Academy at Loughborough University to explore new theories on digital storytelling in Education and methods of practice-led storytelling research, whereby the benefits of the creative process foster the learning process. As a result, some of the Institutions involved in the co-design workshops, such as the Montgomery College in Maryland, US, and George Washington University, D.C. US, implemented digital storytelling as a teaching strategy and assessment tool in their practice. The work underpins a REF2021 Impact Case Study: ‘Digital Storytelling for Active and Deep Learning: Transforming Educational Practices for Hard to Reach Groups across the US and Europe’.