“I have a tablet computer: what now?”: the production of digital storytelling as strategy in science teachers training

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of the process of digital storytelling construction by science teachers on the use of tablet computer in teaching practice. The methodological path approaches research-training (NÓVOA, 2004) and involved the accomplishment of formative meetings with the subjects of research to socialize situations lived by them in the classroom and to guide them in the preparation of the digital storytelling. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted aiming at the triangulation of the data for qualitative analysis. Three themes emerged from the data: A) Influences of the personal and professional relationship with technology in the process of technological appropriation; B) The motivating role of digital storytelling in the actions of teachers in relation to the use of technologies; C) Implications of the production of digital storytelling on the role of teachers in the use of technologies. The results of the investigation indicate that: a) the experience of making storytelling using digital resources promoted movements of approximation and curiosity in relation to these resources; B) the proposal to narrate the experiences with the tablet computer in the classroom encouraged the teachers to make pedagogical use of this technological resource; C) the production of the digital storytelling led the subjects to reflect on the role of the teacher in relation to the pedagogical use of the technologies, and this fact contributed to the process of continuous training of the investigated subjects. Thus, the production of digital storytelling by teachers in a training situation has proved to be an instrument for reflection on the teaching practice mediated by the technologies while at the same time fostering the pedagogical use of Digital Information and Communication Technologies.