Stage 1: Pre-study data collection and analysis

3.3.3.1 Questionnaire.

Prior to beginning the study, the researcher administered a questionnaire (see Annex A) based on the Likert scale. This aimed to identify the frequency of the students’

engagement with technology prior to the study; to detect the level of their digital literacy, as perceived by the students themselves; and to identify suitable cases with the most

variability in English-language proficiency (that is, to select students with levels of language ability and technology skills varying from low to high).

The questionnaire consisted of two parts, related to technology skills and English- language skills. According to Ohler (2008), “Traditional storytelling is highly regarded as a powerful tool for helping students develop literacy skills. Digital storytelling merely

extends this into the digital domain. In the process, it usually integrates a number of traditional and emerging literacies into the storytelling process”. One of the emerging literacies is digital literacy. As the context of this current study was an English-language classroom, it was necessary to ascertain whether English-language proficiency affected in any way the development of digital literacy skills. The two domains, English-language skills and technology skills, were examined. The questionnaire was designed with the following categories, each containing a number of specific questions:

• Hardware—operating a computer and ability to use headphones and

microphones

• Software—level of familiarisation with software programs and/or applications

such as Microsoft Word, PPT, Photo Story 3, iMovie; ability to save files in designated directories and to use search engines (e.g., Google)

• Texts—ability to select, use and change font colour, size, style, to position the

• Images—ability to use ClipArt, to search for images on the Internet, to

acknowledge copyright when downloading images from the Internet, to download and save images, to insert an image in Microsoft Word and PPT, to identify an image resolution, to crop an image, to combine images and to add effects to an image

• Music—ability to find music on the Internet, to import music to PPT, to select

music that would enhance the content, to identify the size of a music file, to acknowledge copyright when downloading music from the Internet and to adjust music volume in PPT

• Narration—ability to record voice in PPT, to adjust the volume of narration in

PPT, to speak for each PPT slide and to create scripts to support their narration in PPT

• Information—ability to find information for homework on the Internet, to

identify reliable websites, to use Wikipedia for information, to use copyright- free images (www.flick.com/creativecomons), and to differentiate between a search engine, a directory and a website

• English-language—to identify existing English-language-related study habits

and attitudes; however, the main source of information about the students’ English-language ability was .the exam results

The researcher distributed a hard copy of the questionnaire to each student in the class and they completed them within the allocated time. The researcher collected the questionnaires and analysed the data. The results informed the researcher which students would be suitable to become the cases (participants) in the study.

enter the study with levels of digital literacy that would vary for different students and for different aspects of digital literacy. The researcher aimed to evaluate developments in their digital literacy throughout the study, to answer the research question of the thesis. The other pre-study activities included: a PPT presentation by the students (‘Biography of a famous person’), a Microsoft Word document (‘Comparison of two extraordinary people’) and observations of the students’ engagement with technology interwoven with discussions with them to evaluate their level of digital literacy, using aspects of the digital literacy rubric described in Section 3.3.2. Two reviewers (critical friends) were engaged to evaluate the students’ digital artefacts. They and the researcher filled in the rubrics, which were later examined by the researcher. The researcher discussed any discrepancies in the three

evaluators’ rubrics and determined each student’s level of digital literacy on the basis of that review.

3.3.3.2 PowerPoint ‘Biography of a famous person’.

During English-language lessons, the students studied biographies of different famous people, examining parts of a biography as a genre. The students were instructed to conduct research on any famous person of their choice and present their findings in the form of a PPT presentation they created individually. The requirements for the tasks were:

a) Identify a famous person that you would like to research.

b) Create a PPT presentation (a mini-biography of the famous person) consisting of 10 to 12 slides.

c) For each slide, include images that can enhance the content. (The researcher intentionally did not specify the content of the pictures, as she intended to observe what images the students would use.)

d) Save your work as ‘Name_Class_Biography’ into your own folder in the Pupils Drive.

3.3.3.3 Microsoft Word document ‘Comparison of two extraordinary people’.

For this assignment, the students were required to fill in a table after searching for the necessary information on the Internet. Although this activity did not include

storytelling, it was important to identify the students’ ability to identify, locate and analyse information. Technology skills, such as saving and retrieving files, were also to be

analysed. To share the document, the researcher created it in Microsoft Word and saved it as a ‘read-only’ document called ‘COPY FROM HERE’ in the Pupils Drive. The teacher instructed the students to open the document, select the text and table, copy it, open a new Microsoft Word document and paste the copied information into it. Then they were to save the document under their own name in their own folder in the Pupils Drive.

3.3.3.4 Participant observations.

The researcher conducted participant observations to observe, record and interpret the participants’ practices while engaging with technology in an English-language

classroom.

3.3.3.5 Aspects of digital literacy rubric.

The rubric (see Section 2.4, Table 2.2) was developed prior to the study and was used throughout the study to analyse the development of digital literacy skills in the students.