Using Mobile Devices by Media Students as a Tool for Digital Storytelling

Abstract

The introduction of mobile devices has brought about dramatic transitions not only in how ordinary individuals communicate with one another, but also in how media students learn to tell highly compelling digital stories. In higher education, mobile devices are increasingly proving to be quite powerful tools aiding media students in learning storytelling techniques across media platforms. This chapter draws on a pilot project involving a survey of mass communication students at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, in which iPads and smart phones were used to generate video stories as course assignments. A survey of students involved in the project reveals they were highly passionate about doing their video storytelling assignment on iPads and smart phones as compared with traditional audio-visual capturing tools. The authors see a huge potential for mobile devices as credible media gathering tools in the emerging real-world journalistic practices.