Digital Story-telling

Creating Constructivist Learning Environment for Japanese EFL Students: A Digital Story Program 1

Guofang Wan, Ohio University, USA; Rex Tanimoto, Osaka Gakuin University, Japan; Rosalyn Anstine Templeton, Marshall University, West Virginia, USA

This study assesses the effectiveness of FM Magic, a web-based multimedia English program that teaches EFL in a Japanese university. It uses the Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment Survey (CMLES) and a Student Open-ended Questionnaire. Results indicate that FM Magic creates a positive learning environment for these EFL students. It is different from the teacher-centered and
grammar-translation approaches of language instruction. The study also suggests some ideas to refine FM Magic and further bring it into closer alignment with the constructivist approach for language instruction.

MacGregor (2002)
explores the use of a computer paint program and indicates that children showed
greater creative strength in visuals and created more detailed accompanying stories
than traditional paper pencil group, and made more revisions in both their visual and
written products.