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Fostering Student Activism About the Climate Crisis Through Digital Multimodal Narratives

By Blaine Smith, Richard Beach and Ji Shen

Abstract: A challenge with engaging students in taking action to address the climate crisis is that they may assume that they have little or no agency related to having an impact on audiences or policymakers. In this report, we describe students’ use of videos and digital storytelling as multimodal tools for communicating the need to address the climate crisis with different audiences. We discuss the importance of narratives in digital storytelling as a means to foster student engagement with issues of sustainability, as well as provide an overview of different types of digital multimodal productions students can create to promote a sense of agency. Next, we describe one program in-depth (Project IF) and explain how the similar use of digital tools promotes creative problem solving and leveraging media to explore climate issues. We conclude with a discussion of the critical media literacy practices associated with the effective use of digital tools for addressing the climate crisis.

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