On the Design of Educational Digital Stories: The Ed-W Model

This paper focuses on the presentation of an educational, modeling methodology (the Ed-W methodology) that is appropriate for the design of storyboards for educational digital stories. This methodology is based on the creation of the following three models:(a) the model of the subject matter; including all aspects of the learning subject in question, (b) the learners’ model; including learners’ non scientific conceptions about the aforementioned learning subject, and (c) the Ed-W learning model; consisting of a 5-step digital story boarding strategy for the learning of the subject in question, while at the same time acknowledging the students’ non scientific conceptions. The aforementioned 5 steps are: (a) the hero faces a problematic situation where she/he needs to use the knowledge of the subject matter in question, (b) the situation is worsened, due to actions which are based on the hero's non scientific conceptions described in the learners’ model, (c) the situation is improved due to external, uncontrollable factors, (d) the situation becomes terrible because the hero coninues to act in the previously mentioned way, and (e) the hero is forced to reflect on her/his thoughts and practices, and makes appropriate corrections. Then, all problems are finally resolved. To illustrate the aforementioned design methodology, an example of the design of a concrete digital story will be also demonstrated