Digital storytelling as an educational tool for scientific, environmental and sustainable development literacy on marine litter in informal education environments (Case study: Hellenic Center for Marine Research)

Abstract

The modern era is characterised by the explosion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and their multiple applications both in school communities and extracurricular activities. ICT enables the school community to engage in new educational storytelling approaches with educational and learning content, using multimedia applications. This article describes a study that took place at the headquarters of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research and involved a convenience sampling of 153 high school students (ages 13 to 15 years old). The study aims to investigate the use of digital storytelling, as an instructional tool for informal learning, to develop environmental and sustainability awareness, and enhance the scientific literacy of high school students around the topic of marine litter, a serious environmental and sub-regional issue of our times. A didactic intervention was applied which focused on digital storytelling and experiential hands-on activities covering concepts of marine pollution, to establish the acquisition of new knowledge and the strengthening of optimal behaviour towards the environment and development of sustainable attitudes towards the global problem of plastic marine pollution. The results of the study confirm the importance of digital storytelling for the cultivation of students’ scientific and environmental literacy for oceans.