Appreciating diversity in the classroom is critical, but it must first begin with understanding oneself, which requires much introspection and reflection. Providing students opportunities to think critically about who they are, their culture (both surface and deep), and how they fit into the world opens doors for understanding and acceptance of others. One way to do this is through a digital story. Such stories have the power to promote engagement and challenge student understanding of diversity concepts and social justice issues by allowing storytellers to share their perspectives through multimedia (Grant & Bolin, 2016).
Key takeaways from this webinar will be:
1. Rationale for using digital storytelling to give voice to individual and others’ perspectives 
2. Exploration of how to use digital storytelling to bring together groups of people with similar stories regardless of geographical closeness (Polk, 2010)
3. Overview of the seven elements of digital storytelling
4. Discussion of various technological tools beneficial for digital storytelling
5. Examples of digital stories
6. Assignment ideas involving the use of digital storytelling