Hungarian Dance Academy

The paper presents how digital storytelling was used as an empowerment tool among high school students diagnosed with school-related burnout (N = 13) in Hungary. The aim of applying digital storytelling was to change students’ time perspective, which was measured with Stanford Time Perspective Inventory before and after the digital storytelling intervention. The creative method allowed students to express their personal school experiences on verbal and visual levels while using digital technologies. The outcomes of the digital storytelling process were first-person video narratives, which presented the school career and self-reflections of students in a very expressive and touching way. Students’ temporal profile changed after the digital storytelling intervention; they became future-oriented. In most cases, students reflected on their past and present experiences at school, and they found a solution and developed a perspective for their future educational career. Digital storytelling as a complex arts-based method had a positive effect on students. While working on the project, the change of students’ time perspectives (Zimbardo & Boyd, 2008) from pastnegative and present-fatalistic to future-oriented was measured, which helped all the participants find a way to be more determined and optimistic.