October 29, 2025
This Viewpoints panel discussion explored how digital storytelling can cultivate empathy, deepen understanding and inspire meaningful change across educational and community contexts. Designed for faculty, staff and students, the session highlighted intentional approaches to digital innovation that foster connection and transform learning — within and beyond the classroom.
Panelists Dr. Kristiina Kumpulainen, Dr. Maureen Kendrick, Dr. Kathleen Deering and Dr. Siobhan Wittig McPhee addressed critical considerations including ethical storytelling, digital equity, and authentic human connection, guided by the ABCs of Intention: Awareness, Betterment and Care. During the session, they shared insights from their research and practice in areas such as ecological storytelling, immersive audio experiences, multimodal literacies and community-based digital narratives.
You can learn more about their digital storytelling projects at the links below:
- Drive for Change Animated Video Project (Dr. Kathleen Deering)
- The SHAWNA Project: “My Story, My Way” (Dr. Kathleen Deering)
- Spatial Empathy in Action (Dr. Siobhan Wittig McPhee)
Panelists
Dr. Kristiina Kumpulainen, Professor & Department Head, Department of Language and Literacy Education
Kristiina Kumpulainen is a Professor at the Department of Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, the University of British Columbia. Her ongoing research examines children’s ecological imagination, multimodal literacies and more-than-human storytelling. She currently leads the SSHRC Insight project Enhancing Ecological Imagination through Augmented Storying, which engages children and communities in co-creating augmented stories with forests, animals and everyday ecologies. Her work closely aligns with the ABCs of Intention, Awareness, Betterment and Care, demonstrating how digital innovation can move beyond market-driven logics to foster imagination, equity and multispecies flourishing in education and society.
Dr. Maureen Kendrick, Professor, Department of Language and Literacy Education
Maureen Kendrick is a professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines literacy and multimodality as integrated communicative practices, and addresses a range of social and cultural issues in diverse contexts. She has a particular interest in visual communication and communicative repertoires, and has conducted research in various geographic locations in East Africa and Canada focused on women and girls, child-headed households and students with refugee experiences. Her current research focuses on understanding the potential of digital multimodal composing (including digital storytelling) for disciplinary literacies for newcomer, multilingual learners.
Dr. Kathleen Deering, Associate Professor, Division of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
Dr. Kathleen Deering (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Division of Social Medicine, Department of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at University of British Columbia (UBC). She is also the Faculty Lead of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute Health Equity Research Hub and an Associate Member, Division of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Population and Public Health, UBC. Her research program focuses on community-based research with people who have experienced social and structural violence, stigma and criminalization, including women living with HIV, sex workers and people who use criminalized substances; understanding key aspects of trauma-informed practice, with a focus on aligned peer-based approaches, that can address and disrupt the impacts of trauma, violence and stigma as health services barriers; investigating how structural, policy and community interventions can address health and health services access inequities; and methodological issues in health equity research, including related to quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods and arts-based methods.
Dr. Siobhan Wittig McPhee, Associate Professor of Teaching, UBC Geography
Dr. Siobhán Wittig McPhee is an Associate Professor of Teaching in UBC’s Department of Geography, specializing in innovative approaches to teaching and learning through digital tools, experiential learning, and place-based storytelling. Her work explores how immersive technologies—particularly spatial sound and augmented reality—can foster empathy and deepen understanding of social justice issues. Her recent projects include “Spatial Empathy in Action,” an immersive audio experience foregrounding the voices of UBC’s custodial staff, and the Vancouver Soundscapes Project, which transforms five decades of acoustic documentation into pedagogical tools. Dr. Wittig McPhee has received numerous awards including the AMS OER Champion Award (2025) and has secured over $300,000 in teaching and learning grants. Her research examines how digital storytelling can bridge academic knowledge with lived experiences, creating transformative learning opportunities that cultivate spatial empathy and advance the inclusion of historically marginalized communities.
Facilitators
Crisitina Soto Quintero, Curriculum and Evaluation Consultant, LDDI
Alison Li, Learning Designer, LDDI
Sarah Gong, Learning Designer, LDDI