Jake Boyer
Digital Storytelling Paper
Dr. Mirrer
May 10, 2010
Review: Identify one scholarly journal article, one popular press article, and one website which discuss Digital Storytelling. Summarize their content.
The journal article I reviewed was written by Alan Davis, “Digital Storytelling in an Urban Middle School”. The author of this article does a nice overview of explaining what digital story telling is all about. It explains that it is a personal narrative in the first person, presented as a short movie for display on television or the computer. With the advance of better equipment and software, this form of media is now available to students in grades K-12. There are many organizations that provide technical information such as the Center for Digital Storytelling, the Digital Underground Story telling for Youth, and the Visible Knowledge Project at Georgetown University. The author explains that digital storytelling is a means of narrative expression, linked to traditions of story telling of thousands of years ago. It is familiar to children and has been part of their communication system for thousands of years.
The article describes a project at an urban middle school consisting of lower socioeconomic status 8th graders, called the Cyber Cougars who began making short stories about something that changed their lives. The projects took the youths approximately 6 weeks every day after school. Each of the children’s stories were reiterated in this article, and the impact the telling the story had on their lives. At the end of the project, it was clear that there was a major benefit to the children who were involved. The process served as a tool for self-authoring, and helped the students organized the events in their lives and think more fully about them. It helped them look back at how their behaviors affected others and their self esteem. As an added bonus, the students developed proficiency with a variety of technical tools from scanning and digital photo editing to video editing. It was a very successful project.
The website I reviewed is that of The Center for Digital Storytelling. This is an international no-profit organization that specializes in assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories form their lives. The Center offers a range of services to assist individuals, organizations, and institutions around the world in pursuing their own digital storytelling work. This website was very good since it outlined some basic definitions of digital story telling and was great for someone who knows little about it. It also has a major focus on education and provides workshops across the US, Canada and Europe about digitalstory telling. One of the interesting things is that the majority of their work is done in partnerships. They focus on building partnerships with the community, educational organization and business to develop large scale initiatives in areas such as human rights, health care, and environmental justice Customized programs are developed depending on what the goal of the organization is. In addition to these partnerships, the organization is available to help out at conference for public speaking and story screening. They are very versatile and use a wide range of web and media design production services.
The press article I reviewed is called” Using Digital Storytelling for creative and Innovative e-learning” by Nalin Sharda. This article appeared in E-Learn Magazine. This was a very interesting article that points out the fact that both creativity and innovation are keys to advancement in both the business world as well as education. This article describes how both creativity and innovation are improved with e-learning systems based on a digital storytelling method called Movement-oriented design (MOD). Robert McKee, a Hollywood script writer is the main founder of this method. It recognizes the fact that digital story telling is a powerful and innovative way to teach students in engineering and ICY workforces. E-learning has become very popular in current years as an adjunct to traditional book, papers etc. McKee’s believes that good digital story telling can make for good educational programs. His five stages of digital story telling include inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax and resolution. When this type of method is integrated into traditional teaching of engineering and ICT students, there is more success in the programs and student retention. The MOD method provides a way of starting narratives with just a concept. Creativity and innovation are enhanced by combining knowledge from different learning systems.
The press article I reviewed is called” Using Digital Storytelling for creative and Innovative e-learning” by Nalin Sharda. This article appeared in E-Learn Magazine. This was a very interesting article that points out the fact that both creativity and innovation are keys to advancement in both the business world as well as education. This article describes how both creativity and innovation are improved with e-learning systems based on a digital storytelling method called Movement-oriented design (MOD). Robert McKee, a Hollywood script writer is the main founder of this method. It recognizes the fact that digital story telling is a powerful and innovative way to teach students in engineering and ICY workforces. E-learning has become very popular in current years as an adjunct to traditional book, papers etc. McKee’s believes that good digital story telling can make for good educational programs. His five stages of digital story telling include inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax and resolution. When this type of method is integrated into traditional teaching of engineering and ICT students, there is more success in the programs and student retention. The MOD method provides a way of starting narratives with just a concept. Creativity and innovation are enhanced by combining knowledge from different learning systems.
Relate this information to your own digital stories: Use specific examples.
I can relate these articles to my story about the Blackberry Storm phone. Using a story to tell about the Blackberry is one way to teach others about the amazing features of this phone in a fun story type setting. It is educational, similar to the education benefits the middle school students received when using digital storytelling in their schools to help them organize their thoughts and feelings. Also, this relates to the Sharda’s article in E-Learn Magazine since he points out that digital storytelling is a very effective way to teach students, even those high tech engineering and IT students. He gives a method, call MOD that helps one to use e-learning to create a digital story. If others who are trying to teach about using a product, like the Blackberry, used an organized method to teach such as this, it would be a successful way to sell almost anything.
Relate the information to your process of teaching or creating a story with an outside group or individual:
Relate the information to the concept of Digital Storytelling contributing to groups and sharing:
I believe that using digital storytelling would help to teach an outside group and to share information is very applicable to the Blackberry Storm story. For example, if a company is thinking about buying a system of mobile phones for their employees, they need to be able to teach the benefits and features of the phone to all, very quickly. Not everyone reads the manual, and not everyone is computer literate. Using multiple modalities and “telling the story” of the phone would be a great way to teach its benefits and features. Having this type of service would be a way of selling the phone to the company since it is the best way to teach a large group the “how to’s” of using what could be considered a complex device. Therefore digital story telling has many applications in the world of group training in business, health care and in government, and has very wide applicability.
Relate the information to the concept of Digital Storytelling intentionally using lower and widely available technology to make the process more democratic:
As the range of articles I reviewed shows, digital storytelling can benefit young middle school children right up through those studying engineering and IT systems. There are not many modalities that have this type of range across different populations. This makes the process very democratic in that it reaches the masses of people. For example, even within one company if they are trying to bring in a new technology such as a new mobile phone system, they need to be able to teach it to every level of staff from the less skilled worker who may support the management team right up to the CEO of the company. Not everyone is a computer wizard and digital storytelling recognizes this fact. As I learned, digital storytelling is an effective teaching tool, since all of us are familiar with stories that we have heard since childhood and can relate to this type of teaching.
Relate the information to the concept that the Digital Storytelling process may help creators better “hear” the stories that people tell. And, how might this help the creators in future, more commercial projects such as news writing, interviewing, documentaries, and screenwriting?:
I think it is clear that innovation and creativity increase with digital storytelling. If those telling the stories can better tell their story using this format, others who respond to the story will better hear and understand what is being said. It allows for emotions and feeling to come through that are not always apparent in just print or regular film/video. It adds another dimension to the work that is being done. If the creators really understand this, they will use the concept of digital storytelling for more commercial projects in news writing, interviewing, documentaries and screenwriting. In fact, in Sharda’s article, he organizes the way digital storytelling should proceed in 5-step format using the MOD method. If this method is followed, digital story telling will be most useful for commercial projects, since it covers all aspects needed for effective teaching/learning.
Summarize your own views about the positive aspects of digital storytelling and ideas for future growth.
In my own area of interest, digital media, I think that I will always consider the method of digital storytelling in any setting that I work it. I have learned that it is effective for all ages and all levels of people. I expect that when I am working in a business setting that this will apply to many of the organizations that I encounter. The concept is familiar to all of us who have grown up hearing stories all of our lives.
I think there is great potential for future growth to this concept. As organizations such and the Center for Digital Storytelling, help to spread the concept and supply the tools to help, I think there will be very widespread use.
One other factor that is important is that our population of elderly is growing at a rapid pace. Also as technology becomes more sophisticated and as our population ages, this may be a way to reach the elderly who have not grown up in the computer age. I can see many areas where digital storytelling can be used to teach, sell, and train this elderly group.
Last, I think this type of learning can help children with disabilities to learn more effectively. It is another way to teach in addition to books, and brings some difficult concepts to grasp to life for them.
Works Cited
Center for Digital Storytelling. . 4 May 2010.
Davis, Allen. Co-authoring Identity: Digital storytelling in an Urban Middle School.
University of Colorado at Denver. 2006. 5 May 2010.
Sharda, Nalin.. “Using Digital Story Telling for Creative and Innovative e-
Learning.” E-Learn Magazine April 22, 2010. 6 May 2010.
