Summer storytelling

It's almost time for the big event!
http://irt.austincc.edu/ids/SumInstitute/si07/

I made this story to introduce the logo for the T-shirt...and the workshop.
http://irtstaff.austincc.edu/mmeacham/videos/conchshell.ram
RealPlayer is needed to stream it to your computer.

Just what is the essential nature of digital storytelling?

I love it when I get to discuss this type of question!
Digital storytelling is many things to many people.
Is it about social change, or empowering the marginalized, or giving voice to the voiceless?

The approach I am taking for teaching and learning is the one that Joe Lambert has expressed in his interview here:

http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/archives/2007/02/entry_2885.htm

The old public speaking method is to tell a personal anecdote to engage the audience in listening to your topic to glean understanding from your personal narrative and connect it to the topic.

In other words, the story provides a framework for what is to follow.
Teachers call it anticipatory set or even an advanced organizer.
Unfortunately these tools often are nothing more than an outline (ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).

Crafting a digital story to fit a lecture, for example, can help learners exercise thinking to build connections or metaphors or understand what your point -of -view is.

Digital storytelling (DS) can put the interest back into a lecture, if lecturing is where the comfort zone of faculty is (or the only option at large institutions).

Pedagogically it is about the scaffolding nature of learning; building on personal experience to bridge to new knowledge and skills.

If you can activate the background knowledge of your students and draw them into the new knowledge you want to present, you have "bridged" a gap in knowledge.
By grounding a topic with "realworld" experiences, it is easier to introduce abstractions and teach theories.

In a way, a good DS "respects" your audience- you assume they are capable of making connections and drawing conclusions...of course, as the author, you need to be sure you have crafted a piece that clearly communicates the intended message.

Even an audience of freshmen gets it whether a lecturer is interested in "espousing" and "telling" -uh-er- "lecturing" or creatively presenting a stimulating learning experience.

Crafting a story to illustrate a point lets your audience listen and "think deeply", as the Center for Digital Storytelling people would say.

DS is a teaching tool aimed at changing the way we look at presenting information to learners.

For 15 long years I have been trying to impart the 'new paradigm' of learning- constructivism- alternatives to lecture...alternatives to death by PowerPoint (PPT)....

I offend many, I am certain, when I suggest bringing a systematic approach to learning....that respects the listener and asks him or her to draw her own conclusions and make his or her own sense out of information.

I love that Joe Lambert calls Digital Storytelling- "PPT on steroids"....

It is not about the mechanism for delivering the information (PowerPoint or video) as much as it is about engaging the listener with a good story with a point-of-view that is not blatant "lecturing".

Most importantly DS CAN bring back "interest", motivation, warm and fuzzy "engagement" of the learner....

.....rather than the faculty thinking of students as empty vessels to be filled with knowledge, Digital Storytelling can engage the student in a creative, fun way of thinking with higher order cognition!

Lisa's personal framework in the Oveta Culp Hobby story gets a listener to thinking....."Yeah, maybe I can be a "Tall Texan", too!" Her point-of-view that is shared with the audience invites the listener to be bolstered by Oveta's story, too."

The emotional "open- wound" stories that we tend to make at first, also show students vulnerabilities of faculty and maybe can foster a more human connection in vast lecture halls.
Could DS bring back civility to campuses of higher learning?
Can DS help students see faculty as living, breathing, feeling humans?

Many faculty converse with students in "brochure" language (distant 3rd person authority) which really turns off studentslisteners.
Who wants lectures that sound like marketing ad campaigns?

Speaking from 1st person experience can transform the cultural climate of higher education... which we really need.

Large classes foster impersonal relationships----
Personal DS can help create communities of learners, even when large.

A story from the March Digital Story workshop in Austin

The links are old and have been removed so here is updated link to the Center for Digital Storytelling.
http://www.storycenter.org/stories/index.php?cat=3

Sense of Place

One of the prompts for my writing has been the sentiment generated from sense of place.
The Ukiah Project has caught my attention:
http://www.storymapping.org/projects.html

You will find some great examples of stories plus photos at the above link.

Speaking of writing about places...
A Land Full of Stories: A Conference & Celebration of Writing about Place and Personal History
>>June 7-9, 2007
Alkek Library, Southwestern Writers Collection
Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

Looking forward to this event in June in San Marcos.
See the cave photo of my neighbor, Ernie Garza.
Joy Kennedy's piece about caving and our friends is published in the anthology.

Digital Storytelling- the CDS Model

The Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley is helping to build communities through multimedia storytelling...

Stories that

• connect you with your audience
  
• pass on heritage and memories of family roots to future generations
  
• heal emotional wounds
  
• give voice to disenfranchised
  

The CDS model is effective in its brevity and clarity.
Stories can transform the teller and the listener.
It is a teaching tool that can provide metaphor for lessons and lectures.
The example below is my first attempt to convey my message in 2 mins with multimedia.


The story below I might use this in an anthropology or history as an advanced organizer.
Questions to ask before viewing:
What can you tell about the culture of the 1950's from watching this?
How is the music, food or lifestyle the same or different from your experiences growing up?
Do you have a family member who served in World War II?
What have you heard, seen or what do you already know about the 1950's?

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This was made after workshop on CDS process: