Reading and Discussion #14

A quote from the reading:

"The ability to render one's world as changeable and oneself as an agent able to direct that change is integrally linked to acts of self-representation through writing, as Freire taught us long ago, and through other semiotic systems."

This quote adds to the credibility of digital storytelling.  It equates the process with the power of the written word and puts one in mind of the origins of storytelling itself.  It also shows why more people need to tell stories.  In the past, most publicly circulated stories were created by those who had the money or influence to publish them.  So only society's most powerful could self-represent.  The dominant message was skewed in their favor. Now with digital technology, anyone can self-represent. If enough people do this skillfully, the so-called dominant message will become less dominant, giving balance to public narratives.  (Imagine if history could have been written with many more personal stories... Imagine if every American slave had had an equal chance to tell his tale along side of his oppressor... How might we have come to view U.S. history?)

Discussion questions:

1. How does digital storytelling support academic literacies?

Digital storytelling challenges students to view their lives an their worlds in the form of a meaningful narrative. It is not unlike what we do when we write. We remember, we research, and we synthesize it all into something that makes sense to us, and to our audience.

2. Now that you have created your own digital story, do you think that using images, words and music to create a message is simplistic compared to traditional alphabetic print based argumentation?

Not at all. As a theatre teacher and a storyteller myself, I was never in danger of finding the use of images, words, and music simplistic.  The great thing about factual images is that they can say things, important things, that you may not have intended to say. Family images often illustrate time period, and representations of relationships and personality that the composers of the script overlook.  Look at a documentary by the award-winning director Ken Burns.  All he does is provide narration and music to some carefully chosen historical still imagery.  And it's amazing.

3. After creating your own digital story, do you see how digital storytelling can help develop a stronger sense of agency in their own lives? Do you think this might have a positive impact on students academic lives? How? Why?

I do.  This can give students a strong sense of purpose when representing oneself and life story to a critical audience.  Often students fail to feel that sense of purpose about writing because they believe it will be read by an audience of one teacher.  Digital story telling has no limit to the size of the audience.