Are Bloggers Storytellers for the 21st Century? (Techlearning blog)

This is a turn around. Usually my head turns when a newspaper article has the word blog in it. But today while reading my Sunday newspaper, I even read it on Sunday, my eye caught the title, “Storytelling evolves to reflect its era.”
The editor Jeannine Guttman wrote an exquisite column about storytelling. I have read it 3 times already and each time I thought of a new connection. When I first read it, I heard a voice inside me saying I needed to blog about this column. But, why?

Storytelling is what David Warlick often talks about in his workshops, chats, blogs, podcasts and videocasts. I never tire of David's comments about storytelling and each time I read or listen to him discussing storytelling with others I learn something new and make new connections. Another blogger, Wes Fryer, is always pulling the topic of storytelling into his conversations. I always learn a lot after listening or reading Wes.
This column by Guttman struck a cord with me. I love her prose, I would call it prose, since each time I read it I could hear her voice, “ The craft ( of storytelling) can be viewed as a cultural barometer; constantly moving and adjusting to shifts in language, mores and communication styles.”
It started me thinking about why I am blogging? I've only been blogging for the past 18 months, I work full time in public education, I have a regular job working with teachers and students, do I have a story to tell?

Guttman's column was a reflection about a story all Maine 4th graders read Lost on a Mountain in Maine, by Donn Fendler. Nearly 70 years ago, Donn was lost on Mt. Kathadin, where he spent 8 days wandering the wilderness.(Donn Fendler came to our school a couple years ago to talk to our 3rd graders about his adventure. He captivated 100 students and teachers with his recollection of his 8 days. You can hear a podcast in two parts from Bob Sprankle from September 2005.) )The recollection happened for Guttman and her colleagues at the same time a young Boy Scout of 12 years was rescued from the North Carolina mountains. All of us can make a connection to being lost whether it be a parking lot, lost in a story, lost in a problem, we can all relate.
Guttman goes on to say, “ Although the manner in which stories are told changes over time, the value of storytelling is timeless. Through this art form, we learn about ourselves and others, navigating our way through the world.”
While I was reading and re-reading this wonderful column I was trying to decide how journalism is connected to blogging. A journalist writes to capture a moment in time. A blogger writes to start a conversation. I am taking great liberty in comparing myself to a journalist when I say this, I write in my blogs because I want to carry on a conversation about a topic of interest. My blogs are invitations to join in the discussion or to have the discussion with peers, or continue the discussion in the comments.

Guttman's final statement, “In that way, storytelling keeps us all from feeling alone and lost, abandoned in the wilderness.” Cheryl says, in a similar way blogging allows us connections we never thought possible and conversations which are waiting to be continued.

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Cheryl: You are not stretching things much at all to compare yourself to a "professional" journalist. You are a citizen journalist, just like all the other bloggers out there! What you choose to document and write about is thematically unique, and different from the "pro" journalists, but I think you are a journalist none-the-less.

I also think that bloggers are digital storytellers. It's interesting when a website presents an "about you" field to complete. For some time, I've included the title "digital storyteller" in those self-descriptions. I see myself as a digital storyteller not just because I make occasional videos and fairly regular podcasts, but also because I blog. I think blogging is digital storytelling.

I continue to be struck by how important storytelling is. This came through in Roger Schank's keynote Monday at SITE. Either in the keynote or afterward in the conversation he talked about temporal learning: learning over time. We naturally do that, and this is why stories have greater impact and "stickiness" for our own learning.

Thanks for the post. You're on to something for sure. I think all bloggers are storytellers!

Posted by: Wesley Fryer | March 30, 2007 6:09 AM

Thanks Wes for the endorsement. I am reading Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind and the part of the book that relates to digital storytelling is when we are trying to "retrieve an isolated fact, compared to the ease of remembering a story", we remember the stories! So for educators, keep telling stories, and I say keep blogging stories where the reader has an opportunity to interact by blogging a comment.

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