The Opportunity of Voice
As many of you know, I am a big supporter of digital storytelling and, along with Joe Brennan and Jon Orech, I'll be participating in a Digital Storytelling 2.0 panel discussion at TechForum Chicago.
I continually have discussions about digital storytelling, and its direction and purpose in education, with my friend Matt Formato, who has taught English for too many years. We’ll be starting a digital storytelling project next Monday, and we’ve been brainstorming ideas about the new direction of storytelling, and the new direction of individual voice.
Yesterday he showed me a resource he had seen at PBS entitled America at a Crossroads, which includes a component called “Stories and reflections written by American troops.” Now, I have no intent on making this a political post, but what I found particularly interesting is that there are nine pieces of writing on the site from soldiers explaining a variety of war-related themes, which you can read (careful, some of it is descriptive-these are found on the right side of the page).
Normally, it would stop with just the writing. But it doesn’t, and it shouldn’t. Not in 2007.
Each soldier’s story, has been converted into a digital story. Not only that, but there is a video diary component, where others can upload their own movies.
The individual as content creator.
Consider Karl Fisch’s Did You Know?/Shift Happens original PowerPoint piece-now converted into a variety of formats. It’s been viewed over two million times- most recently at the National School Board Association meeting in San Francisco. Can you imagine producing a product like that?
My question: is there a fundamental shift underway in how people communicate? If you want to make an impact, do you write about it, or do you make a video about it? Would Did You Know have been read over 2 million times if it were in blog format? How do you reach people, with the most compelling message? I’ll chose the digital story.
Maybe I’m wrong. They certainly both have a place. And maybe video has always had the potential to make a larger impact…but the ability to create video and distribute video has never been so easy, so available to everyone.
YouTube, Google Video, Revver, Eyespot, JumpCut…the list goes on and on. And now TeacherTube.
Now with the deployment of laptops to kids in Nigeria, and with the online capability to create and distribute messages right in the browser, absolutely anything is possible. What stories will those kids create? And how many will see them? How will that ability change how the world views them and how they view the world?
The medium is the message, isn’t it?
So today, it’s about writing, extending that writing with visual content, and then distributing that visual message. It’s about using technology as an amplifier. It’s about teaching kids that what they have to say is important, and how they say it-how they create it- can have tremendous impact. It’s about helping kids find their voice, and as David Warlick has said, a competitive voice.
It’s about avoiding hits to the refrigerator.
I’ve got all of this swirling in my head, trying to makes sense of it, and how I think we’re at a turning point in how we communicate, and I worry about the kids in the U.S. not learning how do that, not having the opportunity in our schools. Some would say that they can and should learn it on their own, but that diminishes the true power of educators to get the very best out of kids.
However, I worry about teachers not being interested, and I worry about administrators focusing on AYP and NCLB.
I worry most about opportunity lost, and about the stories that will never be told.
Comments
Some teachers are interested! A few years ago I made a digital story for eMINTS with the help of Bernajean Porter- one of the most powerful experiences of my life! I have since created other stories for various personal and professional reasons. I am a great believer in the creative energy and self-expression of digital stories, but have yet to perfect the implementation with my students on a large scale. I have had a few students try, but pc software issues plagued my first attempts, and I have just one lonely Mac Notebook for my kids to share. I won't stop trying though, because I think that even my 9 year old students have powerful stories to tell! Just wanted you to know that there are some of us teachers out there that DO know the power of digital stories. I will look forward to future conversations on this topic!
Posted by: vejraska | April 20, 2007 3:21 AM
Yes, some are, and it sounds like you will eventually be successful. I'm well aware that there are teachers interested in doing things differently, including using digital stories-I work with many every day, so there is hope. I'm just worried that with the pressures of our current educational climate will ultimately impact those who chose to make a difference in a most important way.
Good luck with your storytelling.
Posted by: David Jakes | April 20, 2007 4:00 AM
David - once again you and Joe are bringing such urgent messages to our tech and teacher friends about storytelling. Like you I am committed to helping teachers tell their own stories of how they have made a difference - flood the media with the multitude of ways we DO touch kids' lives. And through those personal experiences, teachers like vejraska are inspired to find ways for their own kids to express themselves. I believe teachers' who use digital storytelling will put more light into understanding the power of teachers, students and communities learning together.
While my website (www.DigiTales.us) provides many storytelling resources including a skills chart of how digital storytelling develops 21st century learning, NETS*S and of course content learning, it is the spirit of an individual's story that holds power to heal, learn, and connect with others. Two GREAT books - A Whole New Mind by Pink (narrates a compelling understanding of how six essential R-directed thinking senses are now needed for economic viability-- one of the six is the art of story) and Kessler's book The Soul of Education (discusses the necessity and positive results when schools intentionally nourish the inner life of students. Letting students feel real and accepted is a first step for them to actually participate in schools. The inner life of students is something NCLB and other high stakes drivers seem to over look in the current pressures you mention) - STORY is not a soft language arts skill - it is what makes meaning of data, experiences, and life events. At the end of the day . . . the stories we tell ourselves about the world, our community, family and what we know and understand speaks our truth of who we are as a people. Digital storytelling has a power behind the work that is as old as human beings and as important. I look forward to teachers tapping into this power even more in the near future. Thank you for your ongoing personal work and passion in our digital storytelling efforts to serve kids of all ages in the highest ways.
Posted by: Bernajean Porter | April 24, 2007 6:20 PM
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