Opposed to a traditional story, as often read on printed paper page-after-page, a digital story provides an expanded canvas, one that goes beyond the confines of leather book binding. For example, pay attention to this word: Alpaca. Notice the distinguishing underlined blue font? What would otherwise be a printing error on paper is actually a hyperlink (which means you can click on the word to be transported elsewhere, often providing further context). This feature is just one of many in an arsenal of digital tools able to foster reader engagement in ways previously unheard of – Pretty neat, huh?
As outlined by Center for Digital Storytelling, seven elements are integral to digital storytelling:
Video Summaries & Reflections
Below are some videos we were assigned to watch. If you’d like to view them yourself, go ahead as they are embedded onto this post – but if not, I’ll be offering a brief summary and reflection of each. This is my first time exploring many of these concepts, so I hope you find this educational as well!
Summary
This first video focuses on introducing “digital storytelling” in a straightforward way. For those still left scratching their heads saying, “well great, but what is a digital story?” – digital storytelling can be best viewed as a way of combining various forms of mixed media together to create a short, engaging, and heartfelt narrative. In this video the narrator also discusses the seven key elements of a digital story (see above) and offers further explanation and examples of what creates a compelling digital story.
Reflection
I personally found this video to be a useful jumping off point to better understand digital storytelling. From past experience I could conceptulize it fairly well, but learning about some of the more technical factors behind the scenes of telling a digital story was beneficial. I think I’ll be able to hopefully incorporate some of these methods in my own work for this class and beyond.
Summary
This Tedx Talk by Emily Bailin serves as an introspective look into how she, and her students, explore the question “where are you from?” Everyone has different answers, responses as magnified as street names contrast with one-liners of a state, country, or region. However, she invites the audience to explore the concept of where one “is from” more than just geographically on a map. Combining written/spoken word, pictures, video, music and more can help paint a more complete picture that if one feels vulnerable enough to share, may lead to further progress in understanding ourselves and others.
Reflection
You can probably tell from my summary of this video above that I’ve definitely been put in a more introspective mood after absorbing Emily’s talk. To be blunt, at first I thought it was cringe, but she grew on me as time went on. It’s an 18-minute-long video, but I recommend watching it yourself honestly. I value her take on storytelling and forming connections with others. This was definitely a very personal video and has inspired me to hopefully be more thoughtful in my future digital storytelling endeavors.
Summary
In this Tedx Talk, Jim Jorstad gives a thoughtful, engaging presentation on the power of digital storytelling and its use in helping us feel more connected to one another in a world where we are more distant than we realize. He recaps some of the stories he’s told about the people he’s encountered over his life – It’s fascinating stuff. All in all, it’s important to remember we each have a story to tell and we should take the time to listen to other people’s stories too.
Reflection
Wow, this was an incredible Tedx Talk by Jim Jorstad. This is hands down my new favorite. I truly don’t have much to say other than that was tremendously inspirational to me. I haven’t felt that fired up in a while. I’m glad to have heard his story about how to help tell other folks’ stories! I aspire to do something like this in the realm of filmmaking/photography one day.
Summary
This bite-sized video about the process of telling digital stories is a digestible way to learn how to link digital storytelling and community. They recommend honing in on a specific topic, conducting solid research, focusing on outreach, refining the story through post-production, and sharing the story with the world in an accessible way!
Reflection
I found this short video to be a useful way to recap some of the key elements in digital storytelling in a timely manner. I will keep the link to this close by as I feel it’ll come in handy later!
From what we’ve seen today, it’s clear that digital storytelling is a unique medium that is a promising way to better connect to others in a world where disconnection often seems to be the status quo. My digital storytelling skills aren’t the best, but I hope to learn and grow as time goes on! Every journey begins with a blog post! (or was it a step?)
-Blake 🙂
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