Digital Storytelling 2.0

Resources

Digital Storytelling 2.0 | Illinois Computing Educators

Digital Storytelling 2.0 | TechForum Chicago

In 2007 and beyond, being a learner means being connected, and it means understanding how to develop connections through online networks.  These connections, and the networks they reside within, form the basis of a personalized learning network that literally can make learning a 24/7 endeavor that involves co-learners and co-teachers from around the globe.  Central to this ability to learn online, to participate online, is the ability to craft messages that tell stories, and provide meaningful impact.  Schools need to prepare students for a lifetime of storytelling through various media so that students can have a voice, and a voice that is heard.

How the world mediascape is changing:

1.  It's participatory:  See John Edward's YouTube site where he asks Americans to post a movie to YouTube about America, and the direction the country needs to move toward.

2.  It's now the standard.  Who wants to work for an organization that advertizes this way?  See the Roanoke Times Ad

3.  It's about You as the media creator.  Everything you need to produce digital stories is now online, from the software to the images, and with the development of cell phones, everyone can have a storytelling tool in their hand.  The distribution of $100 laptops makes everyone who recieves one a potential storyteller (see pictures of Nigerian rollout of OLPC computers).  What stories will be told as a result of this project?

4.  It's pervasive.  From YouTube to TeacherTube to SchoolTube to whatever other network emerges, online video is everywhere and there is no end in site.  It's even become part of obituaries, see Art Buchwald Video Obituary from the NY Times.

What does this mean for digital storytelling?  Is there a different kind of digital storytelling on the horizon, a digitial storytelling 2.0 if you will?  The answer is yes and no.

What would digital storytelling 2.0 look like?  In my opinion, it features four areas:

New Media:  how can students take advantage of what others have created, and how can they contribute their own media to become collaborators?

Cell Flix Festival

Flickr Storm

Yotophoto

ccMixter

New Composition Strategies:

New Tools:  how can the new online tools be used to literally create an online design studio, capable of distributing content in multiple formats for multiple types of devices?

JumpCut

Toufee

Eyespot

Mogopop

Mojiti

StoryMapping.org

Community Walk

Wayfaring

Dandelife

Voicethread

New Networks:  how can networks be leveraged for distribution of student voice?

YouTube

uthTV

TeacherTube

SchoolTube

OurStory

New Messages:  how will you help students find the personal story in the content you teach?  How will you use this process to have students create truly meaningful messages, that enable students to tell a global audience, "Here is what I think?" 

An example of a digital story done right (non-literal use of visual images, utilizes Creative Commons Attribution imagery from Flickr accessed via Flickr Storm, length is appropriate, original music from a classmate, is personal, and based in her Hispanic heritage, and comments on an worthy topic, and is distributed world-wide on YouTube with moderated commenting).

A word of caution:

At the same time, it's important to not get caught up in what Joe Lambert of the Center for Digital Storytelling calls Digital Spectacle (see Gary Stager Blog post on Animoto).  True digital storytelling is grounded in the development of personal stories, and focuses on such fundamental literacies as:

1.  Writing

2.  Visual Literacy

3.  Project Management

4.  Technical/Computer Literacy

See Gary Stager's criticisms of digital storytelling here (from Wes Fryer's notes)