The art and power of creating digital stories: Faculty examples and insights
Digital storytelling creatively combines words, images, music to artfully tell a personal story. Jim Winship, Professional Storyteller and Professor of Social Work, explains that through digital storytelling, "We make meaning out of the scraps and pieces of our lives."
Digital stories can be developed by faculty and students to illustrate an important concept or idea and can be instructional, persuasive, historical, or reflective. Winship explains, "In our stories, from the stuff of our experiences and backgrounds, each story shared is as personal and unique as one's own DNA, the words and images and sounds coming together –and on finishing, "I claim this story as a part of who I am."
Professor Winship and the Learning Technology Center offered a digital storytelling working in April 2009 and will offer a second workshop in May 2010. Ten faculty members attended this spring workshop. The following is some of their insights followed by their digital stories.
Participant Insights
"I got intellectually re-energized, more aware of the 'heart' at the center of education, more passionate about telling my stories."
- Marjorie Rhine, Associate Professor, Languages and Literature
"The camaraderie of the participants was very moving and so were the emotional content of the stories shared."
- Max White, Associate Professor, Art
"I am changed as a result of the power, wisdom, and generosity of spirit shared by Jim Winship. He shared himself, and as a result, each participant was encouraged to share themselves as well."
- David Reinhart, Lecturer, Philosophy and Religious Studies
Winship concluded, "It is part of the magic and joy and power of stories, that as we watch another's story, we sense the connection to our own life, our own experience of the world, and perhaps even what it means to be human."
Why tell a digital story? By Juk Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor, Geography & Geology
Other Examples of Digital Storytelling
Here are some other sites and universities that have examples of Digital Stories.
