this one (wrong, wrong, right! creating an academic digital storytelling program that works) was ace, and looked at a program at ohio state. they started off by sharing a digital story that a lecturer had created - which was a great way of getting people hooked in to the power of the medium.
they've had a digital storytelling program in operation for a while, and the focus of the session was on 6 revisions they've made to make it more successful. the 6 elements are:
- development of a 3-day intensive workshop
- a scriptwriting pre-workshop activity
- shift from personal stories to academic-focussed [pretty much a move from academics making stories, to academic stories created by academic and non-academic staff]
- outreach to new 'unexpected' participants [including those staff who have completed the course helping their colleagues to develop skills]
- application process [interested staff have to submit their ideas and give an idea of what they hope to achieve
- screenings of completed stories a couple of weeks after the course had finished
you can look at additional resources and examples of the stories here.
a few things (possibly) worth highlighting from the session:
- students from multimedia courses help with hands on teaching of techniques
- during the workshop, they maintain a check list of tasks - tracking activities that individual have completed, and still need to complete
- the selectivity/application process helps participants focus on their reasons for applying - eg, what story would you like to share?
- they set a 400 word limit for the summary of the story - one key point of the course is how to use images, sounds, etc, to convey meaning rather than relying on text
- academics are using the resources for teaching and learning as well as dissemination of research
- after couple of weeks break to allow fine tuning of the stories they hold a screening to show the end products - and they usually get 50/60 people attending to find out more
they did (rather cruelly) make us think during the session, and asked us to talk about existing groups on-campus who might find digital stories a useful way of sharing information. i thought maybe something like the integrated e-learning course would be interesting - so to embed some similar techniques into an extended version of the course, and get participants to tell stories about the things that have inspired them (if that's not too strong a word) to revisit their curriculum and/or take the course in the first place.
any more for any more?
This sounds great - we've used storytelling as a thread through Shared Futures and as a way of framing action planning and stakeholder analysis: at the moment this is largely a physical process (lego, paper and lots of piepcleaners etc) but I like the idea of digital stories that can be altered and adapted over time - something to think about if we run it next year.
ReplyDeleteDoes this count as a digital Academic?
Brian the Brain Training Robot
I was very impressed with the two stories I saw, unless they chose to share just the best one! I think it could be a useful tool in the digital fluency initiative as it has the potential to address so many different aspects at once.
ReplyDeleteI have tried and failed to find a picture for this one.. perhaps I just didnt' try hard enough?
I liked the stories I saw on the site too. I thought the one about the joy of research was particularly good as it helped explain the lecturer's internal motivation and why research was so fascinating.
ReplyDeleteeli - (see also phishing)
ReplyDeleteoh! i just got the e-lie comment :) very good brian, 1 point for you!
ReplyDeleteglad you liked the stories - of course, they probably did choose the best ones to share, but can't fault them for that. i really liked the tone of them, and they're not so flashy or threatening that it'd put others off having a go.
abbi - the digital academic is quite scary but, then again, so are most things if you think about them too much. deux points!