Now, listen. I am too old to be pulling all nighters like this! The past two nights I have stayed up past three a.m. to work on my digital story. Hold on; don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t up late because of problems or disdain for the project. I was having a great time. I just couldn’t stop working. My whole family thought the process was pretty cool; my daughters are ready to try out digital stories in their next free choice project. They want me to come do a workshop for their teachers. Imagine that!
It immediately became clear how digital storytelling could be used easily, across the curriculum in our schools. Not only is it a great use of technology, but the students are using some serious problem solving skills to put the story together. A large amount of reflection goes into the work, as well as writing, editing, sequencing, focusing, clarifying, and decision making.
This is not to say I didn’t experience some difficulties – one can really get bogged down with getting the timing, music, and narration down just right. And don’t forget seeking out the perfect picture or image through thousands of personal photos and millions of online possibilities! Thankfully, I followed instructions (a miracle in itself, wrote the script, and followed up with a storyboard. Otherwise, I’m sure I would have been way out of control.
Let me back up a moment. The hardest and most time-consuming part for me was coming up with an idea. I thought we were supposed to do a traditional “meet the student” type show. I hate those. I was dreading it. But after watching some of the samples at storycenter.org, I decided to allow myself to do my usual more creative take on a topic. That sometimes gets me in trouble, but luckily Dr. Abernathy is usually pretty accepting of our viewpoints. I’ve always felt that she believes if we feel good about what we are putting together, then we are on the right track.
I decided to “show” myself by telling a story about an experience I had at a recent workshop. I discuss sharing, and how it isn’t always easy to reveal yourself without feeling that privacy is invaded. It’s about being able to deeply explore in ways that are different than constant verbal barrage. I want to give a viewpoint that explains that just because someone doesn’t share in a “chat-mode” way, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to share experiences. We just do it in a quiet, introspective, sense-driven way. Go see my story; it does a much better job of explaining it!
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