MOOC Talk 6 was delivered by Bryan Alexander and Nicola Marie Allain. Bryan Alexander is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Technology and Liberal Education. He researches, writes and speaks of emerging trends in the integration of inquiry, pedagogy and technology. In 2012, he was the keynote speaker at the conference of instructional at SUNY IT. His current researchinterests includes but is not limited to emerging pedagogical forms enabled by mobile technology, learning processes and outcomes associated with gaming and augmented reality, the rise of digital humanities, digital storytelling and futurist methodologies. Bryan published the book, The New Digital Storytelling-Creating a Narrative with New Media.
Bryan's presentation began with a look at a quote by Mark Weiser, a late computer scientist based on Architectures: Ubiquitous Computing, which states, "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." In this modern day and age there exists a multiplicity of technological tools and equipment that come together to form a platform for storytelling. Most stories from time immemorial follow Gustav Freitag's model on storytelling which follows the pattern- Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action and Denouement. Storytelling could take a personal form, which could be about someone important, an important event, about what one does, and even criticizing the characters involved. Joseph Campbell looks at storytelling as a form of personal art or kind of personal experience as seen in "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," which is based on the phases a hero goes through. A problem ensues, the hero is called upon and this is described as call to action and then the hero saves the day amid some difficulties usually to give the story an interesting twist, or what is referred to as a sting in the tale.
Storytelling could also be based on mystery, which is not obvious and involved a component which is obscure and hidden. A good example can be drawn from Frederic Brown's "Knock" (1948). The first and second lines read:
"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door."
The element of mystery is what makes a reader continue reading the following lines in the story as well as the writer's twists and turns. This is what sparks reader or viewer interest depending on the kind of presentation used. Bryan Alexander's definition of storytelling states, "For a given audience, a story is a sequence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages the audience with emotion and meaning." Stories involve some for of difficulties or problems that must be solved by the end to give a meaningful ending to the followers. In the early 1990's digital storytelling was done in the form of Web 1.0, Hypertext, and Multimedia. It was browser-focused, connected with offline and analog content including textbooks and it was like a fad, short trend. By the late 1990's the Center for Digital Storytelling was founded in Berkeley. A curriculum was created and a three-day event was organized, where any individual had the opportunity to create a three-minute video on digital storytelling and in had a personal twist to it as it was based on personal stories. The pedagogy which came up through this event exists today and has inspired movements worldwide in countries like the United States, Britain, Italy and Australia to mention a few. Digital storytelling has enhanced the growth of educational project through platforms such as building critical facilities with technology and very effective brainstorming exercises within an area of study; this is how it has positively impacted the lives of students. This process has helped students discover their voice and identities as storytellers.
Social media and blogs are channels for storytelling and through creative writing and through Wiki a collaborative authored novel was created involving millions of writers. Documents have also been converted into narratives to fit into the storytelling framework. The comments that come at the end of articles and blog posts even tell a story. Podcasts are also a creative way to tell stories and engage listeners. Stories can also be told through picture-sharing websites or online communities like Flickr. Photos are arranged in a particular sequence to tell a story; remixing-taking other people's photos- can be used to tell stories. Gaming is also a means of telling a story so the better the story the more attractive the game becomes. In response to how authors can keep readers interested, there are three ways: make them [readers] worry, weep and wait; that way all of their attention is fully captured. Augmented reality helps put digital ideas to tell stories in the real world and good example of that is Yelp. Geocaching, and choosing your own form of adventure help to collaboratively tell stories.
Nicola Marae Allain is a Faculty Mentor and Area Coordinator for Digital Media for the Center for Distance Learning, a Core Faculty Member of the Master of Arts and Learning of Emerging Technology program in the School of Graduate Studies at Empire State College. She teaches Digital Storytelling and is the Area Coordinator for Media Art courses in the undergraduate program and Advanced Design and Research courses in the graduate program. Her recent scholarship articles are on Digital Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship. Her presentation was based on Digital Storytelling as a form of Metaliteracy. Digital Storytelling is taught through the Digital Media program by the Center for Distance Learning at the Empire State College. It is taught online in multiple sections, five terms every academic year. International programs also offer Digital Storytelling. All the faculties involved in the program collaborate to make it better every term. The Digital Story telling framework used at Empire State College involves creating media-text, audio, images and videos, having a storyline- writing, storyboarding, scripting and lastly projecting- involves importing, editing and exporting media. The faculty areas of expertise include but not limited to Digital Media Arts, Storytelling, Journalism, Public History, Global Studies, Political Science, Communication Design, Information Science, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Film-making and Photographic Arts. There's a global component to Digital Storytelling and that revolves around international, collaborative, inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. International Digital Storytelling was created by Dr. Sheila Aird, who focuses on Global Studies and Public History and Dr. Himanee Gupta-Carlson, whose areas of expertise are Political Science and Journalism. It is facilitated by the SUNY Center for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Students collaborate with their counterparts from all over the globe to share ideas and material based on storytelling.
In creating Metaliterate Learners, learning and activities under the Digital Story course require students to fully partake in the processes, knowledge building and skills creation that contribute to metaliterate learning. Digital Storytelling contributes to the Metaliteracy framework hence there is a difference between the two. Students are required to evaluate, understand, share, determine and access information related to the subject and understand the research process.Students find and share stories, analyze, reconstruct and deconstruct and peer review each other's stories and this has added to the high development of Information Literacy, Cyber Literacy, Critical Literacy skills and lastly the abilities to research, review, author, collaborate, participate, contribute, produce, publish, reflect and communicate. The literacies covered in the course include Digital Media Literacy, Media Literacy, Visual Literacy, Computer Literacy, Cyberliteracy, Information Fluency and Critical Literacy. In combining the knowledge, skills and literacies the pathways for student metaliterate learners is created. The pathways include Story Worlds- Wordle Story, Wordless Stories then creating Story Worlds; Story Types include Weaving Narrative, Sound, Images, Personal, Professional, Historical, Fictional. Under the Analysis, Evaluation and Reflection category there is research through field trips, peer review and metacognitive reflection. The inspiration behind digital stories, their importance, intended audience, emotions sparked, the creative process, technical considerations, hindrances, highlights of the writing experience are all essential to the development of future digital stories.
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