Digital Storytelling, a tool for Connecting
Why Create a Digital Story?
In short, because you can express your unique identity in a digital art product.
Digital stories let the creators express themselves through pictures and sounds, fostering a sense of individuality and of “owning” their creations. Viewer can gain a deep insight into the depth of the creator’s inner makings.
At the same time, digital stories give us an opportunity to experiment with self-representation—telling a story that highlights specific characteristics or events—a key part of establishing their identity, a process that for many is an important aspect of life.
DST can –
- be very engaging and entertaining
- be a great tool for teaching and learning
- have a great impact on people
- shape our culture and the way we think
- create intimacy and a deeper level of engagement
- express feelings and thoughts that we may not be able to verbalize
- but most importantly, it creates connection between people
Digital storytelling is the practice of combining narrative with digital content, including images, sound, and video, to create a short movie, typically with a strong emotional component.
“Telling weak stories with technology is like giving a bad guitar player a bigger amplifier. Writing is the primary tool used to plan and create a digital story. The saying “if it ain’t on the page then it ain’t on the stage” is just as true for digital storytelling as it is for theater and movies.” — Jason Ohler, a digital storytelling expert.
What is DST?
Digital storytelling is a multimedia approach to sharing a narrative. It can be autobiographical, but it doesn’t have to be. Creators can combine video, photography, sound, text, music and often a narrative voice to share their stories in a digital-media format. People can create digital stories in collaborative groups, taking on different roles such as the writer, director, editor and narrator.
Areas of Use
Different areas where DST is often used are Teaching, Learning, Community Awareness, Socialisation, Business, Marketing, Education, Libraries, Business, Self-awareness (psychology), etc.
Freedom
The process of creating a digital story forces storytellers to choose a topic that can be appropriately conveyed to a particular audience, with electronic elements, in the time available. This dynamic creates an opportunity to reflect on life and find deep connections with the subject matter of a course or with an out-of-class experience, such as a trip abroad.
Deeply Personal
The deeper impact comes from their thinking critically about effective combinations among audio and visual elements. Each story challenges the creator to cull—from personal collections or from other resources—artifacts that meaningfully support the story and to assemble them in a way that achieves the desired effect. In doing so, the creator develop a discerning eye for online resources, increasing their technology and media literacy.
Connection
Creating and watching digital stories has the potential to increase the information literacy among people. Moreover, digital stories have the power to connect creators and viewers on a deeper emotional level.
Digital storytelling has also seen use in the business sector. In this field, digital stories are used as tools of user-generated content, with consumers sharing opinions based on their own experiences of a product or service. In turn, these stories serve as a means of increasing engagement with the target audience (Barry, 2018).
Showcases
Projects such as Silence Speaks have allowed for the expansion of digital storytelling into the sectors of public health and social services. Digital stories from the Silence Speaks initiative shed light on the structural causes of gender oppression, violence, and poverty while demanding accountability and change at various levels of society (Silence Speaks, n.d.).
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom-based Patient Voices program also uses digital stories to share the experiences of patients and healthcare workers. These stories have contributed to a deeper understanding of patients’ experiences as well as the experiences of healthcare workers (Haigh & Hardy, 2011).
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Digital Storytelling, a Tool of Connecting.
Digital Storytelling Workshop
As a artist/writer myself, I teaches the fundamental importance of story telling which is telling our own stories and talking about issues that are meaningful to us and that we are passionate about.
What is the workshop about?
- Foremost, DST workshop supports participants to tell a story that is truly meaningful to them and they are passionate about.
- It gives tips on how to use technology with ease even for non-technical persons.
- It shows different approaches to digital storytelling for all age groups.
- It showcases innovative projects and provides examples of how to use Digital Storytelling in various sectors.
Some of the some of the benefits of DST are:
- Digital stories provide us with the opportunity to digest information in a meaningful way. Digital stories allow viewers to genuinely engage in the story’s message.
- Digital stories can teach us the value of emotional rhetoric, allowing us to explore new ways of acting or thinking differently. These stories can elicit emotional responses and encourage us to pursue topics that we are passionate about.
- We benefit not only from receiving information through digital stories but also from making digital stories that feature our experiences and learnings. The many aspects of creating a digital story improve our technical skills and hone research and writing skills as well.
What do you get out of the workshop?
The course supports participants to understand the wide use of DST, with particular attention to DST’s use for connecting. Participants are introduced to the elements of creative story writing and the digital tools that support the DST formation of these creative stories. As the result of the course, participants create their own DST.
Course participants are introduced to the elements of creative story writing and the various tools that are used during the formation of DST creative stories. As the result of the course, participants create their own DST of a pre-established topic.
Timing: 30 hrs
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the
THE IMPORTNACE OF CREATIVE OR CONVERGENT THINKING
In order to be able to create a compelling story with a strong message and powerful visuals, you need to think ‘out of the box’. Convergent thinking enables you to find your story and how to tell it in a personal and unique way.
