Wellbeing, inclusion & diversity
Teacher resources & training
Digital Storytelling Impact
Testimonials and Purpose
impact of digital storytelling on storyteller and spectator
What is the impact of digital storytelling for the storyteller and the spectator?
So this sort of…
…impact on the storyteller – I guess it gives you an opportunity to create a story that is a lot more personal than you might be happy to, and it creates a place that you can be vulnerable. I think a lot more easily, doesn’t it?
I’m thinking the audience is being used in two contexts. One is the audience that helps you participate in the formulation of it. And then there’s the…
…post project audience that is only going to witness the end product.
Yeah, I think both are kind of equally important because they’ll still kind of give you some sort of feedback.
Whether it’s the finalised version or not, because I think part of the storytelling process isn’t necessarily the final product that you are able to produce, but more so…
The journey it takes and the messages you learn and the social implications too.
And I guess to me it’s been…
…a lot of the time of just….
…reassurance that I’m getting on the right track, that I know what I’m doing and other people being like I never thought of doing it this way. It gives you a lot more ideas…
…working collaboratively together. And at the end of the whole piece the final…
…audience, gets to see it, because you create it for…
…a certain type of…
…audience that you had in mind.
You’ve created something that creates a sort of a community…
…aspect to it, and you’ve got something that links you all together. If you were doing your topic on mental health, it’s at least something to say you’re not alone…
Someone’s been through this as well, or if it’s like environmental issues, it’s as if to say like I see you. I see what’s happening now with the environment and…
…I’m there to…
…show you that I know what I’m doing.
And with that, that story becomes a part of their story in their future and their development.
I can easily say that this this project is massively collective and it brings in this whole creative argument that’s happening right now. How important is the role of the audience or the spectator?
I think here it’s very, very clear that they’re pivotal to not only the reception of things, but also…
…I guess they have a proactive role in this sense too. You’re actively aware of who needs to be there.
And also you don’t want to have triggering material. You’ve got to be really careful with what you put out there because you don’t want to make anybody upset.
But at the same time you…
…do want some sort of emotional response.
I completely agree with you.
When we went through our process, at the beginning I had a not as good of an ending, and then I heard one of our classmates say I really like a happy endings. I thought, actually…
…maybe I could do a happy ending on this, and I thought, I’m going to add this in and then my piece did end up taking on a more of a comedic effect. But it’s taking on that feedback and realising it can make your piece a whole lot better than it was.
Yeah, I agree.
And you have…
…to be open to this and that’s the biggest part….
…being open to that input and…
…structuring it to your best efforts.
Absolutely.
purpose and importance of digital storytelling
What is the purpose and importance of digital storytelling within education?
Well, for me, digital storytelling creates connections, and it creates empathy between people. You gain an understanding because you get a different perspective to something that you might recognise, but is so inherently personal to that person that it’s still shows you a very different…
…perspective of it.
I’d agree with that and I think it also creates an almost relatable atmosphere. You’re putting something out there that is very vulnerable, but in that you’re allowing an audience to connect to you and maybe even relate to you. So it’s almost a comforting experience and can be cathartic at the same time.
Because you’re expressing something about yourself that might not have been put out there before, which is a vulnerable experience, but also letting other people in on that experience with you.
Yeah, I think also it allows the audience to…
…sort of empathise with the…
…concept that you’re trying….
…to say through your story.
It will allow them to kind of see what’s…
…happening through your eyes and understand.
OK, yeah, if I was in that same position, these would be my emotions, I now know why they’re responding the way they are.
And I think for educational purposes as well, like…
…for me, I switch off when I read a lot, so having a visual aid there…
I think…
It does allow you to educate a little bit better, because it lets you see their story as well as hearing it at the same time.
And added to that, the personal aspect helps in that as well. So you get numbers of how many times something has happened in history.
But actually getting a family story and how it was to live through something…
…like that..
…has a way bigger…
…impact and emotional tone to that.
It’s more of a lasting effect.
And it also gives you like a more interactive sort of thing. So instead of just having to either just read or just listen to facts and numbers and statistics like you said, it would allow me to kind of see and…
…associate both of them together and…
…see the intersection.
And do you think it almost goes beyond words because you’re using images and videos? It almost doesn’t need the audio there.
You can see what the story is just through the pictures that are used. It goes a lot further than the words, so it almost creates that universal language, so it doesn’t really matter…
…what community and country you come from.
You should be…
…able to look at the digital story and know what story is being expressed.
I think we should encourage breaking the rules…
…breaking the formulas that we’ve set up because there are so many people out there and everybody tells their story in a slightly different way so you can tell a story without words and use only images. Or you can use a story using only words.
I think we are still looking for ways to implement digital storytelling in a way to include as many people as possible.
Yeah, it takes away that…
…sort of…
…edge of like having to sit or stand in front a big crowd and then just read out a speech or something.
It gives you…
…an extra chance to kind of express…
…yourself through your your own way.
And giving them a better understanding rather than just your words and which might not work out that well, especially if you have…
…anxiety or something.
It’s a very unique experience, but an experience that should be exposed more in my opinion to society as a way of education.
digital storytelling as a tool for learning a language
Hello, my name is Andrea.
I’m from Spain and I’m going to be talking about using digital storytelling as a tool for second language learning.
Digital storytelling is a really fun tool that teachers can use to encourage second language learning. We added it to our curriculum in our school in Spain…
…and have seen a huge interest from students. It gets them to think outside of the box and also use language in a fun, approachable way, focusing less on…
…grammer and structure and more on the creative aspects of learning.
It also gives power to the students, a voice to them, and to allow their personal stories to shine through. Or to use their creativity as they want, to create a story.
They use writing skills, speaking skills…
And listening skills, especially when you do a story circle beforehand.
All in all it is a well-rounded activity for students to learn a second language.
In our case, it’s English while also having fun, and most importantly sparking their creativity, empathy and other topics that teachers want to explore with their students.
delivering a digital storytelling workshop
In the era of technology, you might think that it will be easy to run a DS workshop with students.
Yet when it comes to revealing feelings, emotions, sharing stories effectively, it may turn into a challenge.
I can tell you based on my experience of running DS workshop with high school students.
The challenges you may face, as I did, could be making the difference between shooting a video and creating a video that tells a…
…Personal story, convincing them that they all have a good story to share, fostering the creativity they all have within themselves. And writing a script for their story.
At this point, what I recommend is…
Trying to make them believe that we all have stories to share that reveal emotions, feelings and even life lessons by showing them some examples of DS.
Try to communicate with them sincerely so that they feel free and easy.
And ensure everyone respects the others. So, focus on the importance of respect in everyone’s life.
At first you may face some challenges in this process…
…Yet when you follow the right path…
…You will make it happen, thank you.
Tips on how to organise a workshop
When we come to the question of how to organise training and how to involve our students in activities, the most important thing is not to think from our perspective. How do we like it? But we really need to think from their perspective.
How would they like to have it? What is motivating them and how could it be organised, not reflecting on us but reflecting on them.
This is the most important thing if we really want to open their hearts. If we really want to understand feelings. If we really want to share things and…
At the end, to think how we may help to handle that.
So my proposal from my experience, what we did in our schools is not to think about the formal classroom, but to think maybe about other activities like extra activities and informal environments. For example, let’s organise the three days camp.
And during that camp, let’s start from the very beginning from the closed cycle, where we share, we will try to create that safe environment. Then just from that part, that starting point we can start to create the story.
And to do something with that story and the biggest benefit of that is it’s not only telling the story, it comes with a solution.
The experience of hearing that story while sharing things with others, and at the same time reflecting together; we come to some solutions and they open, not our hearts, but all hearts.
So this is one. Another thing could be, maybe, the cycle. Let’s say every technology or English class once a week is replaced by an activity outside.
This is building the same cycle as we would do in a fast track debator during the camp.
It could be even a longer camp. It could be even an acceleration programme or whatever, just name it. But my advice and my experience proves that just being outside of the classroom, being in the environment they like…
…And by stepping into their shoes and into various styles of living, we can really create that strong relationship and safe environment together.
Testimonial: Applying DS to overcome exclusion
OK, good morning everyone. I’m Danielle. I’m a teacher in a secondary school and I want to speak about a post pandemic hearing methodology. School is facing a very serious problem in learning among students since they are showing…
…More and more lack of interest and motivation and enthusiasm. Surveys at a low global and local level give evidence of student’s difficulties in enjoying experiences, even learning ones.
And so we know. Learning is an extremely complex human process. Students learn by experience with a particularly memorable impact, stimulating, and a moment of realisation or insight and authentic, interactive and collaborative experience enhancing engagement.
The teacher gets to be a personal coach and trainer of enthusiasm for experiences or growth for a deeper involvement for improving students emotional skills.
So we are asking, is digital storytelling able?
To do this?
This methodology can be used for classes with different economic, social, cultural backgrounds and a level of English.
Students with a degree of emotion, motivation, interest and psychological and social diseases and teachers with no specialised skills on video editing can make an imaginary journey…
…through images, sounds, sense impressions, to recover the importance of relationships with oneself, nature…
…others, in order to get on with life and literature appreciation.
Students can be followed in their social emotional learning path from a mindful and healing atmosphere through emotional laboratories.
And to a full immersion approach for the language of impressions and sensations through deep symbolic exploration of the affective and embodied aspects of experiences.
Parents can be involved even in the same approach of study and the same action research, qualitative and quantitative data can be collected to test the beginning of the research and finally, the conclusion, the results.
As parents even stressed…
…students can be monitored, tested and analysed in their improvement of over-coming…
…the isolation due to the pandemic and the compulsory need to stay alone and detached from experiences.
The results mean you can make students stay and learn and study together in pair work, in small groups, in teams, and they can learn how to work together, but also…
…individually and to learn how to read and decode the world surrounding us. So the results give us the possibility to understand that digital storytelling can give…
…the opportunity to read the world and to reown, to get a better appreciation of experiences in school and out of school and to recover to be rehabilitated in their way of appreciating…
…literature and learning and life too.
