 Digital storytelling can be immersive To browse other articles on a range of HSL topics, see the wiki index.
Introduction
- digital story (dig·i·tal sto·ry)
- A short, first person video-narrative created by combining recorded voice, still and moving images, and music or other sounds.
- digital storyteller (dig·i·tal sto·ry·tell·er)
- A digital storyteller documents life experience, ideas, or feelings through the use of story and digital media. Digital storytellers generally have little prior experience in video production but attend workshops to develop their own stories with support and assistance from experienced facilitators.
Introduction 
See also Mindfulness in medicine, Screencasting and Web 2.0
Digital storytelling, like traditional storytelling, is used to pass down knowledge, skills and values to others. Similar to oral history traditions, digital storytelling captures and preserves individual and collective experiences, opinions and stories. Similar to other narratives, digital stories take on many shapes and forms. Digital storytelling typically uses widely-accessible technology to create and preserve knowledge; for example, recording stories using videos (vodcasts), recording voice (podcasts), images and music. It may also be viewed as a tool to pass down information to families, friends, community members and posted on Youtube, Facebook or websites to reach wider audiences. Social activists have used stories for a wide range of purposes (e.g. fund raising, education and awareness). Private companies use stories as a way to advertise and reach out to potential consumers.
British photographer, educator and digital storyteller, Daniel Meadows defines digital stories as "short, personal multimedia tales told from the heart." He maintains that the beauty of this form of digital expression is that these stories can be created by people everywhere, on any subject, and shared electronically all over the world. Meadows goes on to describe digital stories as "multimedia sonnets from the people" in which "photographs discover the talkies, and the stories told assemble in the ether as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a gaggle of invisible histories which, when viewed together, tell the bigger story of our time, the story that defines who we are."
Why use digital storytelling?
Digital storytelling is a useful information and educational tool for people to use and tell their stories. Increasingly, through the use of social media, people share information to the mass public in a new and meaningful way. Digital storytelling is also a way for people who may not have experience using in social media to experiment and explore new forums of communication/knowledge exchange. We also feel that libraries, museums and others can apply digital storytelling to reach out to the public (e.g "the story of the library" and what they do in the community). Digital storytelling and reaching out to the public for support via social media tools and stories - an advocacy tool - is particularly important, especially where current funding prevents many organizations and libraries from meeting their goals and objectives.
Use in medical schools
The use of digital storytelling in medical schools is not well-documented or research. However, Sandars et al has encouraged medical educators to consider using innovative approaches to reflective practice such as digital storytelling. He describes some of his experiences at the Reflect 2.0: digital approaches to reflection <http://www.reflect2.org/> and in a 2009 book entitled Wired for learning: an educator’s guide to web 2.0..
Assessment of digital storymaking
Ohler says that the use of digital storytelling places us within "...two very powerful models: storytelling, with its powerful ability to engage and teach students, and critical thinking, with its ability to turn students into thinking, reflective people, consumers, voters’ … and that by blending the two, we can offer a ‘powerful pedagogy’...". When presenting digital stories, and viewing the stories of others, students gain confidence in their own abilities. This promotes social learning; by adding a group component, students are introduced to collaborative brainstorming, designing and creating the digital story.
On developing digital stories, students can reflect on whether its assessment should be summative or formative. These two assessments are interconnected, each rarely standing alone. Sanders says that “...the current educational system is heavily biased towards text-based assignments and the use of a multimedia digital artifact is unlikely to be acceptable for summative assessment...”
Assessment considerations
Ohler provides the following list of assessment considerations:
- Set clear learning goals: did students meet assignment goals?
- Assess the story, was it an affective storyline or narrative?
- Assess artifacts that students create especially written work
- Assess media grammar and student use of media
- Assess student understanding and presentation of materials
- Assess student team work and use of resources
- Assess their performance
- Have students self-assess their projects
Formative assessment, though generally an informal evaluation, may have the greatest impact on active learning. Formative assessment "...is essentially used to feed back into the teaching and learning process ..." (Tunstall and Gipps, 1996). Formative assessment is the process of gathering information during the learning process. The social aspect of developing digital storytelling affords itself to peer and self-evaluation where students can explain their choices of digital artifacts (Sanders, 2009). The exact nature of the assessment must reflect the desired learning outcomes.
Related websites
References
- Barrett H. Researching and evaluating digital storytelling as a deep learning tool. Technology and Teacher Education Annual. 2006;1:647.
- Coulter C, Michael C, Poynor L. Storytelling as pedagogy: An unexpected outcome of narrative inquiry. Curriculum Inquiry. 2007;37:(2):103-121.
- Czarnecki K. How digital storytelling builds 21st century skills. Digital Storytelling in Practice. Chicago: Library Technology Reports, 2009.
- Egan K. Teaching as story telling: an alternative approach to teaching and the curriculum. London: Routledge, 1988.
- Fletcher C, Cambre C. Digital Storytelling and implicated scholarship in the classroom. J Can Studies-Revue DEtudes Canadiennes. 2009;43(1):109–130.
- Giustini D. Blog code(s) of conduct: some legal considerations for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2011;32:101-103.
- Giustini D. Social media for health librarians. JCHLA / JABSC. 2010;32(2):73-75.
- Jenkins M, Lonsdale J. Evaluating the effectiveness of digital storytelling for student reflection. Providing choices for learners and learning. ASCILITE; 2007.
- Lambert J. Digital storytelling: capturing lives creating community. Berkley, CA: Centre for Digital Storytelling; 2010.
- Ohler J. The world of digital storytelling. Educ Leadership. 2006;63(4):44-47.
- Ohler J. Digital storytelling in the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 2008.
- Robin B. The educational uses of digital storytelling. Tech Teacher Ed Annual. 2006;1:709.
- Sandars J, Murray C. Digital storytelling to facilitate reflective learning inmedical students. Med Educ. 2011;45(6):649.
- Sandars J, Murray C. Digital storytelling for reflection in undergraduate medical education: a pilot study. Educ Prim Care. 2009;20:441–4.
- Sandars J, Murray C, Pellow A. Twelve tips for using digital storytelling to promote reflective learning. Med Teach. 2008;30:774–7.
- Sandars J, Murray C, McPherson M. Reflective learning for the Net Generation. In: Wired for learning: an educator’s guide to web 2.0. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. 2009;153–68.
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