Narratives create bridges. A story can help to connect one person's reality to that of another human's. As people, we feel the need to create these bridges- constantly. First, we are curious beings who want to inquire about what is going on in the lives of others around us. We gather around the dinner table and question our family members about the events of their day. We beg our elders to share their memoirs the past and soak up all the lessons that we can learn from their joys and their hardships. We devour media (books, magazines, reality television, film etc. ) that tells a good story about individuals who live in the public eye or who have interesting lives because we are fascinated by them. Secondly, we are social beings who feel the need to build bridges by sharing our own stories. We have an innate desire to connect with others- not just to hear what they have to say, but also to tell them of our thoughts and experiences. In sharing of ourselves, we can help others to understand us and the reality in which we live and we can invite others in - as observers and/or as participants. There must be two sides to a bridge in order for it to be complete-in the case of the narrative mataphor, the story-teller and the individual who receives the story are on either end of the bridge. Somewhere between the two realities - they meet up and make a connection.
Digital media is changing the way we look at storytelling. Never before has it been so simple to create and to share our narratives and to build such bridges with countless people across the globe. The tremendous popularity of social media like Facebook, Youtube and blogs speaks to our need to share our stories and to listen to the stories of others. The links created by this new kind of sharing have enabled people to connect across factors that may otherwise divide- for example culture, generation, geography, ideology, religion. The advantage of digital media is that it can add rich sensory detail to our stories in a way that is different than a text-based narrative, as words on a page leave many of these specifics up to the imagination of the reader. Digital narrative can allow us to hear and see what is happening, as well as to listen to the interpretation of the story as told by the narrator. Music and sound effects can help us to feel a particular mood or tone and special effects- for example text captions- can help us to focus on or remember important aspects of the story. The motion of video can help us to feel part of the action and to move along with the storyteller...
Learning from one another through the exchange of narrative is nothing new. Ancient civilizations passed on knowledge this way for millenia before technology enabled the widespread dissemination of the stories people wanted to tell. The science of building bridges is nothing new either. Although we have different building materials nowadays, many of the general engineering concepts of bridge building remain the same. Such is the sharing and receiving of our stories; people still need to find community and ways to meet up with each other- to understand and to be understood. That hasn't changed- we just have different ways that we can choose to go about it.
In our class discussion today, I noticed so many oppositions reflected in the views expressed by my classmates and the instructor. Technology has presented numerous (and sometimes troublesome) juxtapositions- between connection and isolation, between control and a lack thereof, and between exposure and privacy. When we learn to communicate via new technologies, it's a little like crossing a bridge to an unknown destination. We aren't exactly sure what is on the other side and we aren't exactly sure it we are going to like it or what we will do when we get there. As teachers, though, we need to recognize that many of our students have already crossed over and if we want to reach them, we will do so more effectively if we attempt to communicate using the tools that they use. For researchers, these new technologies hold tremendous potential to allow us to interpret and to showcase the voices of the participants in our studies in a multi-dimensional way.
Here are a couple of links that might be useful for someone who is new to digital storytelling.
For a summary of awesome digital storytelling tools and explanations of what they can do for you:
http://www.thedigitalnarrative.com/teaching%20method.htm
For a comprehensive sample unit plan on digital narrative:
http://www.wired-and-inspired.ca/EDEL435/process/index.html
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