How does being digital enable new aspects of storytelling? What can digital storytelling Do?
- Digital stories are casual and easy to read.
The idea is that users can kind of tell a story about their entire day in a narrative manner through stories. It’s supposed to be used to give friends a brief look at what interesting things a friend has done in the past 24 hours (Moreau, 2019).
2. Digital stories are interactive.
To further engage your audience while using Twitter live, users can comment and send in hearts to react to your content. This lets you do a Q&A type video and gain feedback on the parts of your story that resonate with your audience the most (Twitter, 2018).
3. Digital storytelling makes an impact on student literacy.
Technology isn’t something we should be avoiding, in fact, it’s something we should teach responsibly in our classrooms. What we need to do is use it to help children re-engage with stories through the digital world. This, in turn, will encourage literacy and reading (kemp, 2018).
Digital storytelling appears to have many advantages, as the points above indicate.
It occured to me earlier in the week, that high schoolers might really relate to storytelling as it pertains to mediums they use on a regular basis: Snapchat, Twitter, or Facebook. I was thinking “tweet-sized” instructions or stories would be an effective new way of interacting with my students. I looked it up and I found a story consisting of 600-something tweets. I found that very interesting. I couldn’t find a Snapchat example (obviously, they get deleted within 24 hours). I even turned my building neighbor onto Twine and she did a non-linear story with her students on Thursday and Friday last week.
Google is full of sources one can visit to learn about storytelling as an effective marketing tool, and even a good charitable (fundraising) tool.
In addition, the prolific amount of digital storytelling mediums indicates that there is a great demand for such tools: Periscope, Hatch, Adobe Spark, Twine, etc.
But, who is the audience? It wasn’t me or any of my friends before I started this journey. No one I knows shares digital stories on FaceBook or has ever mentioned digital stories. It isn’t my peer, Erika Horn. In reference to one of our sources last week she stated, “I think that I prefer storytelling in the traditional sense.” Me too, Erika. As I looked at Periscope, I thought, this is YouTube. I have never gone to YouTube to browse; I only ever go there with a purpose. If I want to read, I pick up a book. I do not even click on shares I scroll across on my FaceBook newsfeed, because the are mostly garbage and time-suckers anyway.
I have to admit, Adobe Spark was pretty cool. The user interface was so simple and fun. That being said, I have no plans to go listen to anyone else’s stories; I only watched 2 of the examples on the Story Center website before I started my activity. I just wonder, how ARE charitable foundations making money with digital storytelling? I can’t tell you the last time I clicked on a video link, watched a pitch, and donated money. So, who is?
Just because something is new and innovative doesn’t mean that it is better. Many times these sparks fizzle out before they can turn into a substantial blaze. I think the digital medium has its place, most likely advertising. But, I don’t think the stories (long, short, video, interactive) that are told digitally will ever reach the market the way books do in the traditional sense. I entertained the idea of doing another Adobe Spark in place of this blog, but it seemed like too much work.
References
- Kemp, C. (2018, December 13). How Digital Stories Are Making An Impact on Student Literacy. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://mrkempnz.com/2018/12/how-digital-stories-are-making-an-impact-on-student-literacy.html
- Moreau, E. (2019, January 24). Here’s What You Need to Know About Posting Stories on Snapchat. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-snapchat-story-3486000
- Twitter Storytelling Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://blog.twilert.com/2018/05/twitter-stories/
Kat, I believe we are about the same age, so I can relate to your hesitation of buying into digital stories. Before this class, didn’t think I would see the value of digital story-telling. Our generation may not share digital stories on Facebook or Twitter, but I’ll bet our students are. It is going the be the reality of education in the future. The majority of my teaching load is online. I can definitely see the value in using a digital form to tell a story to inform, instruct or inspire my students. The interactive narrative is a perfect format to teach a complex concept, like legal ethics, and have students work through the story to see if they really understood the lesson. Did they choose the right option? Was the end result where they wanted to be?
I appreciate the formatting in this post. Your list at the beginning and use of the “quote” feature help me move through your ideas easily. Thank you! And then, you make this ominous turn in your first main paragraph: Digital storytelling *appears* to have many advantages … DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!
You raise an interesting point: Who is the audience for these stories, if not you? Another way of framing this — and I wonder if you agree — might be: Those three points I made above are not enough to convince ME. Are they not enough? Are they wrong? What are they missing?
Like you, in most cases, I’ll go for a book over a digital story. ALTHOUGH the last time I taught a class like this, I assigned a video game as a reading (we played “Gone Home”) and as someone who didn’t grow up with video games, I was floored by by how engaged I was, and how the game did satisfy some of the things I look for in a book: absorption into a story, a sense of not knowing where things will go, but having some ideas, really clever storytelling … This has me wondering: What are some potential relationships of digital stories to books? What are some potential relationships of digital storytelling to audiences who love storytelling?
For your reference, I came across a full thesis about digital storytelling in social media. I had at one point planned to include it in our class, but it didn’t fit. You might be interested: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1111663&dswid=-9629